Payfast Review

Payfast is a Cape Town online payment service for South African businesses, sole traders and registered non-profits, now trading as Payfast by Network after Network International bought its parent, DPO Group, in 2021. Its standard "aggregation" account needs no merchant bank account: Payfast collects payments, holds the money and pays it out to a South African bank account. As of October 2026 it lists 3.2% + R2.00 per card payment and 2% + R2.00 per Instant EFT, all excluding VAT, with R8.70 per standard payout and R2.00 per refund. Businesses processing more than R50,000 a month can ask for custom pricing, and merchants that already have a bank merchant account can use its Paygate gateway at quoted rates. It now also sells card machines, at 2.5% for local cards, R999 or R1,499 per device and R49 a month. The published price list is clear and the checkout supports a long list of local payment methods. Its general terms are tougher than the marketing suggests, though: a 36-month term that renews automatically, wide powers to hold funds for up to 540 days, and a minimum monthly fee for low-volume accounts whose amount is set in the application, not on the website. Recent public reviews are mostly complaints about verification delays and held funds.

Estimated annual cost at three realistic processing volumes, using Payfast’s published online rate plus monthly fees. Real costs vary with average transaction size, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.

What Payfast is

Payfast is a South African online payment service based in Rondebosch, Cape Town. It began in 2007, processed its first Instant EFT payment within a year and its first card payment a year after that, according to the company's own timeline. It sells mainly to small and mid-size businesses, sole traders and registered non-profits, and says more than 80,000 businesses use it. Its main product is an aggregation account: a business signs up online, verifies its identity and bank details, and starts taking payments on its website without a merchant account of its own.

The ownership has changed twice. DPO Group, which had already bought the South African gateway Paygate in 2016, acquired Payfast in July 2019 for a mix of cash and shares, with Payfast's managers becoming DPO shareholders. Network International, which describes itself as the largest acquirer in the UAE, completed its $291.3 million purchase of DPO Group on 29 September 2021. Effective 1 April 2023, Network folded its four South African companies, Setcom, Payfast, Payfast Holdings and Paygate, into a single entity named Payfast (Pty) Ltd. That entity carries a 1999 registration number, the year Paygate was founded, which is why Payfast's company records predate its 2007 launch. In 2024 the company itself rebranded to Network, keeping Payfast as the name of its online product. Network International was then taken private on 17 September 2024 by a consortium led by Brookfield and including First Abu Dhabi Bank, Mubadala, ADQ and Olayan, in a deal worth about £2.2 billion; the consortium also agreed to combine Network with the payments business Magnati.

Why we list Payfast as a payment facilitator

On its standard aggregation account, Payfast signs the merchant up under its own agreement, collects the payments, holds the proceeds "in custody" and pays them out on request. The merchant needs no merchant account with a bank. The South African Reserve Bank's November 2024 designation notice also calls Payfast a payment facilitator. Payfast is registered with the Payments Association of South Africa as a third-party payment provider sponsored by banks, and in November 2024 it was also designated a clearing system participant, subject to conditions, so that it can acquire card transactions as it introduces card machines, with Absa as its associated settlement bank. Its Paygate product is different: there the merchant signs a merchant agreement with its own bank and Payfast acts only as a gateway. Because most Payfast merchants are on the aggregation account, we classify it as a payment facilitator.

What it costs online

Payfast publishes its aggregation prices on its fees page, and all of them exclude VAT. As of October 2026:

• Credit and cheque cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and RCS store cards: 3.2% + R2.00 per transaction.
• Instant EFT and Capitec Pay: 2% + R2.00. The headline reads "2.0% (min R 2.00)", but the page's own R500 example and its calculator both charge 2% plus R2.00.
• SnapScan and Scan to Pay: 3.5% + R2.00. Zapper and Scode: 4.5% + R5.00. MukuruPay cash payments: 3.5% + R6.00 in the fee table, but the page's calculator uses 3.9% + R6.00; confirm the rate before relying on it.
• Buy now, pay later: Payflex 5.45% + R5.00, MoreTyme 5.5% + R2.00. Mobicred credit: 3.2%.
• Standard payout: R8.70 each, whatever the amount. Immediate Payout: 0.8%, minimum R14.00. Refunds: R2.00 each.
• Registered non-profits on a Cause account get reduced fees, but Payfast does not publish the reduced rates.

