My Account

No, your PayFast account is not a bank account. It is electronic money stored in an online stored-value account. Any funds in your account are redeemable by sending us a Payout request from the My Account section.

No interest is paid on funds in your account.

You need to register a South African bank account with us, held with one of our supported banks and then request a payout by visiting the payout page under My Account.

We will then transfer the funds to your bank account within 2 working days.

The transfer will appear in your bank account with the reference “PAYFAST $$$” where $$$ will be the reference number for the payout.

You don't need to put money into your PayFast account in order to pay for purchases online. When you go to a merchant's site (e-Commerce shop) which uses PayFast, simply choose to pay via PayFast and then follow the on-screen instructions when you are redirected to PayFast to make payment.

Your Merchant ID and Merchant Key are available on the Integration page under the “Merchant Identifiers” heading.

PayFast is all about speeding up the transaction from the buyer's point of view by being a trusted 3rd party and providing you, the merchant, with positive acknowledgement of funds received by a number of different payment methods.

This does not mean, however that the funds clear into your bank account quickly.

The idea with PayFast is that we collect multiple payments on your behalf which accrue immediately to your PayFast account and from there you request a Payout on a regular basis (Weekly, monthly etc.). The idea is NOT that each and every payment is transferred to your bank account.

Each payment received is subject to a 48 - 72 hour holding period after which it is eligible for payout and payouts take approx. 2 working days to appear in your bank account.

To change your password, go to your Security page and click on the icon next to the “Password” heading.

You will then need to enter your current password as well as a new password.

To change your primary email address, follow the following steps:

1. Add your new email address on the Profile page
2. You will then receive a confirmation email at the address.
3. Click the link in that email to confirm the address.
4. Once the address is confirmed, go back to the Profile page and click the “star” icon next to the “Email Addresses” heading to change your primary email address.

To upgrade your account, go to your Account page and click the Upgrade Account link in the top left corner, and follow the on-screen instructions to upgrade your account to the desired type.

If you want your account to be cancelled, we will cancel it at your request and you will receive email confirmation of this.