Stop paying with your plastic card — South African banks

Several major South African banks are encouraging their customers to embrace digital wallets and virtual cards over physical plastic cards due to their improved security, among other benefits.

In recent years, near-field communications (NFC) chips have become more common on smart devices and payment terminals, supporting greater use of tap-and-go payments.

For those without an NFC-enabled device, an alternative to consider is scan-to-pay, which works on nearly any smartphone with a camera.

The feature is supported natively within most major banking apps as well as through third-party apps like Snapscan and Zapper.

While using tapping to pay with a physical card is already much better than using swiping or “dipping,” many banks don’t allow customers to change the maximum tap amounts before which a customer must enter their PIN.

Fast-acting criminals who make off with people’s cards can make numerous tap transactions without entering a PIN, potentially stealing thousands of rand before victims can cancel their cards.

All major banks in South Africa have also added support for digital wallets like Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, Samsung Wallet, and Garmin Wallet.

These allow people with NFC-enabled smartphones or smartwatches to make tap payments with their devices rather than a physical card.

MyBroadband recently asked the country’s major banks whether they were seeing increased use of these technologies and whether they were actively promoting the use thereof instead over physical cards.

FNB card division head of spend and customer value management, Ashley Saffy told MyBroadband that the bank’s digital wallet volumes and values had increased 74% and 77%, respectively, between 2023 and 2024.

In the 2025 year-to-date, digital wallet volumes were tracking 50% higher than over the same period last year, while digital wallet values were 52% higher.

“The rapid growth in digital wallet adoption demonstrates their importance in the financial ecosystem,” Saffy said.

“With increasing transaction volumes and values, digital wallets are shaping the future of payments by offering a secure, convenient, and eco-friendly alternative to physical cards.

She said 1.27 million of FNB’s 8.6 million customers had adopted digital wallets.

Motivating for their usage, Saffy said that digital wallets were “far more secure” than physical cards.

“They require biometric authentication, such as fingerprint or facial recognition, or passcodes before authorizing transactions.”

“Even if your smartphone or wearable is stolen, unauthorised access is nearly impossible due to these safeguards.”

“Additionally, digital wallets use tokenisation technology to replace sensitive card details with device-linked tokens, making it difficult for fraudsters to exploit stolen credentials.”

“Unlike physical cards, which can be misused if lost or compromised, digital wallets offer advanced encryption for payments and eliminate risks like skimming or PIN theft.”

Saffy also said that digital wallets could offer an environmental benefit.

When used in conjunction with virtual cards, they help reduce the need to print physical cards.

Lastly, digital wallets were simply more convenient than physical cards, enabling payments without having to carry around a physical wallet.

Similar trends and encouragement from other major banks

Standard Bank also believes that digital wallet use should be encouraged over physical cards for reasons similar to FNB.

Standard Bank’s wallet-based transaction volumes grew 54% between 2023 and 2024, while values increased by 57%.

Absa’s card and rewards executive Tshipi Alexander said the bank’s digital wallet transaction volumes grew over 50% in the second half of 2024, while transaction values had increased even more.

“We see more and more customers not wanting to carry a physical wallet anymore because everything they need is available on their mobile device,” Alexander said.

“We have also seen a sharp increase in Google and Samsung Pay adoption rate due to the Push Card to Wallet feature enabled in the Absa banking app at the end of June 2024.”

Discovery Bank also told MyBroadband it encouraged digital wallets over physical cards because they offered a better customer experience, convenience, and security.

It also seen the number and usage of virtual cards continue to increase, especially for online purchases.

“Discovery Bank clients enjoy benefits such as up to 50 free virtual cards, more Discovery Miles, instant card management (pause, cancel, reactivate), and automatic replacement of expired virtual cards,” the bank said.