This user agreement will be effective for all users as of October 1, 2021.

1. Welcome to AO Pay!

This user agreement is a contract between you and AO Pay (Pty) Ltd., a South African company, governing your use of your AO Pay account and the AO Pay services. If you are an individual, you must be a resident of South Africa or Permit holder with a valid Passport and at least 18 years old to open an AO Pay account and use the AO Pay services.
By opening and using an AO Pay account, you agree to comply with all of the terms and conditions in this user agreement.
Please read carefully all of the terms and conditions herewith below of this user agreement, the terms of these policies and each of the other agreements that apply to you.
We may amend this user agreement and any of the policies listed from time to time. The intended amendments together with the reasons why the amendments are necessary shall be posted, for comments, on AO Pay’s website at least 20 (twenty) working days before such amendments are made. The revised version will be effective at the time we post it on our website, unless otherwise noted. If our changes reduce your rights or increase your responsibilities, we will post a notice on our website and email. All future changes already published at the time you register for the AO Pay services are incorporated by reference into this user agreement and will take effect as specified.
If you do not agree to the revised terms and conditions, you must stop using the AO Pay services, close your account, and terminate your relationship with us without cost or penalty. This user agreement will continue to apply to your previous use of our services.

2. About our main business

AO Pay is a payment services provider and acts as such by creating, hosting, maintaining, and providing our AO Pay services to you via the internet. Our services allow you to send payments to anyone with an AO Pay account, and, where available, to receive payments. You can see what services are available to you by logging into your AO Pay account.
The AO Pay services are offered by AO Pay (Pty) Ltd.

3. Opening an Account

We offer two types of accounts: personal accounts and business accounts.
All AO Pay accounts let you do things like:

(a) Send and receive payments.
(b) Buy things online, using mobile devices or in stores.
(c) Make payments using your credit card, debit card, bank account, AO Pay balance, or other payment methods.
(d) Accept credit card, debit card, bank account, AO Pay balance, or other payment methods from others.

You are responsible for maintaining adequate security and control of any and all IDs, passwords, personal identification numbers, or any other codes that you use to access your AO Pay account and the AO Pay services.
In order to open and maintain an AO Pay account, you must provide us with correct and updated account information, including but not limited to personal information, financial information, or other information related to you or your business.
You must keep your email address and other contact information current in your AO Pay account profile.

4. Personal accounts

If you primarily need to make purchases and send payments to family and friends, a personal account is probably right for you. With a personal account you can do things like:

(a) Buy goods and services.
(b) Send and request payments from friends and family.

You can also use a personal account to receive payments for the sale of goods and services, but if you plan to use your AO Pay account primarily to sell things, you should consider a business account. You can convert your AO Pay account from a personal account to a business account should circumstances change.

5. Business accounts

We recommend business accounts for people and organisations that primarily use AO Pay to sell goods or services, even if your business is not incorporated. With a business account, you can do things like:

(a) Use a company or business name as the name on your AO Pay account.
(b) Allow employees access to some of the features of your AO Pay account.
(c) Sign up for AO Pay products that meet your business needs.

Business accounts may be subject to fees (see the above application form with regard to the fess) that differ from the fees applicable to personal accounts.
By opening up a business account or converting a personal account to a business account, you certify to us that you are using it primarily for a business or commercial purpose. You also consent to AO Pay obtaining your personal and/or business credit report from a credit reporting agency at account opening, when you request certain new products and whenever we reasonably believe there may be an increased level of risk associated with your business account.

6. Commercial Entity Agreement

If the activity through any type of AO Pay account you hold reaches certain thresholds or involves certain business segments or activities, you are required by the card networks to form a Merchant Account to allow you to continue accepting Visa and MasterCard payments. In this case, these terms of the acquirer will apply to any payment processed by AO Pay on your behalf and will form part of this user agreement.

7. Third Party permissions

You must be the beneficial owner of your AO Pay account and conduct business only on behalf of yourself.
You may expressly grant, remove, and manage permissions for some third parties to take certain actions on your behalf. In some cases, you can do this when logged into your AO Pay account – in other cases, you can do this directly with the third party. You acknowledge that if you grant permission for a third party to take actions on your behalf, we may disclose certain information about your AO Pay account to this third party.
You may permit third party service providers licensed by applicable law to:

(a) provide account information services to access information about your account on your behalf;
(b) confirm whether an amount necessary for the execution of a card-based payment transaction is available on your account; or
(c) provide payment initiation services to initiate payments from your account on your behalf.

Granting permission to any third party to access your AO Pay account in any way does not relieve you of any of your responsibilities under this user agreement. You are liable to us for the actions that you authorise the third parties to carry out. You will not hold us responsible for, and you will indemnify us from, any liability arising from the actions or inactions of such third parties in connection with the permissions you granted, subject to your mandatory legal rights.

8. Closing Your AO Pay Account

You may close your account and terminate your relationship with us at any time without cost or penalty, but you will remain liable for all obligations related to your AO Pay account even after the AO Pay account is closed. When you close your AO Pay account, we will cancel any scheduled or incomplete transactions. You must withdraw or transfer any AO Pay balance from your AO Pay account before closing it. You cannot withdraw or transfer digital gift certificates/cards that are purchased through AO Pay and linked to your AO Pay account as payment methods.
In certain cases, you may not close your AO Pay account, including:

(a) To evade an investigation.
(b) If you have a pending transaction or an open dispute or claim.
(c) If your AO Pay account has a negative balance.
(d) If your AO Pay account is subject to a hold, limitation, or reserve.

9. Link or Unlink a Payment Method

You can link or unlink a credit card, debit card or a bank account to your AO Pay account as a payment method. Please keep your payment method information current (i.e., credit card number and expiration date). If this information changes, we may update it using information and third-party sources available to us without any action on your part. If you do not want us to update your card information, you may remove your payment method from your AO Pay account. If we update your payment method, we will keep any preference setting attached to such payment methods. You may choose to confirm your card, so that we can verify that the card is valid and that you are the card owner.

10. Holding an AO Pay Balance

Any AO Pay balance you hold represents an unsecured claim against AO Pay. AO Pay combines your balance with the balances of other users and invests those funds in liquid investments. These pooled amounts are held separate from AO Pay’s corporate funds, and AO Pay will neither use these funds for its operating expenses or any other corporate purposes nor will it voluntarily make these funds available to its creditors in the event of bankruptcy. You will not receive interest or other earnings on the amounts in your balance. You agree AO Pay shall own the interest or other earnings on these investments. You agree to assign any rights to any interest derived from your funds to AO Pay.

11. Adding or Withdrawing Funds

11.1. Adding funds to your balance

You may use the payment methods linked to your AO Pay account to fund transactions you make using your AO Pay account. You don’t need an AO Pay balance to buy something or send payments. You can add funds to your AO Pay account from the bank account that’s linked to your AO Pay account by requesting an electronic transfer to your AO Pay account. The amount transferred will be held as a balance in your AO Pay account. Credit cards cannot be used to add funds to your AO Pay balance.

11.2. Withdrawing funds from your balance

11.2.1. If you have an AO Pay balance, log into your AO Pay account to see which of these withdrawal options are available:

(a) transferring it to a bank account linked to your AO Pay account; or
(b) transferring it to your debit or credit card, where available;

11.2.2. You may be able to withdraw your funds through a third-party service provider. To protect us and our users from loss, we may delay a withdrawal in certain situations, including if we need to confirm that you have authorised the withdrawal or if other payments to your AO Pay account have been subject to a reversal (for example, as a result of a chargeback, bank reversal or dispute by a buyer). If we place a limitation on your AO Pay account, a payment is subject to a hold, or your account or an associated account has a negative balance in any currency while a withdrawal from your AO Pay account is pending, you will have to reinitiate the withdrawal once the limitation or hold has been lifted, or the negative balance is fully paid off. We may set limits on your withdrawals, and you can view any withdrawal limit by logging into your AO Pay account. Completing the following steps can help us verify your AO Pay account, which may allow us to remove any withdrawal cap:

(a) Verifying your bank account; and
(b) Linking and confirming your credit card or debit card information.

