Which payment methods does Pay@ Gateway support?

3 min read

Quick answer #

Pay@ Gateway supports cards (Visa, Mastercard, including 3D Secure 2.0), instant EFT (Capitec Pay, Pay with EFT), QR code payments (Scan to Pay, Zapper, SnapScan), PayShap instant bank-to-bank transfers, and in-store payments. All methods are charged at the same flat 2.85% rate on the Online plan, and all settle same-day to your business bank account.

Cards #

Pay@ Gateway accepts Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards issued by South African and international banks. Every card transaction includes 3D Secure 2.0 authentication, which reduces fraud and shifts liability for fraudulent transactions to the card issuer rather than the merchant.

Card payments are tokenised — Pay@ handles the card data so your business never stores card numbers, keeping your PCI DSS compliance burden minimal.

Instant EFT #

Two instant EFT methods are supported:

Capitec Pay — Capitec customers authenticate directly with their banking app. Funds clear instantly.
Pay with EFT — works with all major SA banks. Customer logs into their internet banking through a secure overlay; the payment clears in seconds rather than the days a traditional manual EFT would take.

Both methods avoid the chargeback risk of card payments (EFT cannot be reversed by the customer), which makes them attractive for higher-value transactions.

QR code payments #

Three QR networks are integrated, covering the major SA QR wallets:

Scan to Pay (Standard Bank’s QR network)
Zapper
SnapScan

Customers scan a QR code displayed in your checkout, approve in their respective app, and the payment settles to you same-day. QR payments are especially useful for face-to-face transactions and for customers who prefer not to enter card details on a website.

PayShap #

PayShap is the South African Reserve Bank’s instant payment scheme. Customers initiate a PayShap payment from their banking app using your business’s ShapID or phone number. Funds arrive in real time, and there’s no card data involved.

PayShap is particularly useful for B2B payments, recurring payments, and any context where speed matters more than the buyer-protection features of a card.

In-store payments #

Pay@ Gateway includes in-store payment acceptance — point-of-sale devices and tap-to-phone — using the same merchant account as your online payments. Settlement is consolidated across online and in-store, which simplifies reconciliation and tax reporting.

This is the only major SA gateway that offers true unified online and in-store payments through a single account.

How customers choose #

You don’t need to configure each method individually. Pay@ Gateway’s checkout shows all enabled payment methods to your customer; they pick the one they prefer. You can enable or disable specific methods in your merchant dashboard if your business has reasons to (for example, some merchants disable card payments and accept EFT only to reduce chargeback risk).