EcoCash removes transaction fees, makes payments free

Nigel Gambanga Avatar

Econet has announced that payments made on its mobile money platform, EcoCash, will not attract any transaction fees.

According to Econet, this has been effected for merchant payments that are made via the conventional USSD channels or through the EcoCash mobile app. Payments made via the EcoCash debit card will still attract normal charges.

It’s not completely free, though. all transactions will still attract the 5 cents government tax which has been levied on every mobile money transaction.

EcoCash has called this development a “special thank you” as the mobile money service positions itself to be a primary solution for all payments. Cash alternatives like mobile money have often been avoided because of steep transactional charges.

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing cash shortages and this has resulted in banks reducing withdrawal limits. Mobile money services like EcoCash have also been affected and some agents have run out of cash for some transactions.

 

30 comments

  1. Tinashe Mudavanhu

    Thats more like it. At least there is some news from other service providers. NetOne was dominating the scene. You just can’t run away from those who rip were they did not sow (ZIMRA).

  2. fotchwaz

    banks actually love this situation coz they are making a killing,imagine CBZ charges $3 per ATM transaction and the limit down to 100usd per transaction and daily limit of 300 . they make 9 Usd per day per person and worse if you go into the bank they take a whopping 4Usd.
    so i say the bank also charge just once or totally remove charges for all electronic transfers and paymets!!!

    1. Anonymous

      Lol a whooping $4 really? Whooping should be reserved for $4k

  3. Observer

    This is being competitive good stuff Econet!!

  4. Alan

    Way to go Econet!

  5. avocarod

    I was literally thinking Ecocash should remove charges on some transactions and visited Techzim to find an ecocash article to comment on. Techzim home page loads and boom! The exact topic I want appears!

    Serendipity or should I become a prophet? Hameno.

    Anyway well done Ecocash! Hopefully more banks will integrate Ecocash into their systems to ease our cash woes.

    What got me thinking about this is I need to make an online payment of about $500 (school fees) The money is in someone elses ZB bank account. I don’t have a bank account, I have my FBC prepaid MasterCard and my Ecocash debit card. Three options none of which work to pay my fees at reasonable cost.

    My only option is get help from some else with a bank account that accepts RTGS and has Visa / MasterCard, like NMB or Stan Chart. Ha! No wonder people have started burning again!

  6. Informed

    Your article is not fully true!! They have not changed their Tarrif structure when moving money between users, and as per their briefing they do not intend to.

    1. KG

      Those are transfers. Article clearly states that this is on payments.

    2. Langton

      You call yourself informed yet you only read the headline and comment? common this article is so short and I wonder why you didn’t read it!

  7. edmore gono

    banks must do the same

    1. Edmore Gonese

      Should have done so. Long back really

  8. Alan Winterton

    According to Ecocash this is a ‘Promotion’ ending August!

  9. special

    econet playing with your brains. RBZ is behind all this they have ordered banks and mobile money companies to cut all prices by 50% then econet want to act like they have your interests at heart.

  10. fourwallsinaroom

    Econet is smart I will give them that much.
    How do you build your balance and prevent money from been removed from the Ecocash ecosystem?
    You make transfers from a customer to a merchant account free. Its like in South Africa when I ecocash to someone in Zimbabwe I do not pay to send. If I say send $10.00 it gets there as $10.00 and only $10.00 is deducted.

    What Econet is doing here is preventing you from withdrawing from the Ecocash ecosystem to pay in cash. Its not free because the merchant is the one who is going to pay when he tries to pay his staff etc.

  11. Chiwororo

    English is not my strong language. Does it mean if i send $1000 today to my brother, i will not be charged for sending and he will not be charged for receiving? besides the 5P Tax?

    1. Comments Seeker

      No, you will be charged. But if you buy any products and pay via Ecocash, you will only be charged 5c

    2. P. Shumba

      They are talking of when you make a payment to a “Merchant”. In other words when you pay at a shop using ecocash, or you pay DSTV, you will not be charged for that, but when you send money to your brother you will still be charged for sending, and he will still be charged on cashing out.

    3. lawdza matacks

      Ecocash those people for Ecocash are lie me I send my money to my wife on Friday till now she failed to collect those are 100percent cruckes from now my bank is my bed

  12. JOHN S REMBA

    Good going Econet we thank you for once.
    But now still left with Whatsapp bundles, to remove the percentage limit.