We may charge a fee (see application form above with regard to the fees) to make a transfer to your bank account. If your debit card is eligible to receive withdrawals from your AO Pay account, you will be provided the option to use it when you transfer funds out of your AO Pay balance, subject to the fees applicable to such transfers.

12. Account Statements

You have the right to receive an account statement showing your AO Pay account activity. You may view your AO Pay account statement by logging into your AO Pay account.

13. Sending payments and buying

13.1. Sending payments

You can send funds to a friend or family member from your AO Pay account using the send payments feature in your AO Pay account.
You can send funds to a friend or family member even if they don’t have an AO Pay account at the time you send them funds, using their email address or mobile number, and you can choose which payment method you want to use. If the person to whom you are sending funds does not have an AO Pay account, they can claim it by opening an AO Pay account. If they don’t claim it, it will be refunded to you. Receiving funds from a friend or family member is described under Receiving Funds.
We may, at our discretion, impose limits on the amount of funds you can send, including funds you send for purchases. You can request any sending limits by contacting support@aopay.io. We may increase your sending limits if you complete the same steps to verify your information as is required for the removal of withdrawal limits.
When you send funds to a friend or family member, one of three things may happen: they may accept, decline, or fail to claim the funds. If they either decline to accept the funds or don’t claim them within 30 days of the date they are sent, the funds (including any fees you were charged) will be refunded to:

(a) The original payment method you used for the transaction, if you used a credit card, debit card or AO Pay Credit as the payment method, or
(b) Your AO Pay balance, if you used your AO Pay balance as the payment method or a bank account as the payment method and we cannot refund it to your bank account.

13.2. Receiving payments

If a friend or family member sends funds to you, the funds will appear in your AO Pay balance.
Fees for Sending payments to Friends and Family
The fees applicable to sending funds can be found in the Pricing Table.
If you send funds to a friend or family member from a third party (non-AO Pay) website or by using a third party’s product or service, then the third party will determine if the sender or recipient pays the fee.
Buying Something From, Donating to, or Returning Something to, a Seller Who Accepts AO Pay
How to buy something or make a donation
You can buy something from a seller who accepts AO Pay or make a donation that AO Pay supports, using the funds in your AO Pay balance, or using any payment method linked to your AO Pay account. This includes, for example:

(a) Buying something at an online retailer’s website and selecting AO Pay as your payment method at checkout.
(b) Sending a payment to a seller for goods or services.
(c) Using your AO Pay account to buy something at a seller’s physical store.

13.3. Making donations using AO Pay.

In order to manage risk, AO Pay may limit the payment methods available for a transaction when you buy something or make a donation. In addition, payment methods may be limited for certain sellers or recipients, including AO Pay payments made through certain third-party websites or applications.
When you authorise a payment to a seller who accepts AO Pay, some sellers may take up to 30 days to complete the transaction. In these instances, your payment may appear as a pending order in your AO Pay account. In that case, your authorization of the payment will remain valid until the seller completes the transaction (but no longer than 30 days). If you used a debit or credit card as the payment method, your debit or credit card issuer also may show a pending authorization for a period of time until they release the hold or receive a completed transaction.

13.4. Fees

When you buy something from a seller who accepts AO Pay or make a donation, you don’t pay a fee to AO Pay.
Your credit card or debit card issuer may also charge you a separate fee for transactions.

13.5. Payment review

When AO Pay identifies a potentially high-risk transaction, we review the transaction more closely before allowing it to proceed. When this happens, AO Pay will place a hold on the transaction and notify the seller to delay shipping of the item. As a buyer, this may delay your receipt of the item you purchased. If we clear the transaction, we will notify the seller and direct them to ship the item. If we don’t clear the transaction, we will cancel it and return the funds to you, unless we are legally required to take other action.

13.6. Automatic payments

You can agree with a seller who accepts AO Pay to use AO Pay as the payment method for future purchases with that seller. This agreement is between you and the seller and allows the seller to take funds from your AO Pay account with your authorization on a one-time, regular, or sporadic basis. Examples of automatic payments that can be arranged by you either with a seller or with AO Pay include those that AO Pay calls a “billing agreement,” “subscription,” “recurring payment,” “reference transaction,” “pre authorised debit”, “preauthorized transfer” or “preapproved payment.”
You may cancel an automatic payment up to 3 Business Days before the date of the next scheduled payment from your account settings or by contacting support@aopay.io. Once an automatic payment is cancelled, all future automatic payments under your agreement with that seller will be stopped. If you cancel an automatic payment, you may still owe the seller funds for the purchase or have additional obligations to the seller for any goods or services that you receive but have not paid for and you may be required to pay the seller through alternative means.
If you have given advance authorization, either to a seller or to AO Pay, that permits a seller to take or receive payments from your AO Pay account on a regularly recurring basis (for example, every month or otherwise on a routine billing cycle), and if such payments will vary in amount, you have the right to advance notice of the amount and date of the transfer from the seller at least 10 days before the transfer is made. If the seller provides the option, you may choose to receive this advance notice only when the amount of your automatic payment will fall outside a range established between you and the seller.

13.7. Refunds

When you buy something from a seller online using AO Pay and the transaction is ultimately refunded, the payment will typically be refunded to the original payment method you used for the transaction if you used a credit card, debit card or AO Pay balance. If you used a bank account as the payment method for the transaction, we will refund the payment to your AO Pay balance if we cannot refund it to your bank account. For purchases you make in a seller’s store location that you paid for using your AO Pay account and the transaction is ultimately refunded, the payment will be refunded to your AO Pay balance.

13.8. Payment Method Used for My Transaction

13.8.1. Selecting a preferred payment method

You can choose any of the payment methods in your AO Pay account as your preferred payment method. You can select a preferred payment method in your account preferences. There may be times when your preferred payment method cannot be used, for example, if you select a credit card that is expired.
You can set separate preferred payment methods for online transactions, in-store transactions, and automatic payments with a seller.
If you have chosen a preferred payment method, it will be shown as the primary method of payment.
The availability of certain payment methods may be limited based on that particular seller or the third-party website you are using to complete the transaction.
If you have not selected a preferred payment method, or your preferred payment method is unavailable, we will show you available payment methods, including the payment method you used most often or most recently, at the time of transaction.

13.8.2. AO EFT

(a) At the time of checkout, a Payer will be provided with an option to make a payment to you using the Service.
(b) If the Service is selected, the Payer will be redirected to a page provided by AO Pay, or its authorised service provider, in order to select his or her bank.
(c) After the bank is selected, the Payer will be required to enter his/her online banking credentials in order to login and proceed with the transaction. The Payer will then be directed to an online ‘once off payment screen’ provided by AO Pay or its authorised service provider. The ‘once off payment screen’ will be pre-populated with, for
(d) (a) merchants who use AO Pay’s acquiring account, AO Pay bank account details, and
(e) (b) merchants who use their own acquiring account, your payment details (such as your merchant store name, your bank, branch code, merchant bank account number, transaction reference(s)) and the transaction amount.
(f) Following the Payer confirming the details, the Payer’s bank will provide the Payer with a one-time PIN via SMS, email or USSD push notification or request the Payer to approve in-app. The Payer will be required to enter such one-time PIN or approve in-app authentication and confirm payment.
(g) Once the Payer has confirmed payment, AO Pay will match the payment to your Payer’s transaction and send you an instant payment notification that payment from such Payer has been successful, expired or failed.

14. Our dispute resolution process

If you’re unable to resolve a transaction related issue directly with a seller, you must contact support@aopay.io to pursue a claim. You may also file a claim (Step 2 below) by calling us and speaking to an agent. The steps you must follow are described below, and if you do not follow these steps your claim may be denied:

Step 1: Open a dispute within 180 days of the date you made the payment. This might allow you to start a direct conversation with the seller regarding your issue with the transaction that may help resolve the dispute. If you are unable to resolve the dispute directly with the seller, proceed to Step 2. We will place a hold on all funds related to the transaction in the seller’s AO Pay account until the dispute is resolved or closed.

