Terms of Service

1. Who we are

VpayAfrica is a mobile wallet. You hold money in it, you send money to other VpayAfrica numbers, and you pay cash in or take cash out at an agent’s counter.

These terms are the agreement between you and the company that operates VpayAfrica, called “we” and “us” below.

They cover the wallet, this website, and what happens at an agent’s counter. Read them with the Privacy Policy, which says what we do with your information.

2. The service

A wallet holds one currency. You can hold more than one, each in its own currency, and they are separate: money in one is not money in another until you move it.

You can send money to any VpayAfrica number. Before you confirm, the app shows you the amount, the fee, and — where the two wallets are in different currencies — the rate we will use. Nothing moves until you enter the six-digit code we text you.

At an agent’s counter you can pay cash in to top up a wallet, or take cash out of one. The agent enters the amount and reads it back to you. The movement happens when you enter the code we text you, not when the agent asks for it.

Agents are people and businesses we have approved to handle cash. An agent is not us, and an agent cannot move money in your wallet without a code sent to your phone.

We do not lend, and a wallet does not pay interest.

3. Your account

Your phone number is your account. It is how you sign in, how people send money to you, and how we reach you.

There is no password. You sign in by entering your number and then the six-digit code we text to it. Anyone who holds your number and can read that code can sign in as you.

Before you can send or receive money we ask for your full name, your date of birth, your country, and the type and number of an identity document. You must be 18 or older.

An email address is optional. If you give us one, we use it to send a sign-in code when a text message cannot be delivered — so without one, a fault on your mobile network is also a fault signing in.

We may also ask you to send photographs — your identity document, and your own face. A member of our staff looks at them and decides. This is a person comparing photographs, not a check against a government register.

We can refuse. If we do we tell you what was wrong, and you can send clearer photographs and ask again. While a refusal stands you cannot be appointed an agent.

Keep what we hold correct. If your name or your number changes, tell us.

4. Fees and charges

We charge a fee on each movement. What it is depends on the kind of movement — a transfer, a cash-in or a cash-out — and on the currency.

The app shows you the exact fee before you confirm, and that is the figure you are charged. A fee schedule changes; the figure on the confirmation screen is the one that applies, not a figure quoted anywhere else.

Fee schedules are versioned rather than edited. When we change one, the change applies to movements priced after it takes effect; a movement already priced keeps the fee it was priced at.

Where a transfer crosses two currencies we apply an exchange rate and a margin on that rate. The rate you get, margin included, is shown to you before you confirm.

A quoted price is held for a short time. If it runs out before you confirm, ask again and you will be quoted afresh at whatever the rate and fee are then.

5. Your money

Money in a wallet is yours. We hold it and we record it.

Every movement is recorded twice, once on each side, in a double-entry ledger. Your balance is not a number we store and edit — it is the sum of the entries against your wallet, added up when you ask for it. That is what lets any balance be traced back to the movements that made it.

Ledger entries are not changed and not removed. Something posted in error is corrected by posting a further entry that reverses it, and both stay on the record.

A wallet cannot go below zero. A transfer or a cash-out your balance does not cover is refused rather than allowed to overdraw.

A movement carries a key from the request that made it, so a connection that drops and retries cannot send the same money twice.

6. Your responsibilities

Look after your phone number. Your number is your identity here: whoever controls it — the handset, the SIM, or the number itself — can ask for a sign-in code and receive it. If you lose control of it, tell us at once so we can suspend the account, and tell your mobile network.

Never pass on a code. A six-digit code is what moves money. We will not ask you for one — not by phone, not by message, not at a counter — and nobody who does is us.

Check the amount and the number before you confirm. A transfer to a VpayAfrica number that was not the one you meant is still a transfer, and getting it back depends on the person who received it.

Give us information that is true. The name, date of birth and identity document you give us must be your own and must be current.

Use the wallet lawfully, and only for yourself. Do not let anyone else use your wallet, and do not use VpayAfrica to move money for someone who is hiding behind your account.

7. Our liability

We are responsible for running the service as this document describes it, and for the money recorded in your wallets.

We are not responsible for:

• a transfer you confirmed to a number that was not the one you meant;
• a code you gave to someone else, however they asked for it;
• a delay or a failure at your mobile network, or at the provider carrying our messages;
• cash counted out at a counter differently from the movement recorded on the ledger — the ledger is the record of what moved;
• a loss that follows from you not telling us that your number is no longer yours.

We cannot undertake that the service runs without interruption. Maintenance, a network fault or a provider outage can stop it, and while it is stopped you may be unable to send, to receive, or to reach your balance.

Nothing in this document removes a responsibility that the law applying to you does not allow us to remove.

8. Suspension and closure

We can suspend an account. While it is suspended you cannot send money and you cannot receive it — a transfer to a suspended wallet is refused rather than held. Your balance stays yours and the record of it is untouched.

We suspend an account when we have reason to think somebody other than its owner is using it, when it is being used unlawfully, or when we are required to. We tell you, unless telling you would itself break the law.

You can ask us to close your account. Take your balance out first — at an agent’s counter, or by sending it to another VpayAfrica number — because a closed account cannot be signed into.

Closing an account ends your sign-in. It does not erase the ledger: the record of money that moved through your wallets stays. The Privacy Policy sets out what is removed, what is kept, and why.

9. Complaints

Tell us what went wrong and we will look into it. Write, email or call, using the details at the end of this document.

Have these to hand — they are what we need to find the movement you mean:

• the phone number your wallet is on;
• the date of the movement, and the amount;
• the number you sent to, or received from.

If our answer does not settle it, you may be able to take the complaint further. Where you can take it depends on the country you are in.

10. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms — when the service changes, or when the rules it runs under change.

When we do, the new version is published on this page with the date it takes effect. Where a change affects what you pay or what you can do with your wallet, we tell you before that date.

If you keep using the wallet after a change takes effect, the changed terms are the ones that apply. If you would rather not accept a change, take your balance out and ask us to close the account.

11. Governing law

Which country’s law governs these terms, and where a dispute about them is heard, is set out here once it is settled.

Whatever it is, it does not take away a right you have under the law of the country you live in.

12. How to contact us

Write to us, email us, or call.

If what you are writing about is a movement of money, have the three details listed under “Complaints” to hand.