TymeBank and South Africa’s largest clothing retail group have teamed up to make banking simpler

TymeBank and The Foschini Group (TFG) are teaming up, opening a “new front door” to the banking world in South Africa. Even if you aren’t already a customer, you’ve definitely heard of TymeBank. You know, the bank that lets you open an account faster than it takes to pay for parking. The partnership between TFG and TymeBank introduces new ‘products’ that’ll help customers in both the banking and shopping realms.

Saving your tyme

The first addition to the two companies is the opening of 600 TymeBank TFG kiosks spread out across a host of TFG’s stores (Foschini, Markham, and Sportscene, to name a few). These kiosks offer customers a way to create a TymeBank TFG Money account in less than five minutes – no paperwork or monthly fees required. As we already mentioned, TymeBank has offered this for a while, though the partnership is a way for the bank to potentially gain access to the roughly 28 million clients signed up through TFG’s loyalty programs.

Customers that do sign up will receive a new purple TFG-branded TymeBank debit card. But that’s not all the kiosks are good for. Customers can use the kiosks to pay electricity bills, transfer money, and engage in other ‘savings products’.

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The two groups also launched MoreTyme, a scheme that allows TFG customers to make a purchase and pay it off over the next three months in equal payments, with no additional fees or interest tacked on. Since its launch, the two groups have expanded MoreTyme, now offering the service at more than 5,500 physical stores and 1,200 webstores.

And then we come to TymeAdvance. This one is a little odd. The premise of the service is to allow holders of a TymeBank TFG Money account to access their salaries a little earlier than they would normally be deposited. As with everything in life, T&Cs do apply. You can’t just ask the bank to spot you R10,000 without there being some checks on you and the company you work for. Your employer signs the business and employees up to TymeAdvance, with employees only then being able to get a small advance (in the form of up to R5,000) at a time.

According to BusinessTech, the two groups are also working on a new programme known as TymeBank TFG Money Personal Loan. As you (should have) guessed, this is a new personal loan service that is still in the ‘soft launch’ phase, with not even a loan limit decided upon yet. More information should be forthcoming shortly.