Step 2: Escalate the dispute to a claim for reimbursement within 20 days after opening the dispute, if you and the seller are unable to come to an agreement, we will automatically close the dispute. The seller or AO Pay may also escalate the dispute to a claim at this point. AO Pay may ask you to wait at least 7 days from the transaction date to escalate the dispute.

Step 3: Respond to AO Pay’s requests for documentation or other information, after you, the seller or AO Pay escalates your dispute to a claim for reimbursement. AO Pay may require you to provide receipts, third party evaluations, police reports or other documents that AO Pay specifies. You must respond to these requests in a timely manner as requested in our correspondence with you.

Step 4: Comply with AO Pay’s shipping requests in a timely manner, if you’re filing a Not as Described claim. AO Pay may require you, at your expense, to ship the item back to the seller, to AO Pay or to a third party (which will be specified by AO Pay) and to provide proof of delivery.

Proof of delivery means:
Confirmation that can be viewed online and includes the delivery address showing at least city/ or postal code, delivery date, and the identity of the shipping company you used.

Step 5: AO Pay will make a final decision (including automatically closing any dispute or claim), in its sole discretion, based on the eligibility requirements set forth above, any additional information provided during the dispute resolution process, or any other information AO Pay deems relevant and appropriate under the circumstances.
We may, at our discretion, reverse the transaction without requiring you to take further action. We may limit the number of automatic reversals that you benefit from, but, even if that is the case, you will still be able to follow AO Pay’s standard dispute resolution processes described above.

In the event that AO Pay makes a final decision in favour of the buyer or seller, each party must comply with AO Pay’s decision.
If AO Pay finds in favour of a buyer, AO Pay will reimburse the buyer for the full purchase price of the item.
If a seller loses a claim, the seller will not receive a refund on the AO Pay fees associated with the transaction.
If a seller loses a Not as Described claim due to the item sold being counterfeit, the seller will be required to provide a full refund to the buyer.

15. Dispute with us or your card issuer

If you used a credit card or debit card as the payment method for a transaction through your AO Pay account and you are dissatisfied with the transaction, you may be entitled to dispute the transaction with your card issuer. Applicable card chargeback rights may be broader than those available to you with AO Pay.
You must choose whether to pursue a dispute with AO Pay, or to pursue the dispute with your card issuer. You can’t do both at the same time or seek a double recovery. If you pursue a dispute/claim with us and you also pursue a dispute for the same transaction with your card issuer, we’ll close your dispute/claim with us. This won’t affect the dispute process with your card issuer. In addition, if you pursue a dispute with your card issuer, you cannot pursue a dispute/claim with us later.
If you choose to dispute a transaction with AO Pay and we decide against you, you can seek to pursue the dispute with your card issuer later. If AO Pay does not make a final decision on your claim until after your card issuer’s deadline for filing a dispute, and because of our delay you recover less than the full amount you would have been entitled to recover from the card issuer, we will reimburse you for the remainder of your loss (minus any amount you have already recovered from the seller or your card issuer). Before contacting your card issuer or filing a dispute with AO Pay, you should contact the seller to attempt to resolve your issue in accordance with the seller’s return policy.

16. Selling and Accepting Payments

16.1. Accepting Payments

You can determine whether you have the ability to receive payments by logging into your AO Pay account.
If you use your AO Pay account to receive payments for the sale of goods or services or to receive donations, you must:
(a) Pay any applicable fees for receiving the funds.
(b) Not ask your buyer to send you a personal payment for a purchase. If you do so, AO Pay may remove your AO Pay account’s ability to accept payments from friends or family members.

By integrating into your online checkout/platform any functionality intended to enable a payer without an AO Pay account to send a payment to your AO Pay account, you agree to all further terms of use of that functionality which AO Pay will make available to you on any page on the AO Pay website.

16.2. No surcharges

You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting AO Pay as a payment method. You may charge a handling fee in connection with the sale of goods or services as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge and is not higher than the handling fee you charge for non-AO Pay transactions.

16.3. Presentation of AO Pay

You must treat AO Pay payment methods or marks at least on par with any other payment methods offered at your points of sale, wherever AO Pay’s branded services are integrated, including your websites or mobile applications. This includes at least equal or better: logo placement, position within any point of sale, and treatment in terms of payment flow, terms, conditions, restrictions, and fees, in each case as compared to other marks and payment methods at your points of sale.
In representations to your customers or in public communications, you must not mischaracterize any AO Pay service as a payment method or exhibit a preference for other payment methods over any AO Pay service. Within all of your points of sale, you agree not to try to dissuade or inhibit your customers from using AO Pay or encourage the customer to use an alternate payment method. If you enable your customers to pay you with AO Pay, whenever you display or exhibit the payment methods that you accept (either within any point of sale or in your marketing materials, advertising and other customer communications), you agree to display the AO Pay services payment marks at least as prominently, and in at least as positive a manner, as you do for all other payment methods.

16.4. Taxes, information reporting

Some of our fees may be subject to applicable taxes, levies, duties, or similar governmental assessments, including, for example, value-added tax, sales tax, income tax, use or withholding taxes, assessable by any jurisdiction (collectively, “taxes”) and, unless expressly noted, our fees are exclusive of applicable taxes. It is your responsibility to determine what, if any, taxes apply to the payments you make or receive, and it is solely your responsibility to assess, collect, report, and remit the correct taxes to the appropriate authority. AO Pay is not responsible for determining whether any taxes apply to your transaction, or for calculating, collecting, reporting or remitting taxes arising from any transaction.

16.5. Your refund policy and privacy policy

You must publish a refund and return policy, as well as a privacy policy, where required by law.

16.6. Payment review

AO Pay reviews certain potentially high-risk transactions. If AO Pay determines, in its sole discretion, that a transaction is high-risk, we place a hold on the payment and provide notice to you to delay shipping of the item. AO Pay will conduct a review and either complete or cancel the payment. If the payment is completed, AO Pay will provide notice to you to ship the item. Otherwise, AO Pay will cancel the payment and the funds will be returned to the buyer, unless we are legally required to take other action. All payments that complete this payment review will be eligible for AO Pay’s Seller Protection program if they meet AO Pay’s Seller Protection program requirements. We will notify you by email and/or through your AO Pay account.

16.7. In-store payments

If you accept AO Pay payments at your physical store, you must communicate the total amount of the transaction to the customer before it takes place. You may charge your customer’s account only for transactions that they have authorised. You must also provide customers with a physical receipt if they request one. You agree that any transaction that you make shall have an accurate and true description of the goods and services being purchased.

16.8. Marketplace sellers

If you’re a seller on a marketplace or through a third-party application where AO Pay is offered, you must comply with any rules that apply to the marketplaces or the third-party applications for sales you make through that forum. Any such protections may require you to take certain actions and may impact how claims are processed.

16.9. Card not present transactions

Whenever a buyer uses a debit or credit card as the payment method for a transaction using their account to buy something from you as a seller, the transaction will be processed as a “card not present” transaction, even if the buyer is at your store location.

16.10. Accepting pre authorised payments

As a seller, you can accept payments from a buyer’s account through preauthorized payments either on a one-time, regular, or sporadic basis. This type of transaction is sometimes called a “billing agreement,” “subscription,” “recurring payment,” “reference transaction,” “pre authorised debit”, “preauthorized transfer, “pre-approved payment” or “automatic payment.”
If you receive pre authorised payments from buyers:
You must:
(a) Get each buyer’s prior authorization for the amount, frequency, and duration of any such payment.
(b) Provide a simple and easily accessible online cancellation procedure if buyers sign up for preauthorized payments online.
(c) Provide buyers the ability to stop any such payment up to 3 Business Days before the date scheduled for payment.
(d) Notify the buyer at least 10 days in advance of the amount and date of each pre authorised payment if the pre authorised payment will vary from the pre authorised amount or (at the buyer’s option) any payment that is in an amount that falls outside of the predetermined range.
You must not:
(e) Restart future payments without the buyer’s written authorization if a buyer has stopped or cancelled a pre authorised payment.

