BUSINESS OF

DEBIT ORDERS

LOWER NOTIFICATION THRESHOLD

FRAUDULENT debit orders have been a headache for bank clients and a concern to Capitec for a long time. Fraudulent debit order originators typically submit debit orders for less than R99, because this is normally below the SMS notification threshold and doesn’t attract attention.

To protect clients from companies that put through invalid debit orders, Capitec has reduced the minimum value that triggers an SMS notification from R100 to R30 so that clients are informed of smaller debit orders on their accounts.

Capitec also urges clients to review their transaction history regularly and to dispute and stop fraudulent debit orders.

Through monitoring these disputes, Capitec identified a debit order originator as a potential fraud and escalated it to the Payments Association of SA (Pasa) three weeks ago. In co-operation with the rest of the industry last week, Pasa gave permission to reverse the debit orders and refund clients.

Capitec has started the process of refunding more than 25 000 clients the value of the debit order, as well as the debit order fee and debit order dispute fees.