  13. ncube mqondisi

    realy inpiring …………… Now waiting for the cost cutting of the pastical money
    costs

  14. Faffy

    Viva econet

  15. ggg

    no went to bon marche and guess what they unofficially don’t take wcocash no more hanzi cash out then buy and at the cash out hanzi no cash.
    so Stewart sees that they in a dangerous position so those in power see that they are on the hook for about a bollio. cash.

  16. Anonymous

    kkkkkk i was looking forward to some accountants and economists to comment an this its as if every1 on this is technical. lets face it you have when you transfer your monies from your bank acc onto ecocash then pay a merchant. that merchant actually have an account with ecocash. so because we all in need of various goods and services we will transfer our monies into acc of merchants with ecocash acc booomm all other banks will run dry and the ecocash bank becomes way off richeer boooooooomm

    1. ggg

      not really remember the lack of brick and mortar works against it what do you so when you want to cash out but no agent wants to gives you money? you go to the bank Stewart to get it but unfortunately it only has like a dew branches it ATM’s aren’t working mybe the MasterCard will work cz of switching contracts.
      plus this shows even ecocash tariff structure is very high come on 2.30 for 70 bucks. NP econet is safe but some cracks are showing that need to be dealt with.

  17. SP

    This is a 90 day promotion! It will soon end.
    http://www.3-mob.com/?p=25423#.V1Zt95F9600

    MyCash never charges for payments between MyCash accounts. There is a 5 cent tax and 5 cent network charge from Econet.

  18. ggg

    econet is doing this cz of survival think about it if I don’t get cash out at agents the moment I walk into an econet shop or Stewart branch they have to honor my request. and considering that most agents are transferring money to get cash from cash ins. econet realises that they have to stop you from requesting your money at any cists and losing a small percentage is worth it.

  19. Siege

    As a businessman here is my thought: ecocash cannot be the solution to the cash crisis because they themselves are victims of and complicit to it. They lost people’s money to RBZ and treasury just like any other bank. This is actually a move by EcoCash and Steward Bank to get people to deposit more cash into their system via cash ins and prevent a bank run. They also want that paper and let’s not be naive. The banking and financial sector of Zimbabwe is weak and they let the govt literally steal from people’s RTGSs so they can finance their deficit. They played and accomplice in prejudicing the depositors, so we cannot expect them to give these so called solutions to this crisis before they are honest to us about what they did, and compensate us. The problem we have is an economic crisis, and cash crisis is just a symptom of the underlying more serious problem. We can’t call band aid a solution! EcoCash, just like any other bank, is trying to prevent a bank run, so anything to keep people using fictitious money will do. We should get as much of our cash out of they system as citizens, otherwise we will be screwed once more, and this time it won’t be useless Zim dollars we will loose, it’s hard earned forex!

  20. Siege

    Mobile money or plastic money are not the solution to our problem TechZim. The problem we have right now is that govt has been taking hard cash out of the system, and converting it into fictitious electronic money in the RTGS and reserve system. That’s why even though you have $20,000 in your account, you can’t get a dime in cash! Us not being able to get cash from the banks is the smaller problem, and we can always get around that by transacting with plastic money amongst ourselves, but, you can’t buy products, services or material from outside Zimbabwe without hard cash, either at hand or in nostro accounts held by your bank. That’s where the problem is! We are a net importer, at the end of the day, no matter how much we trade in plastic and mobile money amongst ourselves, we shall soon run out of products to sell and buy! Have you thought why is that banks now will tell you that if you want to recharge your prepaid VISA or mastercard you have to make a cash deposit? That is because RBZ has no cash left,…it only has IOUs, and nostro accounts are zero, because we have not been exporting! These IOUs are Worthless as long as our govt does not reform policy wise and allow FDI to come in, or become credible enough to allow international institutions like IMF to lend us. Govt has not been able to get loans from international banks, so guess what…they borrowed from you and me without restraint or discipline whatsoever! And all that was not to invest in infrastructure or development,….it was all to finance the fiscal deficit that is driven by high and irrational spending. Now that they’ve spend our USD, they want to pay us back in their bond notes…another form of IOU from a bankrupt government that is seeing a perpetually shrinking revenue base. Without policy and fiscal reformation there is not solution at all..just band aid upon band aid for a festering deep wound.

    1. team

      Well understood

  21. Evans Chifamba

    But I bought goods worth $55 yesterday from an Econet merchant, before the transaction, my wallet balance was $56,35 and after a merchant purchase of $55 ,my wallet balance was now $0,10, meaning the transaction costed $1,25. Has there been a change in the merchant purchase charges? I thought I would be charges $0,05 for this transaction. What are the new transaction charges?

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