01About this disclaimer
This Disclaimer sits alongside our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. It is the one you read if you want to understand, in plain English, what we are and are not promising when we publish this website.
A few assumptions a visitor might reasonably make from looking at this site that we want to head off up front:
The sections that follow expand on those three points and add the boring-but-necessary parts.
02We are not a lender
Instant Fund is an independent online loan-matching and comparison service. We are not a bank, a credit provider or a lender. We do not lend money, set interest rates, charge fees, approve credit, or collect repayments.
When you complete the application form, we share your details with a panel of South African credit providers that are registered with the National Credit Regulator (NCR). Each panel lender independently decides whether to make you an offer and on what terms. If you accept an offer, you sign a credit agreement directly with that lender, and from that moment your relationship is with them.
03No financial, credit, tax or legal advice
Nothing on this website is financial, credit, tax or legal advice tailored to your circumstances. We provide general information about short-term credit in South Africa and route applications to lenders that may be able to help you. We do not assess your wider financial position, recommend specific products, or tell you whether borrowing is the right move for you.
If you need advice on whether to borrow, how much to borrow, or how to manage existing debt, speak to someone qualified to give it. Useful starting points include:
- An NCR-registered debt counsellor (full list at ncr.org.za)
- The National Debt Mediation Association for free debt mediation
- The Credit Ombud for disputes with credit providers
- An FSCA-authorised financial adviser for advice on your overall financial position
Borrow only what you can comfortably repay. Short-term credit is a useful tool when used for a real, time-bound need. It is a poor tool for filling a recurring shortfall.
04The loan calculator is indicative only
The calculator on our home page lets you move two sliders — amount and term — and see an estimated total repayable. The figures it produces are based on typical short-term lending pricing under National Credit Act fee caps. They are useful for getting a rough sense of what a loan might cost.
They are not a quote. They are not an offer. They are not binding on any lender. Two specific points worth understanding:
- Each lender on the panel sets its own pricing within the NCA caps. Different lenders may quote different totals for the same loan amount and term.
- Your specific loan offer depends on the lender's own credit assessment. The offer you receive may be for a different amount, a different term, or a different total cost than the calculator suggests.
The only figures that are binding on a specific loan are the figures in the matched lender's pre-agreement quote. The NCA requires every credit provider to give you that quote before you sign. Read it carefully. The number it says you will repay is the number you will repay.
05No guarantee of approval or outcome
We cannot, and do not, guarantee that any panel lender will offer you a loan, or that any specific term, rate, or amount will be offered. We also do not guarantee a particular payout time, although most matched lenders pay out within 60 minutes of you signing during business hours.
Approval depends on the lender's own affordability and credit assessment, which they perform under the NCA. We are not party to that assessment and we do not influence it.
If you are declined by every panel lender, we will say so. We will not pretend otherwise.
06Information accuracy & "as is"
We work hard to keep the information on this website accurate, current and useful. Even so, the website is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis, to the extent allowed by South African law.
We do not warrant that every figure, statistic, FAQ, blog post or guide is free of error, and we are not liable for any loss you suffer from relying on general information on the site rather than on a specific document issued to you (such as a matched lender's pre-agreement quote, or advice from a qualified adviser).
If you spot an error, please email [email protected] and we will fix it.
07Third-party links & lender content
The website contains links to third-party websites — most importantly the National Credit Regulator, the Credit Ombud, the Information Regulator, and our panel lenders' own sites and credit agreements. These links are provided for convenience. We do not control those websites or the content on them, and we do not endorse, warrant or accept responsibility for them.
The content of any pre-agreement quote, loan agreement, statement, or communication from a matched lender is the matched lender's responsibility, not ours. If something in a lender document is unclear or seems wrong, contact that lender directly. Call 0860 INSTANT if you need help finding the right contact at the lender.
08Affiliate fee disclosure
The matching service is free for you, the applicant. We do not charge a fee, levy, subscription or any other amount for using this website.
We earn revenue from referral fees paid by the matched lender when an application we refer leads to a signed credit agreement. This is a standard credit-broker referral model. The fee is paid out of the lender's own revenue and is not added to the cost of your loan. The lender is required by the NCA to disclose the full cost of credit to you in the pre-agreement quote, and that figure does not include our referral fee as a separate line item — it is the lender's own business cost.
We disclose this here, on our home page footer, and in our Terms of Use. We want you to know it before you apply, not after.
09Trademarks & intellectual property
The Instant Fund name, logo, designs, copy, software and the overall look and feel of the website are owned by us or our licensors and are protected by South African copyright, trade mark and other intellectual property laws. The logos and trade marks of partner lenders, regulators and other third parties belong to their respective owners and appear on this site for identification purposes only — their use does not imply endorsement of Instant Fund by those parties.
You may view and print pages from the website for your own non-commercial use. You may not republish, reproduce, frame, scrape or sell any part of the website without our prior written permission.
10Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent allowed by South African law, and subject to the carve-outs below:
- We are not liable for any loss, damage or cost you suffer from relying on general information published on this website, where that information has been superseded by a specific document issued to you (such as a lender's pre-agreement quote).
- We are not liable for the conduct of any matched lender — including decisions to approve or decline your application, the terms of any loan, the speed of payout, or any collection activity. Those are matters between you and that lender.
- We are not liable for events outside our reasonable control, such as bank EFT downtime, load-shedding affecting our servers or yours, or interruptions to third-party services we depend on.
- Because the matching service is free, our total aggregate liability to you for any matter arising from your use of the website is effectively limited to zero rand in fees paid.
None of the above limits any liability we are not allowed to limit under South African law — including liability for gross negligence, fraud, wilful misconduct, or anything else carved out by Section 51 of the Consumer Protection Act.
11Jurisdiction & consumer rights preserved
This Disclaimer is governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any dispute arising from it falls under the jurisdiction of the Magistrates' or High Courts of Gauteng, subject to your rights as a consumer under the CPA to bring proceedings in another competent court.
Nothing in this Disclaimer limits any right you have under the National Credit Act 34 of 2005, the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013, or any other South African law. Where any clause is inconsistent with those laws, that clause is read down to the extent necessary to comply, and the rest of this Disclaimer remains in force.
12Updates & contact
We may update this Disclaimer from time to time to reflect changes in the website, our business, our partner lenders, or the law. The "Last updated" date at the top of the page changes whenever we do. Material changes will be flagged with a notice on the home page for at least 14 days.
If you have a question about anything on this page, please contact us:
- Email: [email protected]
- Privacy queries: [email protected]
- Complaints: [email protected]
- Phone: 0860 INSTANT (0860 467 826), Mon–Fri 8am–6pm, Sat 9am–1pm
- Office: Sandton City, Sandton 2196, Johannesburg, ZA — by appointment only