17. Transaction Fees for Online and In-Store Payments

17.1. Standard transaction fees

The fees you pay when selling goods or services or receiving donations, and the buyer pays using their AO Pay account (or using another authorised wallet) can be found on the Pricing Page
Please note that:
(a) We may adjust the fees applicable to future transactions that you process using AO Pay. We will provide you at least 30 days’ advance notice of any fee increase or the introduction of a new type of fee.
(b) If you accept payments using an AO Pay product, the fees applicable to those products will apply to your transactions.

to apply, you must submit a one-time application, have a qualifying monthly sales volume, and have a business account in good standing. You can find Merchant Pricing on the Pricing Page

17.2. AO Pay Pay-outs

You can use AO Pay Pay-outs service to send pay-outs to multiple recipients in one batch, such as commissions, rebates, rewards, incentives, and bulk business payments. You may be able to choose to send pay-outs to AO Pay accounts, or directly to a South African Bank Account. In order to use this service, you must have:
an AO Pay business account in good standing and with no withdrawal limits; and applied for and received our permission to use these services.
Fees for AO Pay Pay-outs can be found on the Pricing Page
If an intended pay-out recipient does not have an AO Pay account, as applicable, they can claim the pay-out by opening one. Any pay-outs that are not claimed by the intended recipient within thirty (30) days will be refunded to you. We are not liable for amounts sent in error through AO Pay Pay-outs, and we will have no responsibility to reverse any pay-outs.
AO Pay Pay-outs is built for customers with multiple, bulk, and recurring payment needs. If you wish to make one-off payments, please use the AO Pay services intended for that purpose. We will notify you in writing 24 hours before we add reasonable and lawful restrictions at our sole discretion.
You are solely responsible for ensuring that each of your pay-out recipients has opted in to receive payments from you through the applicable services and has agreed to be contacted by email or message, as applicable. By using the AO Pay Pay-outs service, you represent and warrant that the emails or phone numbers you use to contact your customers were provided to you by each pay-out recipient, and that your use of the services to contact your customers complies with applicable laws and regulations. You understand that AO Pay Pay-outs is only intended to facilitate bulk payments and transactions and may not be used to send marketing messages for your business.
Without limiting our other rights and remedies under this agreement, we may, in our sole discretion, at any time suspend or terminate your access to the AO Pay Pay-outs service or your AO Pay account, if (i) we determine that you are misusing the AO Pay Pay-outs service, (ii) there is a higher than acceptable level of risk associated with your use of the AO Pay Pay-outs service, or (iii) for any violation of these terms. You shall be notified by email of our intention to suspend or terminate your abovementioned access and the reasons thereto 10 (ten) working days before the suspension or termination is implemented except where there is a valid reason why such suspension or termination must be implemented immediately.

17.3. Your responsibility to notify AO Pay of pricing or fee errors.

Once you have access to any account statement(s) or other account activity information made available to you by AO Pay with respect to your business account(s), you will have sixty (60) days to notify AO Pay in writing of any errors or discrepancies with respect to the pricing or other fees applied by AO Pay. If you do not notify AO Pay within such a time frame, you accept such information as accurate, and AO Pay shall have no obligation to make any corrections, unless otherwise required by applicable law. For the purposes of this provision, such pricing or fee errors or discrepancies are different than unauthorised transactions and other electronic transfer errors which are each subject to different notification timeframes as set forth in this user agreement.

18. Refunds, Reversals and Chargebacks

18.1. General information

If you receive a payment for selling goods or services that is later refunded or invalidated for any reason, you are responsible for the full amount of the payment sent to you plus any fees (including any applicable chargeback fee or Dispute fee described below). Whenever a transaction is refunded or otherwise reversed, AO Pay will refund or reverse the transaction from your AO Pay account.
If you refund a transaction, we’ll retain the fees you paid as set out on our Pricing Page.

18.2. Payments that are invalidated and reversed.

18.2.1. Payments to you may be invalidated and reversed by AO Pay if:

(a) You lose an AO Pay claim submitted to us by a buyer, including as a result of your failure to respond in a timely manner.
(b) Your buyer pursues a chargeback related to a card-funded transaction. The card issuer, not AO Pay, determines whether a buyer is successful when they pursue a chargeback related to a card-funded transaction.
(c) You do not fulfil the transaction as promised or you cannot provide proof of shipment or proof of delivery when required.
(d) Our investigation of a bank reversal made by a buyer or the buyer’s bank finds that the transaction was fraudulent.
(e) AO Pay sent the payment to you in error.
(f) The payment was unauthorised.
(g) You received the payment for activities that violated this user agreement, AO Pay’s Acceptable Use Policy, or any other agreement between you and AO Pay.

18.2.2. When you receive a payment, you are liable to AO Pay for the full amount of the payment sent to you plus any fees if the payment is later invalidated for any reason. If your AO Pay balance is insufficient to cover your liability for the payment amount plus the fees, then this will result in a negative AO Pay balance. Any negative AO Pay balance represents an amount that you owe to us, and, in this situation, you must immediately add funds to your AO Pay balance to eliminate it. Client will be able to have insight as to the balances in his/her AO Pay account and is responsible to manage his/her AO Pay account preventing any negative AO Pay balance on the account. If you do not do so, AO Pay may:
(a) recover any amounts due to AO Pay by debiting your balance;
(b) engage in collection efforts to recover such amounts from you;
(c) take any and all action as outlined under Amounts owed to AO Pay; or
(d) place a limitation or take other action on your AO Pay account as outlined under Restricted Activities and Holds.

18.3. Dispute fees (not related to dispute with regard to the terms and conditions of this agreement)

AO Pay will charge a Dispute fee (see application form with regard to the fees) to sellers for facilitating the online dispute resolution process for transactions that are processed either through a buyer’s AO Pay account or through an AO Pay guest checkout. The Dispute fee applies when the buyer pursues a claim directly with AO Pay, a chargeback with their card issuer, or a reversal with their bank. The Dispute will be communicated with the client and the merchant will be notified immediately and will be charged at the Standard Dispute fee rate. The Dispute fee will be deducted from your AO Pay account after the claim is decided. Described claims that are filed either directly with and escalated to AO Pay or with the buyer’s card issuer or bank. You will not be charged a Standard Dispute fee for disputes that are:

(a) Inquiries that are not escalated to a claim with AO Pay.
(b) Resolved directly between you and the buyer and not escalated to a claim with AO Pay.
(c) Decided in your favour by AO Pay or your issuer.

Disputes listed above may be excluded from being charged a Standard Dispute fee, but the claim itself may still be included in the overall calculation of your dispute ratio.

18.4. Chargeback fees

For transactions that are not processed either through a buyer’s AO Pay account or through a guest checkout, and where the buyer pursues a chargeback for the transaction with their card issuer, AO Pay will charge you a chargeback fee for facilitating the chargeback process. This fee will apply regardless of whether the buyer is successful in pursuing the chargeback with the card issuer.
The applicable chargeback fee will be deducted from your AO Pay account.
If a buyer files a chargeback, the card issuer, not AO Pay, will determine who wins the chargeback.

19. Impact of various claim processes on sellers

You should read and understand AO Pay’s End User Agreement and if you sell goods and services to and receive payments from buyers with AO Pay accounts. Buyers’ rights under these programs may impact you as a seller.
If you lose a claim:
(a) You will be required to reimburse AO Pay for your liability.
(b) Your liability will include the full purchase price of the item plus the original shipping cost (and in some cases you may not receive the item back), and the AO Pay fees that you were charged for the transaction. This applies when you are the primary seller or a secondary seller of goods or services. For example, event ticketing agents, or online travel agents will forfeit the full purchase amount paid by the buyer. In some cases, you may not receive the item back.
(c) The claim will only be considered fully resolved if:
o the refund to a buyer is processed through AO Pay, or
o you provide evidence acceptable to AO Pay, in its sole discretion, that the buyer agreed to the alternative resolution provided.
(d) You will not receive a refund of the AO Pay fees that you paid in connection with the sale.
(e) If the claim was that the item received was Not as Described, you may not receive the item back, or you may be required to accept the item back and pay for the return shipping costs.
(f) If the claim was that the item received was Not as Described and related to an item you sold that is counterfeit, you will be required to provide a full refund to the buyer and you may not receive the item back.