As an illustration, take a shop that takes R40,000 a month online in 100 card payments of R400, and pays out weekly. Card fees come to R1,280 plus R200 in fixed fees, R1,480, and four payouts add R34.80, for about R1,515 a month before VAT, or roughly 3.8% of sales. Moving a share of customers to Instant EFT or Capitec Pay cuts the cost noticeably, because the percentage is 1.2 points lower. The fixed R2.00 matters on small baskets: a R50 card payment costs R3.60 before VAT, or 7.2%. Merchants that average more than R50,000 a month over three months can ask for custom pricing. The fees page does not list a monthly fee, but the general terms say an account with R20,000 or less in a month pays a Minimum Volume Fee "stated in the Application". We could not find that amount published anywhere, so check your application before signing.

In-person payments

Payfast now sells two card machines under the Network brand. The Digital Card Machine costs R999 once-off and the Printer Card Machine R1,499, each with a R49 monthly connectivity fee. The page states that its transaction fees exclude VAT but does not say whether the device prices do. Card-present rates are lower than online: 2.5% for local Visa and Mastercard, 3% for international cards, 2.8% for American Express and UnionPay, and from 2.5% for Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay depending on the card in the wallet. There is no fixed per-transaction fee listed for the machines. The devices handle contactless and chip payments, keep a product catalogue, send receipts by email or SMS, and sell airtime, data, electricity and vouchers. We found no tap-to-pay-on-phone product.

Payouts and holds

Money from a sale becomes available after a 48-hour withholding period, and Payfast may also keep a retained balance to reduce fraud risk. You then request a payout, or set an automatic schedule, and a standard payout typically arrives within one to two working days at R8.70 ex VAT each. Immediate Payout gets cleared funds to your bank within minutes for 0.8% ex VAT, minimum R14.00, but only once you are verified, have completed a standard payout, have traded in the past three months and bank with a participating real-time clearing bank. All payouts together are capped at R50,000 a day. Changing your banking details puts the account back into unverified status until Payfast checks the new details.

The general terms give Payfast broad room to hold money. It may delay, withhold or retain settlement if you breach the terms, if it believes your finances are deteriorating or your business has become riskier, if you fail to provide requested information, on suspicion of fraud, or if chargebacks reach or approach the card schemes' excessive threshold. Withheld funds can be kept for up to 540 days after delivery of the goods or termination of the agreement, or until the chargeback window closes if that is sooner. Payfast can also demand a cash deposit or bank guarantee as collateral, debit your bank account for amounts owed, and limit the volume of payments it accepts from you. None of this is unusual for a payment facilitator, but the public complaints suggest it is applied often.

Contract terms

Payfast's General Terms and Conditions, effective April 2024 and updated November 2025, set a 36-month initial term that renews automatically for further 36-month periods unless you give written notice of non-renewal at least three months before the end. In practice the term matters less than it looks, because the same document lets a merchant end the agreement, or any single product, for convenience on 60 days' written notice "without the requirement of obtaining a court order or any penalty". The card machine page goes further and promises "no hidden fees or contracts", which sits uneasily with general terms that set a 36-month term and include schedules covering card-machine equipment. Payfast can raise fees or add new ones on 30 days' written notice, and can change the terms on the same notice. Its liability in a calendar year is capped at the lower of the fees it earned from you in the previous two calendar months or the cost of reprocessing the transaction. If an account has submitted no payments since sign-up and stays inactive for six months, Payfast can suspend it and charge applicable fees; after twelve months it ends automatically and Payfast may charge a Termination Fee whose amount the terms do not state. South African law applies, with disputes going to the courts of Cape Town after a 30-day attempt at resolution between the chief executives.

Reputation and complaints

Public reviews are poor. As of 7 October 2026, Payfast's Trustpilot page (payfast.io) shows a TrustScore of 1.4 from 62 reviews, 90% of them one-star and 8% five-star; the profile is unclaimed. On HelloPeter, South Africa's main complaints site, Payfast has a TrustIndex of 5.6 out of 10, with 115 reviews in the past 12 months and 1,182 overall, and replies to 97% of negative reviews in about 18 hours on average. The recurring complaints on both sites are account verification that drags on for one to two weeks, funds frozen or partly held without clear explanation, and support that answers with templates. HelloPeter also carries recent positive reviews naming support agents who resolved problems quickly. Our searches found no lawsuit, regulatory penalty or enforcement action naming Payfast.

Who Payfast suits

Payfast fits a South African small or mid-size online seller, sole trader or non-profit that wants to start taking cards, Instant EFT and local wallets quickly without a bank merchant account, and that values the long list of payment methods. Budget for VAT on every fee and the R8.70 payout charge, and push customers towards Instant EFT or Capitec Pay where you can. Before signing, ask Payfast in writing whether your application sets a Minimum Volume Fee, and plan for verification to take longer than advertised at launch. A business with a bank merchant account and high card volume should compare negotiated bank pricing and the quote-only Paygate gateway. Payfast's terms let it refuse or end service for products it considers undesirable, and it does not market itself to high-risk sectors.