The questions we get before the first payment.

SwapEazi is trade payment infrastructure for Southern Africa. The first thing it does is let a business in the region pay a supplier in South Africa: you see the exact rand your supplier will receive and the local-currency amount you will pay, you settle once from your own business account in your own country, and your supplier is credited in rand into their existing South African bank account.

Businesses that buy from South African suppliers on a repeating basis: importers, wholesalers, retailers, distributors and contractors in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini. It is built around commercial invoices, so it suits payments from the low thousands of rand upwards.

No. SwapEazi is a business payments service built around commercial invoices and business bank accounts, and personal transfers are not something we handle. Money transfer operators serve that need far better and far more cheaply than we would.

Yes. This is a business payments service, so there is a one-off verification covering your company registration, your business address, and identification for directors and beneficial owners. It is completed once, to regulated standards, before your first payment.

No, at no point. Your payment goes to a partner licensed to collect funds in your country, and your supplier is paid by a partner licensed in South Africa. There is no pooled balance of customer funds at SwapEazi, so there is nothing of yours sitting inside the company for a creditor or a court to reach.

Regulated payment services, including fund collection, foreign exchange and settlement, are delivered through licensed financial partners in each market. SwapEazi is the software your business uses to manage those supplier payments and see them through, and it never holds your funds.

Either in your own account, with a licensed financial partner under their regulatory obligations while the payment is in transit, or in your supplier's account. It is never held by SwapEazi, so there is no pooled balance of customer money anywhere in this company.

For every new supplier we confirm that the receiving account belongs to the business named on the invoice, and we confirm it with the supplier through contact details we source ourselves rather than the ones printed on the document. Changed banking details on a genuine invoice is the most common fraud in cross-border trade, and this step substantially reduces that risk.

One price per payment, quoted in full before you commit. It covers the SwapEazi fee, payment processing and the exchange rate applied, each itemised on the quote. Pricing is set per corridor, because the cost of moving each currency differs, and larger invoices and regular volume carry a lower rate.

No. If a cost is not on the quote, it does not exist on your payment. The licensed partner sets the exchange rate. We show it as given and add nothing to it, we do not add a charge at settlement, and there is no fee that appears on your statement instead of on the document you approved.

No subscription, no setup fee, no minimum monthly volume, and no charge for a quote however many you ask for. You pay per payment.

Because the price is fixed before the payment leaves rather than revealed after it lands, the payment is targeted to settle in the same business day rather than the same week, and you never have to go and source foreign currency to make it happen. You also get documentation your finance team and your supplier can both reconcile against the invoice.

Yes. Most of what a payment costs us is fixed, so a larger invoice does not cost proportionally more to process. Above roughly R250 000 per payment, or a regular monthly volume, we quote a rate rather than a rate card.

Typically within the same business day once your funds are received, subject to South African banking hours. The expected window for your corridor is stated on your quote before you commit.

Nothing at all. They are paid in rand into the South African bank account already on their invoice, with your invoice number as the reference. They do not register with us, install anything, open a new account or accept any terms. As far as their accounts department is concerned, a customer paid an invoice.

No, not within the hold window stated on the quote. Inside that window the figures are fixed, whatever the market does. If the window passes before you settle, the quote lapses and is reissued at the rate applying then, which may be better or worse than the one you first saw. That difference is yours, so if the rate matters to you, confirm inside the window. We will always show you the new figures before anything proceeds rather than settling at a stale rate and telling you afterwards.

A confirmation showing the receiving account, the amount credited, the rate applied, the fees charged and your invoice reference. It reconciles against the invoice without a phone call, your supplier gets one too, and it is what you give your auditor.

The licensed partner returns funds that cannot be paid out to the account they came from. You are told the same day, with the reason the receiving bank gave, and we correct the details and re-run it rather than asking you to start again. We do not charge you for a failed attempt.

No. Payments must come from an account in your company's name. Payments from a director's personal account or from a third party are declined, without exception, because that is precisely the pattern anti-money-laundering rules exist to catch.

Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini, all paying into South Africa. Our corridors page shows indicative pricing, expected settlement times and availability for each route.

Join the waitlist for your market. We open corridors one at a time so that each route is tested end to end before volume goes on it, and we prioritise by the businesses waiting on them, so telling us your country and your monthly volume genuinely moves it up the list.

All three sit in the Common Monetary Area, where the local currency is pegged one for one to the South African rand and the rand is legal tender. There is no conversion in the payment at all, so what you pay and what your supplier receives is the same number. Since September 2024 those payments no longer clear as domestic transfers and route internationally instead, which is the delay we remove.

Not today. South Africa is the only destination we serve, deliberately. Publishing a long list of countries we cannot properly reach would win a first meeting and lose the customer on the first payment.