20. Restricted Activities

In connection with your use of our websites, your AO Pay account, the AO Pay services, or in the course of your interactions with AO Pay, other AO Pay customers, or third parties, you will not:
(a) Breach this user agreement, AO Pay’s Acceptable Use Policy, the Merchant Agreements (if they apply to you), or any other agreement between you and AO Pay.
(b) Violate any law, statute, ordinance, or regulation (for example, those governing financial services, consumer protections, unfair competition, anti-discrimination, or false advertising).
(c) Infringe AO Pay’s or any third party’s copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy.
(d) Sell counterfeit goods.
(e) Act in a manner that is defamatory, trade libellous, threatening or harassing.
(f) Provide false, inaccurate or misleading information.
(g) Send or receive what we reasonably believe to be potentially fraudulent funds.
(h) Engage in potentially fraudulent or suspicious activity and/or transactions.
(i) Refuse to cooperate in an investigation or provide confirmation of your identity or any information you provide to us.
(j) Attempt to double dip during the course of a dispute by receiving or attempting to receive funds from both AO Pay and the seller, bank or card issuer for the same transaction.
(k) Control an account that is linked to another account that has engaged in any of these restricted activities.
(l) Conduct your business or use the AO Pay services in a manner that results in or may result in:
o complaints;
o requests by buyers (either filed with us or card issuers) to invalidate payments made to you; or;
o fees, fines, penalties or other liability or losses to AO Pay, other AO Pay customers, third parties or you.
(m) Use your AO Pay account or the AO Pay services in a manner that AO Pay, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club or any other electronic funds transfer network reasonably believes to be an abuse of the card system or a violation of card association or network rules.
(n) Allow your AO Pay account to have a negative AO Pay balance.
(o) Take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our websites, software, systems (including any networks and servers used to provide any of the AO Pay services) operated by us or on our behalf or the AO Pay services; facilitate any viruses, trojan horses, malware, worms or other computer programming routines that attempts to or may damage, disrupt, corrupt, misuse, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate, or gain unauthorised access to any system, data, information or AO Pay services; use an anonymizing proxy; use any robot, spider, other automatic device, or manual process to monitor or copy our websites without our prior written permission; use any device, software or routine to bypass our robot exclusion headers; or interfere or disrupt or attempt to interfere with or disrupt our websites, software, systems (including any networks and servers used to provide any of the AO Pay services) operated by us or on our behalf, any of the AO Pay services or other users’ use of any of the AO Pay services.
(p) Take any action that may cause us to lose any of the services from our Internet service providers, payment processors, or other suppliers or service providers.
(q) Use the AO Pay services to test credit card behaviours.
(r) Circumvent any AO Pay policy or determinations about your AO Pay account such as temporary or indefinite suspensions or other account holds, limitations or restrictions, including, but not limited to, engaging in the following actions: attempting to open new or additional AO Pay account(s) when an account has a negative AO Pay balance or has been restricted, suspended or otherwise limited; opening new or additional AO Pay accounts using information that is not your own (e.g. name, address, email address, etc.); or using someone else’s AO Pay account;
(s) Harass and/or threaten our employees, agents, or other users.
(t) Abuse (as either a buyer or seller) of our online dispute resolution process
(u) Cause us to receive a disproportionate number of claims that have been closed in favour of the claimant regarding your AO Pay account or business.
(v) Have a credit score from a credit reporting agency that indicates a high level of risk associated with your use of the AO Pay services.
(w) Disclose or distribute another user’s information to a third party or use such information for marketing purposes unless you receive the user’s express consent to do so.
(x) Send unsolicited emails to users or use the AO Pay services to collect payments for sending, or assisting in sending, unsolicited emails to third parties.
(y) Copy, reproduce, communicate to any third party, alter, modify, create derivative works, publicly display or frame any content from the AO Pay websites without our or any applicable third party’s written consent.
(z) Reveal your account password(s) to anyone else, nor use anyone else’s password. We are not responsible for losses incurred by you including, without limitation, the use of your account by any person other than you, arising as the result of misuse of passwords.

21. Actions We May Take if You Engage in Any Restricted Activities

If we believe that you’ve engaged in any of these activities, we may take a number of actions to protect AO Pay, its customers and others at any time at our sole discretion. The actions we may take include, but are not limited to, the following:
(a) Terminate this user agreement, limit your AO Pay account, and/or close or suspend your AO Pay account, immediately and without penalty to us;
(b) Refuse to provide the AO Pay services to you now and in the future;
(c) Limit your access to our websites, software, systems (including any networks and servers used to provide any of the AO Pay services) operated by us or on our behalf, your AO Pay account or any of the AO Pay services, including limiting your ability to pay or send payments with any of the payment methods linked to your AO Pay account, restricting your ability to send payments or make withdrawals;
(d) Hold your AO Pay balance if reasonably needed to protect against the risk of liability to AO Pay or a third party, or if you have violated our Acceptable Use Policy;
(e) Contact buyers who have purchased goods or services from you using AO Pay, your bank or credit card issuer, other impacted third parties or law enforcement about your actions;
(f) Update inaccurate information you provided us;
(g) Take legal action against you;
(h) Hold, apply or transfer the funds in your AO Pay account as required by judgments and orders which affect you or your AO Pay account, including judgments and orders issued by courts in South Africa or elsewhere and directed to AO Pay or its affiliates;
(i) If you’ve violated our Acceptable Use Policy, which policy is available on the AO Pay website, or if you are a seller and receive funds for transactions that violate the Acceptable Use Policy, then you’re also responsible for damages to AO Pay caused by your violation of this policy; or
(j) If you violate the Acceptable Use Policy, then in addition to being subject to the above actions you will be liable to AO Pay for the amount of AO Pay’s damages caused by your violation of the Acceptable Use Policy. You acknowledge and agree that a reasonable minimum estimate of AO Pay’s actual damages may be implemented – including, but not limited to internal administrative costs incurred by AO Pay to monitor and track violations, damage to AO Pay’s brand and reputation, and penalties imposed upon AO Pay by its business partners resulting from a user’s violation – considering all currently existing circumstances, including the relationship of the sum to the range of harm to AO Pay that reasonably could be anticipated because, due to the nature of the violations of the Acceptable Use Policy, actual damages would be impractical or extremely difficult to calculate. AO Pay may deduct such damages directly from any existing AO Pay balance in any AO Pay account you control.

If we close your AO Pay account or terminate your use of the AO Pay services for any reason, we’ll provide you with notice of our actions and make any unrestricted funds held in your AO Pay account available for withdrawal.
You are responsible for all reversals, chargebacks, claims, fees, fines, penalties and other liability incurred by AO Pay, any AO Pay customer, or a third party caused by or arising out of your breach of this user agreement, and/or your use of the AO Pay services.

22. Holds, Limitations and Reserves

22.1. What are holds, limitations and reserves?

Under certain circumstances, in order to protect AO Pay and the security and integrity of the network of buyers and sellers that use the AO Pay services, AO Pay may take account-level or transaction-level actions. Unless otherwise noted, if we take any of the actions described here, we’ll provide you with notice of our actions, but we retain the sole discretion to take these actions. To request information in connection with an account limitation, hold or reserve, you should contact support@aopay.io or follow the instructions in our email notice with respect to the limitation, hold or reserve.
Our decision about holds, limitations and reserves may be based on confidential criteria that are essential to our management of risk and the protection of AO Pay, our customers and/or service providers. We may use proprietary fraud and risk modelling when assessing the risk associated with your AO Pay account. In addition, we may be restricted by regulation or a governmental authority from disclosing certain information to you about such decisions. We have no obligation to disclose the details of our risk management or security procedures to you.
In order to facilitate AO Pay’s actions described above and allow us to assess the level of risk associated with your AO Pay account, you agree to cooperate with AO Pay’s reasonable requests for financial statements and other documentation or information in a timely fashion.

