Rumour: CBN is charging for failed transactions
Reality: Not true.
We understand the panic, it would be madness if it were true. Thankfully, it isn’t.
Here’s what’s true
CBN is charging for failed direct debits
Let’s say you frequently pay for services or memberships, maybe every month. Your merchant might propose an agreement where they take the money from your account on an agreed date, at the agreed frequency — this would be termed as a “Direct Debit”
What is a direct debit?
Direct Debits authorize merchants to collect payments from your account when they are due. You give a merchant permission either on paper or through a form you complete online. Once authorized, this merchant can automatically take payments from the account you’ve given them (provided that they comply with the terms of your agreement).
You won’t be charged if there’s a failed bill payment or ATM withdrawal or POS payment.
The News: If you do set up a direct debit and it turns out that you don’t have enough money in your account, the payment fails. If this happens, CBN states that the fee will be either 1% of the direct debit amount or ₦5,000 — whichever is higher. To avoid this, you can cancel a direct debit, but you’d usually be required to do this a month in advance.
What gomoney would never do
Our Schedule Payments feature is fairly similar to direct debits in that you can schedule payments according to a chosen frequency and up to a year in advance. But unlike a direct debit, you’re in agreement only with yourself.
You don’t have to give anybody notice — all you need to do is log into your gomoney app and cancel the payment. And if it turns out that you don’t have enough in your gomoney account for your scheduled payment, we won’t charge you, all that happens is that we notify you of its failure.
