Terms of use

1Who we are

Holela is a South African earned wage access service. We work with employers so that their employees can reach wages they have already worked for before payday.

“We”, “us” and “Holela” mean the company operating this service. “You” means the employee using it. “Your employer” means the organisation that has made Holela available to you and that runs your payroll.

2What Holela is

Holela gives you access to wages you have already earned in the current pay cycle. The money you receive is a portion of pay you have worked for but not yet been paid.

The amount you draw, plus one flat access fee, is recovered from your next pay by your employer’s payroll, with your written consent. Nothing accrues over time. The fee is fixed at the moment you draw: it does not grow with the amount you take and it does not grow with how long it is until payday.

3Who can use it

Holela is available only through participating employers. You can use it if your employer offers it, your employment is active, and you meet the conditions your employer has set — for example a minimum time in the job.

Your employer decides what share of your earned wages you may access and how often. Those settings are theirs, not ours, and they can change them.

4How much you can access

Before you draw, we show you an amount that is available to you right now. That figure is worked out from the wages you have earned so far in this cycle, the share your employer allows, anything you have already drawn this cycle, and a floor that keeps a minimum amount in your pay on payday.

The smallest draw is R100. The figure we show you is the figure you can take — if it is lower than you expected, the reason is one of the four above, and the app will tell you which.

5The access fee

You pay one flat access fee for each draw. The fee depends on the band your draw falls into and on whether you choose instant payment or next-day payment. It is shown to you in rands, before you confirm, every time.

There is a cap per pay cycle: R60 in total for next-day draws and R80 for instant draws. Once you reach the cap in a cycle, further draws in that cycle carry no additional fee.

There is nothing else. No monthly charge, no sign-up charge, no charge for looking at your available balance, and no penalty of any kind.

6Your consent to a payroll deduction

South African law only allows your employer to deduct from your pay where you have agreed to it in writing for a specific amount. So each time you draw, we record your consent for that draw: the amount, the access fee, the total to be deducted, and the date it will happen.

We keep that record and you can see it in the app at any time. We send your employer’s payroll a schedule of exactly those amounts and nothing more.

7If you leave your job

If your employment ends before the deduction has been made, the amount you drew and the access fee are recovered from your final pay, in the same way and with the same consent.

If your final pay does not cover it, we will contact you to agree how the outstanding amount is settled. We do not add anything to it: the amount stays exactly what you drew plus the fee you were shown.

8If a payout does not arrive

If we cannot pay the money into your account, the draw is reversed in full — the amount and the access fee — and nothing is deducted from your pay. We never charge a fee on a payment that did not reach you.

Instant payments normally arrive within minutes. Next-day payments normally arrive on the next business day. Both depend on the banking system, so we cannot promise a time, and we will tell you if a payment is delayed.

9Keeping your details current

We reach you on the cellphone number your employer has on your payroll record, and that number is how you sign in. If it changes, update it with your employer — we cannot change it for you, because a number that could be changed by whoever is holding the phone would be a way to take somebody else’s pay.

Keep your phone locked and do not share the codes we send you. Anyone with your phone and your code can draw your wages.

10What we will never ask you for

We will never ask you for your bank account details, your card number, your online banking password or a one-time code from your bank. Your money is paid to the account your employer already pays your salary into, taken from their payroll record — you never enter it, and you cannot change it here.

If anyone contacts you claiming to be Holela and asks for any of those things, it is not us. Tell us at hello@holela.co.za.

11When access can be paused

Access to a draw can be unavailable when:

• you have not yet earned enough in the current cycle;
• payroll is closing for the cycle — there is a short window before payday when no new draws can be made;
• you have reached the limit your employer set, or the number of draws allowed in a cycle;
• your employment is not active, or you are serving notice;
• your employer has paused the service, or we have paused it for reasons of safety, fraud or law.

The app always tells you which of these applies. We may also stop your access if we have good reason to believe an account is being used fraudulently.

12Your personal information

We handle your personal information as set out in our privacy notice, which forms part of these terms. In short: your employer gives us the employment and pay information we need to work out what you have earned, we protect it, and we do not sell it.

Your employer sees what they need to run the deduction. They do not see why you drew, and they cannot see anything you tell us in support.

13If something goes wrong

Tell us first, and tell us early: hello@holela.co.za. We will acknowledge you within one business day and give you a written answer within ten. If an amount is wrong, we correct it and we tell your employer’s payroll in the same breath.

If you are not satisfied with our answer, you are free to take the matter further with the relevant South African authority, and using this service does not sign away that right.

14Changes to these terms

We may change these terms — for example when we add a payment option or a language. If a change affects what you pay or what you agreed to, we will tell you before it takes effect and you will see it the next time you sign in.

A change never affects a draw you have already made. The fee and the deduction you agreed to at the time stand exactly as they were shown to you.

15Law, language and contact

These terms are governed by South African law, and the South African courts have jurisdiction.

We publish in six languages. Where a translation differs from the English version, the English version applies — and if a translation is unclear, tell us, because that is our mistake to fix.