22.2. Holds

A hold is an action that AO Pay may take under certain circumstances either at the transaction level or the account level. AO Pay will notify the client 10 (ten) working days before a hold is placed on any payment except when there is a valid reason why such a hold must be placed immediately on any payment. When AO Pay places a temporary hold on a payment, the funds shall not be available to either the sender or the recipient. AO Pay reviews many factors before placing a hold on a payment, including: account tenure, transaction activity, business type, past customer disputes, and overall customer satisfaction. Some common situations where AO Pay will hold payments include:
(a) New sellers or sellers who have limited selling activity.
(b) Payments for higher-risk categories like electronics or tickets.
(c) Sellers who have performance issues, or a high rate of buyer dissatisfaction or disputes. Clients who request that their identities must be concealed;
(d) Transactions that are not consistent with the client’s declared income, profession or occupation;
(e) The use of unusual source of funds to transact;
(f) Transactions that do not have a legitimate or economic reason; and
(g) Clients cease their business relationships upon a request for customer due diligence (CDD) information.

22.2.1. Holds based on AO Pay’s risk decisions.

We may place a hold on payments sent to your AO Pay account if, in our sole discretion, we believe that there may be a high level of risk associated with you, your AO Pay account, or your transactions or that placing such a hold is necessary to comply with regulatory requirements. We make decisions about whether to place a payment hold based on a number of factors, including information available to us from both internal sources and third parties. When we place a hold on a payment, the funds will appear in your AO Pay account with an indication that they are unavailable or pending. We’ll notify you, either through your AO Pay account or directly by phone or email, whenever we place a hold.
Risk-based holds generally remain in place for up to 30 days from the date the payment was received into your AO Pay account unless AO Pay has a reason to continue to hold the payment. We may release the hold earlier under certain circumstances (for example, if you’ve uploaded shipment tracking information related to the transaction), but any earlier release is at our sole discretion. The hold may last longer than 30 days if the payment is challenged as a payment that should be invalidated and reversed based on a disputed transaction as discussed in the following paragraph below. In this case, we’ll hold the payment in your AO Pay account until the matter is resolved.

22.2.2. Holds based on disputed transactions.

If a payment sent to you as a seller is challenged as a payment that should be invalidated and reversed, we may place a temporary hold on the funds in your AO Pay account to cover the amount that could be reversed. Any of the situations described under Refunds, Reversals and Chargebacks are situations that could result in us placing a hold on a payment. If we determine the transaction should not be reversed, we’ll lift the temporary hold. If we determine the transaction should be reversed, we’ll remove the funds from your AO Pay account.

22.3. Account Limitations

Limitations prevent you from completing certain actions with your AO Pay account, such as withdrawing, sending, or receiving payments. These limitations are implemented to help protect AO Pay, buyers and sellers when we notice restricted activities, an increased financial risk, or activity that appears to us as unusual or suspicious. Limitations also help us collect information necessary for keeping your AO Pay account open.
There are several reasons why we may limit your access to your AO Pay account or the AO Pay services, and/or limit access to your funds, including:
(a) If we suspect someone could be using your AO Pay account without your knowledge, we’ll limit it for your protection and look into the fraudulent activity.
(b) If your debit or credit card issuer alerts us that someone has used your card without your permission. Similarly, if your bank lets us know that there have been unauthorised transfers between your AO Pay account and your bank account.
(c) In order to comply with applicable law.
(d) If we reasonably believe you have breached this agreement or violated the Acceptable Use Policy.
(e) Seller performance indicating your AO Pay account is high risk. Examples include: indications of poor selling performance because you’ve received an unusually high number of claims and chargebacks selling an entirely new or high cost product, or if your typical sales volume increases rapidly.

If we limit access to your AO Pay account, we’ll provide you with notice of our actions and the opportunity to request restoration of access if, in our sole discretion, we deem it appropriate.
You will need to resolve any issues with your account before a limitation can be removed. Normally, this is done after you provide us with the information we request. However, if we reasonably believe a risk still exists after you have provided us that information, we may take action to protect AO Pay, our users, a third party, or you from reversals, fees, fines, penalties, legal and/or regulatory risks and any other liability.

22.4. Reserves

22.4.1. We may place a reserve on your AO Pay account if we believe there may be a high level of risk associated with you, your AO Pay account, your business model, or your transactions. When we place a reserve on your AO Pay account, it means that all or some of the transactions will be shown as under “Reserve Balance”, and you will not be able to withdraw funds until the reserve period has passed, in order to protect against the risk of transactions made by you being reversed or invalidated or any other risk related to your AO Pay account or use of the AO Pay services. We make decisions about whether to place a reserve based on a number of factors, including information available to us from both internal sources and from third parties.

22.4.2. AO Pay considers a list of non-exclusive factors, and whether and how these factors have changed over time, including:

(a) How long you have been in business.
(b) Whether your industry has a higher likelihood of chargebacks.
(c) Your payment processing history with AO Pay and other providers.
(d) Your business and/or personal credit history.
(e) Your delivery time frames.
(f) Whether you have a higher than average number of returns, chargebacks, claims or disputes.

22.4.3. If we place a reserve on funds in your account, we’ll notify you of our actions and the terms of the reserve. There are two types of reserves that may be placed on your AO Pay account, and one or both may be applied at the same time:

(a) A Rolling reserve is a reserve where a percentage of each transaction you receive each day is held and then released later on a scheduled basis. For example, your reserve could be set at 10% and held for a 90-day rolling period – meaning 10% of the funds you receive on day 1 are held and then released on day 91, 10% of the funds you receive on day 2 are held until day 92, etc. Rolling reserves are the most common type of reserve. (see application form with regard to the percentage applicable to the Rolling reserve)
(b) A Minimum reserve is a specific minimum amount that you’re required to keep available in your AO Pay balance at all times. The minimum reserve is either taken as an upfront amount deposited all at once or is established on a rolling basis from percentages of sales until the minimum reserve is achieved, much like a rolling reserve.

If we change the terms of the reserve due to a change in our risk assessment, we’ll notify you of the new terms.

23. Court Orders, Regulatory Requirements or Other Legal Process

If we are notified of a court order or other legal process (including garnishment or any equivalent process) affecting you, or if we otherwise believe we are required to do so in order to comply with applicable law or regulatory requirements, we may be required to take certain actions, including holding payments to/from your AO Pay account, placing a reserve or limitation on your AO Pay account, or releasing your funds. We will decide, in our sole discretion, which action is required of us. Unless the court order, applicable law, regulatory requirement, or other legal process requires otherwise, we will notify you immediately of these actions when such actions become known to us. We do not have an obligation to contest or appeal any court order or legal process involving you or your AO Pay account. When we implement a hold, reserve or limitation as a result of a court order, applicable law, regulatory requirement or other legal process, the hold, reserve or limitation may remain in place as long as reasonably necessary as determined by AO Pay.

24. Liability for Unauthorised Transactions

24.1. Protection from Unauthorised Transactions

To protect yourself from unauthorised activity in your AO Pay account, you should regularly log into your AO Pay account and review your AO Pay account statement. AO Pay will notify you of each transaction by sending an email to your primary email address on file. You should review these transaction notifications to ensure that each transaction was authorised and accurately completed.
AO Pay will protect you from unauthorised activity in your AO Pay account. When this protection applies, AO Pay will cover you for the full amount of the unauthorised activity as long as you cooperate with us and follow the procedures described below.

24.2. What is an Unauthorised Transaction

An “Unauthorised Transaction” occurs when a payment is sent from your AO Pay account that you did not authorise and that did not benefit you. For example, if someone steals your password, uses the password to access your AO Pay account, and sends a payment from your AO Pay account, an Unauthorised Transaction has occurred.

24.3. What is not considered an Unauthorised Transaction

The following are NOT considered Unauthorised Transactions:
(a) If you give someone access to your AO Pay account (by giving them your login information) and they use your AO Pay account without your knowledge or permission. You are responsible for transactions made in this situation.
(b) Invalidation and reversal of a payment as a result of the actions described under Refunds, Reversals and Chargebacks.

24.4. Reporting an Unauthorised Transaction

You should contact AO Pay Support immediately if you believe:
(a) there has been an Unauthorised Transaction sent from your account;
(b) there has been unauthorised access to your account;
(c) your AO Pay login information has been lost or stolen; or
(d) any device you have used to access your AO Pay account has been lost, stolen or deactivated.

