How to accept card payments for invoices in South Africa

Most South African small businesses still get paid by EFT, and it works — but it leaks time at every step. The client has to open banking, retype your account number and branch code, get the reference right, and remember to actually do it. You then have to watch your bank statement and match a payment that arrives with a reference like "PAYMENT" against an invoice from three weeks ago.

A payment link removes all of that. The invoice carries a button, the client pays by card on a hosted checkout page, and the payment is matched to that specific invoice automatically because the gateway tells your system exactly which one was paid. The invoice marks itself paid, a receipt goes out, and reminders stop chasing it.

The trade-off is a per-transaction fee, which EFT doesn't have. Whether that's worth it comes down to what you're really paying today in unpaid days, chasing time, and reconciliation work. On a 30-day invoice that gets paid in two, the fee usually looks cheap.

A payment gateway sits between your client's card and your bank account. You don't touch card details at any point — the client is handed to the gateway's hosted checkout page, enters their card there, and the gateway tells your system whether it succeeded.

That handoff is what keeps you out of PCI scope. Because the card number is only ever typed into the gateway's page, your business never stores, processes, or transmits it. This is why you should be suspicious of any invoicing tool that asks your client to type card details into a form the tool itself renders.

The money then settles into your own bank account, typically a business day or two later depending on the provider, minus the transaction fee. You keep a normal SA bank account; the gateway just routes money to it.

Card acceptance in South Africa is priced per transaction, not as a monthly subscription — you only pay when you get paid. What differs between routes is how many fees are stacked on top of the headline rate, and whether the money settles to your bank automatically or sits in a wallet you have to withdraw from.

If you take card payments through Platybooks, there is exactly one fee and it is set by your plan: 3.5% + R1.00 per transaction on Starter, 3.3% + R1.00 on Pro, and 3% + R1.00 on Business, all VAT exclusive. That is the whole cost — nothing is billed separately on top of it, there is no monthly gateway charge, and there is no payout fee. On a R10,000 invoice on Starter, roughly R9,649 settles to your bank; on Business it is about R9,699.

Going direct to a gateway instead means running the integration yourself. Payfast's standard small-business rate is widely reported at around 3.5% + R2.00 for Visa and Mastercard, with American Express higher, and it charges a payout fee of roughly R10 each time you move money from your Payfast wallet to your bank. Rates and volume discounts change, so confirm current figures before you commit.

The per-transaction difference between routes is usually modest. The bigger question is what the fee buys: a raw gateway gives you a checkout page and leaves reconciliation, receipts and chasing to you, while a gateway wired into your invoicing marks the invoice paid, sends the receipt, and stops the reminders on its own.

Getting a gateway live is mostly a paperwork exercise, and it's less work than most people expect — usually under an hour of actual effort, then a wait for approval.

You'll need a South African bank account in your business's name, your registration details if you're a registered company (or your ID if you're a sole proprietor), and some description of what you sell. Gateways are regulated and have to know who they're paying out to, so expect FICA-style verification. Approval typically takes a day or two.

There's no requirement to be VAT registered to accept card payments — the two are unrelated. A sole proprietor under the R2.3 million threshold can take cards perfectly well.

Platybooks collects South African card payments through Paystack. You add your bank details in Settings under “Getting paid”, and payments settle to your own account — your money goes to your bank, not into ours and back out again. You pay one per-transaction fee, set by your plan: 3.5% + R1.00 on Starter, 3.3% + R1.00 on Pro, 3% + R1.00 on Business (VAT excl.), deducted before settlement. There is no separate gateway bill on top of it.

Once that's connected, every invoice can carry a Pay button. Your client opens the public invoice link, clicks pay, and settles by card in rand on a hosted checkout page. When the payment succeeds, the invoice is marked paid, a receipt is emailed automatically, and any scheduled reminders stop chasing it. If you need to refund, you can do that from the invoice itself and it goes back through the gateway.

Payment links are available on the Starter plan and above. If you'd rather keep taking EFTs, manual payments work on every plan including Free — you record what landed and the invoice reconciles the same way. For how the fee applies to your payouts, see our payment fees guide in the docs.