Cheapest online car licence disc renewals in South Africa

FNB offers the most affordable online vehicle licence disc renewal service in South Africa, a MyBroadband comparison shows.

However, the partner entity supporting the service is actually a government-owned institution.

Over the past few years, there has been a surge in online platforms and apps providing licence disc renewal and delivery in South Africa.

Private third-party service providers have long offered queueing and collection services, eliminating the need for motorists to visit a licence disc renewal location and stand in lines themselves.

However, since 2022, government entities like the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and the South African Post Office (SAPO) have launched their own online renewal services — at significantly reduced prices.

The RTMC offers its service through the National Administration Traffic Information System (Natis) website.

As of July 2024, the service had processed over two million licence disc renewals, making it one of the country’s most popular renewal services in just two years of availability.

While the Post Office has not revealed its figures since launching online renewals in early 2022, MyBroadband has repeatedly found the service works well and has a short delivery turnaround, counter to its reputation for lost and stolen mail.

The increased adoption of government-run online car licence renewals has apparently put pressure on private providers.

One of the earliest and most well-known private providers of online disc renewals — PayCity — stopped offering licence disc renewals in June 2024.

While it did not disclose the reason for terminating the service, it is possible that the surge in competing services — several of which were more affordable than PayCity — contributed to the termination.

Pick n Pay also shut down its vehicle licence disc renewal service, facilitated by Claim Expert, in early 2024. That came about two years after it launched.

Aside from very high fees compared to other services, Pick n Pay’s option required an in-person visit to a store and was heavily criticised for its poor performance.

Numerous customers complained that they had not received their discs months after applying, despite a claimed delivery turnaround of 10 business days.

At the time of publication, it was unclear whether Claim Expert’s own Licence Disc Expert service is still active, as its landing page was blank.

Shoprite is another retailer that recently launched a licence disc renewal service, although it was also not accessible at the time of publication.

Three options under R100

MyBroadband compared the prices of major online licence disc renewal services in September 2024 and found that FNB’s R69 service was the most affordable.

FNB has offered its app-based renewal service since November 2016, initially launched with a service and delivery fee of R199.

It had processed around 465,000 renewals by July 2024.

While FNB’s service is hosted on a private platform and is available only to its customers, it has partnered with the RTMC to facilitate the service.

That means many who use FNB’s renewal system are effectively using the RTMC, but instead of going directly through its Natis website, they are accessing it through the FNB app.

FNB also supports the payment gateway for the RTMC’s service.

For those who are not FNB customers, the second most affordable platform to use is the South African Post Office’s MVL website, which charges a R75 service and delivery fee.

If SAPO maintains that price, it will be cheaper than FNB after December 2024, the expiry date for the latter’s R69 promotional courier fee.

In 2025, FNB’s additional charges for the service and delivery should return to its regular price of R99, the same as the fee on the third most affordable option — the RTMC’s Natis portal.

The table below compares the additional cost of renewing your vehicle licence disc online through various providers.

It should be noted that the total price excludes the actual licencing fee, which is based on the vehicle’s type, weight, and province of registration.

The RTMC transaction fee of R72 is also excluded, as that is levied for both in-person and online renewals.

Platform	Service/admin fee	Delivery fee	Total (excl. licensing and RTMC transaction fee)
FNB mobile app	R0	R69	R69
RTMC National Traffic Information System	R0	R99	R99
South African Post Office (SapoMVL)	R0	R75	R75
Shoprite Money Market (unavailable at time of publication)	R110.25	R74.75	R185
Capitec mobile app	R50	R99	R149
Renewonline	R100	R120	R220
Disky	R169	R70	R239