You must give us all the available information relating to circumstances of any Unauthorised Transactions, and/or misappropriated or unauthorised use of your account, and take all reasonable steps requested to assist AO Pay in its investigation.
If you notify us of an Unauthorised Transaction within sixty (60) days of the transaction and we are satisfied that it was an Unauthorised Transaction, you will be eligible for 100% protection for the Unauthorised Transaction.

25. Error Resolution

25.1. What is an Error?
An “Error” means the following:
(a) a processing error made by AO Pay or its suppliers in which your AO Pay account is mistakenly debited or credited, or when a transaction is incorrectly recorded in your AO Pay account.
(b) You send a payment, and the incorrect amount is debited from your AO Pay account.
(c) A transaction is missing from or not properly identified in your AO Pay account statement.
(d) We make a computational or mathematical error related to your AO Pay account.

25.2. What is not considered an Error?
The following are NOT considered errors:
(a) If you give someone access to your AO Pay account (by giving them your login information) and they use your AO Pay account without your knowledge or permission. You are responsible for transactions made in this situation.
(b) Invalidation and reversal of a payment as a result of the actions described under Refunds, Reversals and Chargebacks.
(c) If you erroneously send a payment to the wrong party or send a payment for the wrong amount (based on a typographical error, for example). (Your only recourse in this instance will be to contact the party to whom you sent the payment and ask them to refund the payment. AO Pay will not reimburse you or reverse a payment that you have made in error.)

25.3. In case of errors or questions about your electronic transfers contact us at support@aopay.io
Notify us as soon as you can, if you think your statement or receipt is wrong or if you need more information about a transfer listed on the statement or receipt. We must hear from you no later than sixty (60) days after we sent the FIRST statement on which the problem or error appeared. Tell us your name, email address and account number (if any).
(a) Describe the error or the transfer you are unsure about and explain as clearly as you can why you believe it is an error or why you need more information.
(b) Tell us the Rand amount of the suspected error.

If you tell us orally, we may require that you send us your complaint or question in writing within 10 Business Days. We will complete our investigation within 10 Business Days after we receive your notification of the suspected error. If we need more time, however, we may take up to 45 days to investigate your complaint or question. If we decide to do this, we will credit your AO Pay account within 10 Business Days for the amount you think is in error, so that you will have the provisional credit during the time it takes us to complete our investigation. We will notify you of the provisional credit within 2 Business Days of the crediting. If we ask you to put your complaint or question in writing and we do not receive it within 10 Business Days, we may not provisionally credit your AO Pay account.
For errors involving new AO Pay accounts, point-of-sale transactions, or foreign-initiated transactions, we may take up to ninety (90) days to investigate your complaint or question. For new AO Pay accounts (the first transaction from your account was less than 30 Business Days from the date you notified us), we may take up to 20 Business Days to complete the investigation.
We will tell you about the results within 3 Business Days after completing our investigation. If we decide that there was no error, we will send you a written explanation of our decision. If you received a provisional credit, we would remove it from your account and notify you of the date and amount of the debit. You may ask for copies of the documents that we used in our investigation.
If we determine that there was an error, we will promptly credit the full amount into your account within 1 Business Day of our determination. Or, if you have already received a provisional credit, you will be allowed to retain those amounts.

26. Processing Errors

26.1. We will rectify any processing error that we discover. If the error results in:

(a) You receive less than the correct amount to which you were entitled, then we will credit your AO Pay account for the difference between what you should have received and what you actually received.
(b) You receive more than the correct amount to which you were entitled, then we will debit your AO Pay account for the difference between what you actually received and what you should have received.
(c) Our not completing a transaction on time or in the correct amount, then we will be responsible to you for your losses or damages directly caused by this failure, unless:
o through no fault of ours, you did not have enough available funds to complete the transaction;
o our system was not working properly, and you knew about the breakdown when you started the transaction; or
o the error was due to extraordinary circumstances outside our control (such as fire, flood or loss of Internet connection), despite our reasonable precautions.

26.2. Processing errors are not:

(a) Delays that result from AO Pay applying holds, limitations, or reserves.
(b) Delays based on a payment review.
(c) Delays described under How to buy something related to the time it may take for a purchase transaction to be completed in some situations.
(d) Your errors in making a transaction (for example, mistyping an amount that you are sending).

AO PAY USER AGREEMENT

Other Legal Terms

1. Communications Between You and Us

You agree that AO Pay and its affiliates may contact you by email for marketing purposes. You may opt-out of receiving marketing communications by clicking on the unsubscribe link in any AO Pay email or receipt you receive from us. Please allow up to 10 Business Days for the opt-out to take effect. We will provide factual information about your account or the AO Pay services, even if you have opted-out of receiving marketing communications.
If you provide us your mobile phone number, you agree that AO Pay and its affiliates may contact you at that number via calls or messages to: (i) inform you about your use of the AO Pay services and/or service your AO Pay accounts, (ii) investigate or prevent fraud, or (iii) collect a debt. We may share your mobile phone number with service providers with whom we contract to assist us with the activities listed above but will not share your mobile phone number with third parties for their own purposes without your consent. You do not have to agree to receive calls or messages to your mobile phone number in order to use and enjoy the products and services offered by AO Pay. You can decline to receive calls or messages to your mobile phone number in several ways, including, via an email transaction receipt, or by contacting AO Pay support. The frequency of messages may vary, and standard telephone minute and messaging charges may apply. Neither we nor your phone carriers are liable for delayed or undelivered messages. However, we may still call you directly using other means if we need to speak with you.
AO Pay may communicate with you about any AO Pay account or transaction information and the AO Pay services electronically. It is your responsibility to keep your primary email address up to date so that AO Pay can communicate with you electronically. You understand and agree that if AO Pay sends you an electronic communication, but you do not receive it because your primary email address on file is incorrect, out of date, blocked by your service provider, or you are otherwise unable to receive electronic communications, AO Pay will be deemed to have provided the communication to you effectively.
Please note that if you use a spam filter that blocks or re-routes emails from senders not listed in your email address book, you must add AO Pay to your email address book so that you will be able to view the communications we send to you.
You can update your primary email address or street address at any time by logging into the AO Pay website. If your email address becomes invalid such that electronic communications sent to you by AO Pay are returned, AO Pay may deem your account to be inactive, and you will not be able to transact any activity using your AO Pay Account until we receive a valid, working primary email address from you.
AO Pay reserves the right to close your account if you withdraw your consent to receive electronic communications.
You will be considered to have received a communication from us, if it’s delivered electronically, 24 hours after the time we post it to our website or email it to you. You will be considered to have received a communication from us, if it’s delivered by mail, 3 Business Days after we send it.
Unless you’re communicating with us about a matter where we’ve specified another notice address (for example, our Liability for Unauthorised Transactions and Other Errors process), written notices to AO Pay must be sent by postal mail to: AO Pay (Pty) Ltd., Attention: Risk Team, 1st Floor, Dainfern Square, Sandton, 2191, South Africa.
You understand and agree that, to the extent permitted by law, AO Pay may, without further notice or warning, monitor or record telephone conversations you or anyone acting on your behalf has with AO Pay or its agents for quality control and training purposes or for our own protection. You acknowledge and understand that while your communications with AO Pay may be overheard, monitored, or recorded not all telephone lines or calls may be recorded by AO Pay, and AO Pay does not guarantee that recordings of any particular telephone calls will be retained or retrievable.

2. AO Pay’s Rights

2.1. AO Pay suspension and termination rights.

AO Pay, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to suspend or terminate this user agreement, access to or use of its websites, software, systems (including any networks and servers used to provide any of the AO Pay services) operated by us or on our behalf or some or all of the AO Pay services for any reason and at any time upon notice to you and, upon termination of this user agreement, the payment to you of any unrestricted funds held in your AO Pay balance.

2.2. Security interest

As security for the performance of your obligations under this user agreement, you grant to AO Pay a lien on, and security interest in and to, your AO Pay balance in the possession of AO Pay.

