Capitec

A South African retail bank, Capitec was established in 1997 when the parent company, PSG, an independent financial services group, began buying up microlenders like Finaid and Smartfin.

Capitec was registered as a bank on the 1st of March 2001 by founder members Michiel Le Roux, Jannie Mouton, and Riaan Stassen. Today Michiel Le Roux is recognised as South Africa’s 18th billionaire.

From those early beginnings, Capitec has succeeded in the highly competitive, strictly regularised banking field. Some barriers to success were relaxed after the Banking Enquiry of 2008.

This enquiry focused attention on competition in this sector and aimed at levelling the playing field, by making recommendations, many of which have been implemented, thus paving the way for newer entries like Capitec into the market.

Serving the new middle class

At first Capitec’s customers chiefly relied on them for getting personal loans. Gradually it has transitioned these clients into transactional banking customers, who use their Capitec accounts to deposit their salaries and handle payments and transactions.

Traditionally, the banks have not serviced low-income clients, as it was thought that little profit could be derived from this sector.

Challenging the norm

Capitec has challenged this perception with its low-cost account, which has driven its success. Its products are accessible, transparent and affordable, and easy to understand.

Capitec had to overcome its customers’ initial reluctance to switch. It accomplished this by employing committed staff and training them to convert savers and lenders to use its full range of banking services.

Today Capitec is the best digital bank in South Africa, according to the SITEisfaction 2021 report. Their app is easy to use and secure and allows customers to manage their finances 24/7. It has 853 branches and 18 million customers, proving the value of its purpose of making banking transparent and simple so you can live a better life.

Capitec Connect:

Capitec has partnered with Cell C to launch Capitec Connect, which offers data that will never expire as long as the SIM card gets used every 6 months. This product offers data at the reduced rate of R4.50 per 100 megabytes and R45 for a gigabyte.

MoneyUp:

Capitec offers games, guides, and free online courses to help you learn more about money, then puts these lessons into practice, helping you to work towards your goals.

With Live Better on the app, you can get money back as a reward for banking with Capitec. That's money back on your Netflix subscription, for example, online shopping, card machine purchases, scan to pay, and Samsung Pay.

You’ll get 0.5% on whatever you spend on your credit, debit, or virtual card. This money will be paid into your Live Better savings account every 10th of the month, which is called Live Better day.

With Capitec you can get :

• Personal loans of up to R250,000, payable over 7 years, depending on what loan amount you qualify for.
• Loans are flexible and you can choose how much you want to borrow, or a low monthly instalment, or opt for a low-interest rate.
• Interest rates from 11.75%.
• Get a consolidating loan for easier payments.
• It takes just minutes to approve your loan application and the money is instantly available.
• Your payments will be fixed, even if interest rates rise.
• Get affordable credit insurance for the unforeseeable- in the case of death or retrenchment.
• Capitec's insurance is great because payments decrease over time. After all, the premium is worked out based on how much you owe, so as you pay it off, so your premiums go down.
• This insurance is mandatory for all Capitec personal loans, to cover death, temporary or permanent disability, unemployment, retrenchment, or the inability to earn.

Spend Better

Capitec has partnered with the following to offer you discounts or cash back when you spend with your Capitec card:

• Bolt or Bolt food - 5% cash back
• Cashbuild gives you 1% back on construction hardware, building tools, and DIY projects.
• Dis-Chem gives 2% cash back on health and wellness and beauty products.
• Dis-Chem Baby City, where you will get 2% cash back when you shop for baby and mom products with your Capitec card.
• Shell - customers can now get money back at Shell by swiping their Shell V+ card and paying with their Capitec card.

You can also get discounts on the following:

• Educate24 - customers can enjoy a 50% discount on all online courses by Educate24’s integrated career service.
• GetSmarter - use this widget to register and pay for courses on the app and get R4000 off with the Live Better discount.
• Travelsmart - you can save R100 on domestic air tickets and R400 on international ones when booking and paying with your active Capitec card.
• UCT online High School - if you choose the Capitec Live Better partner reward option while applying you can get a 5% discount on tuition.