SWIFT Payment is a quick international payment offered by most South African banks and FX providers. Most offer it through their respective online banking platforms. All you need to do is provide your bank with:

• Our One World Trader USD account details (held with Investec bank)  - you can find these details on the Deposit page of your GT247 USD account
• Your unique GT247 reference number - it is critical that you get this right to avoid a delay in the allocation of funds. Please read - Correct reference for SWIFT transfer

There may be a few additional fiddly details that your bank asks for in order to complete the SWIFT payment. These may include:

1. Reason for payment or BOP (Balance of payments) category code.

If your GT247 account is an individual account (ie. in your name), then please use the 512/01 code (foreign investments - shares)

We recommend that you AVOID using the 512/07 (foreign investments - other) code

2. Charge allocation.

This instructs the bank whether you (the applicant) want all charges included in the payment (ie. if you instruct the bank to transfer $500, you expect $500 to arrive at the other bank.

We recommend selecting the OUR option, which indicates that you will pay all transfer charges and the amount of dollars you send, will arrive in your GT247 USD account.

Alternative options include: SHA (shared) which means you only pay your bank's outgoing transfer charge and the amount that arrives in our US account would be less than what you intended.

3. Beneficiary address

The banks require you to specify the beneficiary address. You should try our registered office address first (left-hand column in the table below).

Some banks don't accept that and require that you use the address of the bank, in which case, please use the details in the right-hand column in the table below.

4. Tax reference number

It's worth having your tax reference number on you when you start making the SWIFT payment as most banks will require that you have it in order to submit the transfer.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF COSTS:

Unfortunately, while reasonably easy to do, transfer by Swift payment can be quite costly with most banks charging a minimum fee of between R180 - R250, before the spread on the exchange rate is factored in.

If you're only transferring R500, this could mean that 50% or more of the Rand amount could be transfer costs and you'd end up with the dollar equivalent of only R200 arriving in your GT247 USD account. This will require high returns before you even break even.

To fund your GT247 USD account, you need US Dollars - plain and simple. 

What this means is that unless you already have dollars sitting in an offshore account somewhere, you will need to convert your Rands into dollars and effectively take them offshore.

Not too long ago that could be tricky, but thankfully our National Treasury has relaxed our exchange controls significantly in recent times so that unless you're looking to take more than R1 million offshore in any tax year, then you almost don't need to think about it.* 

There are 2 scenarios that will affect how you fund your GT247 USD account, which we will deal with individually below. Please note, funding your account with a credit or debit card is NOT allowed:

1. I DON'T HAVE DOLLARS - SWIFT payment

If you don't have dollars which you can transfer to us, funding your GT247 USD account needs to be made by SWIFT Payment. This is a quick international payment offered by most South African banks. Most offer it through their respective online banking platforms. All you need to do is login and provide your bank with:

1. Our One World Trader USD account details (held with Investec bank)  - you can find these details on the Deposit page of your GT247 USD account 
2. Your unique GT247 reference number - it is critical that you get this right to avoid a delay in the allocation of funds. Please read - Correct reference for SWIFT transfer

There are a few additional fiddly details that you may need to know in order to complete the SWIFT payment. These may include:

1. Reason for payment or BOP (Balance of payments) category code.

If your GT247 account is an individual account (ie. in your name), then please use the 512/01 code (foreign investments - shares)

We recommend that you AVOID using the 512/07 (foreign investments - other) code

2. Charge allocation.

This instructs the bank whether you (the applicant) want all charges included in the payment (ie. if you instruct the bank to transfer $500, you expect $500 to arrive at the other bank.

We recommend selecting the OUR option, which indicates that you will pay all transfer charges and the amount of dollars you send, will arrive in your GT247 USD account.

Alternative options include: SHA (shared) which means you only pay your bank's outgoing transfer charge and the amount that arrives in our US account would be less than what you intended.

3. Beneficiary address

The banks require you to specify the beneficiary address. You should try our registered office address first (left-hand column in the table below).

Some banks don't accept that and require that you use the address of the bank, in which case, please use the details in the right-hand column in the table below.

4. Tax reference number

It's worth having your tax reference number on you when you start making the SWIFT payment as most banks will require that you have it in order to submit the transfer.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF COSTS:

Unfortunately, while reasonably easy to do, transfer by Swift payment can be quite costly with most banks charging a minimum fee of between R180 - R250, before the spread on the exchange rate is factored in. If you're only transferring R500, this could mean that 50% or more of the Rand amount could be transfer costs and you'd end up with the dollar equivalent of only R200 arriving in your GT247 USD account. This will require high returns before you even break even.