2.3. Amounts owed to AO Pay

If your AO Pay balance becomes negative for any reason, that negative AO Pay balance represents an amount that you owe to AO Pay. AO Pay may set off these amounts from funds that are subsequently added to your AO Pay account, either by you or from payments you receive. If you have more than one AO Pay account, we may set off a negative AO Pay balance in one AO Pay account against an AO Pay balance in your other AO Pay account(s). A client has access to his/her AO Pay account and must manage his/her own account to prevent any negative balance. If you continue using your AO Pay account when it has a negative balance, you authorise AO Pay to combine the negative balance with any debit or transaction sent from your account when that combination is disclosed to you in advance of initiating the debit or transaction. In addition to the above, if you have a past due amount owed to AO Pay, or our affiliates, AO Pay may debit your AO Pay account to pay any amounts that are past due.

2.4. Insolvency proceedings

If any proceeding by or against you is commenced under any provision of any bankruptcy or insolvency law, we’ll be entitled to recover all reasonable costs or expenses (including reasonable legal fees and expenses) incurred in connection with the enforcement of this user agreement.

2.5. Assumption of rights

If AO Pay invalidates and reverses a payment that you made to a recipient (either at your initiative or otherwise), you agree that AO Pay assumes your rights against the recipient and third parties related to the payment and may pursue those rights directly or on your behalf, at AO Pay’s discretion.

2.6. No waiver

Our failure to act with respect to a breach of any of your obligations under this user agreement by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.

2.7. Indemnification and Limitation of Liability

In this section, we use the term “AO Pay” to refer to AO Pay (Pty) Ltd. and our affiliates, and each of their respective directors, officers, employees, agents, joint ventures, service providers and suppliers. Our affiliates include each entity that we control, we are controlled by, or we are under common control with.

2.8. Indemnification

You must indemnify AO Pay for actions related to your AO Pay account and your use of the AO Pay services. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold AO Pay harmless from any claim or demand (including reasonable legal fees) made or incurred by any third party due to or arising out of your breach of this user agreement, your improper use of the AO Pay services, your violation of any law or the rights of a third party and/or the actions or inactions of any third party to whom you grant permissions to use your AO Pay account or access our websites, software, systems (including any networks and servers used to provide any of the AO Pay services) operated by us or on our behalf, or any of the AO Pay services on your behalf.

2.9. Limitation of liability

AO Pay’s liability is limited with respect to your AO Pay account and your use of the AO Pay services. In no event shall AO Pay be liable for lost profits or any special, incidental or consequential damages (including without limitation damages for loss of data or loss of business) arising out of or in connection with our websites, software, systems (including any networks and servers used to provide any of the AO Pay services) operated by us or on our behalf, any of the AO Pay services, or this user agreement (however arising, including negligence), unless and to the extent prohibited by law.
Our liability to you or any third parties in any circumstance is limited to the actual amount of direct damages. In addition, to the extent permitted by applicable law, AO Pay is not liable, and you agree not to hold AO Pay responsible, for any damages or losses (including, but not limited to, loss of money, goodwill, or reputation, profits, or other intangible losses or any special, indirect, or consequential damages) resulting directly or indirectly from: (1) your use of, or your inability to use, our websites, software, systems operated by us or on our behalf (including any networks and servers used to provide any of the AO Pay services) or any of the AO Pay services; (2) delays or disruptions in our websites, software, systems operated by us or on our behalf (including any networks and servers used to provide any of the AO Pay services), and any of the AO Pay services; (3) viruses or other malicious software obtained by accessing our websites, software, systems operated by us or on our behalf (including any networks and servers used to provide any of the AO Pay services), any of the AO Pay services, or any website or service linked to our websites; (4) glitches, bugs, errors, or inaccuracies of any kind in our websites, software, systems operated by us or on our behalf (including any networks and servers used to provide any of the AO Pay services), any of the AO Pay services, or in the information and graphics obtained from them; (5) the content, actions, or inactions of third parties; (6) a suspension or other action taken with respect to your AO Pay account; or (7) your need to modify your practices, content, or behaviour, or your loss of or inability to do business, as a result of changes to this user agreement or AO Pay’s policies. In no event shall You be liable to AO Pay for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages, including without limitation, business interruption, loss of or unauthorised access to information, damages for loss of profits, incurred by You arising out of the services provided under this Agreement. Clause 2.9 will not be applicable to You in the occurrence of any other loss, liability or cost arising as a result of loss of business, profits, goodwill or data and any indirect, special, incidental, consequential, punitive or exemplary loss, liability or cost that was arisen from AO Pay negligence and/or breach of contract and/or otherwise and whether foreseeable or not.

2.10. Disclaimer of Warranty and Release

2.10.1. No warranty

The AO Pay services are provided “as-is” and without any representation or warranty, whether express, implied, or statutory. AO Pay specifically disclaims any implied warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.
AO Pay does not have any control over the products or services provided by sellers who accept AO Pay as a payment method, and AO Pay cannot ensure that a buyer or a seller you are dealing with will actually complete the transaction or is authorised to do so. AO Pay does not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted, or secure access to any part of the AO Pay services, and operation of our websites, software, or systems operated by us or on our behalf (including any networks and servers used to provide any of the AO Pay services) may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of our control. AO Pay will make reasonable efforts to ensure that requests for electronic debits and credits involving bank accounts, debit cards, and credit cards are processed in a timely manner but AO Pay makes no representations or warranties regarding the amount of time needed to complete processing because the AO Pay services are dependent upon many factors outside of our control, such as delays in the banking system.

2.10.2. Release of AO Pay

If you have a dispute with any other AO Pay account holder, you release AO Pay from any and all claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes. In entering into this release, you expressly waive any protections that would otherwise limit the coverage of this release to include only those claims which you may know or suspect to exist in your favour at the time of agreeing to this release.

2.11. Disputes with AO Pay

2.11.1. Contact AO Pay First

If a dispute arises between you and AO Pay, acting as either a buyer or a seller, our goal is to learn about and address your concerns. If we are unable to do so to your satisfaction, we aim to provide you with a neutral and cost-effective means of resolving the dispute quickly. Disputes between you and AO Pay regarding the services may be reported to support@aopay.io

2.11.2. Arbitration

For any claim (excluding claims for injunctive or other equitable relief), you may elect to resolve the dispute in a cost-effective manner through binding non-appearance-based arbitration. If you elect arbitration, you will initiate such arbitration through an established alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) provider mutually agreed upon by you and us. The ADR provider and the parties must comply with the following rules: (a) the arbitration shall be conducted by telephone, online and/or be solely based on written submissions, the specific manner shall be chosen by you; (b) the arbitration shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties; and (c) any judgement on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

2.12. Intellectual Property

2.12.1. AO Pay’s trademarks

“AOPay.io,”, “AO Pay,” and all logos related to the AO Pay services are either trademarks or registered trademarks of AO Pay or AO Pay’s licensors. You may not copy, imitate, modify, or use them without AO Pay’s prior written consent. In addition, all page headers, custom graphics, button icons, and scripts are service marks, trademarks, and/or trade dress of AO Pay. You may not copy, imitate, modify, or use them without our prior written consent. You may use logos provided by AO Pay for the purpose of directing web traffic to the AO Pay services. You may not alter, modify, or change these logos in any way, use them in a manner that mischaracterizes AO Pay or the AO Pay services or display them in any manner that implies AO Pay’s sponsorship or endorsement. All right, title and interest in and to the AO Pay websites, any content thereon, the AO Pay services, the technology related to the AO Pay services, and any and all technology and any content created or derived from any of the foregoing is the exclusive property of AO Pay and its licensors.

2.12.2. License grants, generally

If you are using AO Pay software such as an API, developer’s toolkit or other software application, which may include software provided by or integrated with software, systems or services of our service providers, that you have downloaded or otherwise accessed through a web or mobile platform, then AO Pay grants you a revocable, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, non-transferable, royalty-free limited license to access and/or use AO Pay’s software in accordance with the documentation accompanying such software. This license grant applies to the software and all updates, upgrades, new versions and replacement software. You may not rent, lease, or otherwise transfer your rights in the software to a third party. You must comply with the implementation, access, and use requirements contained in all documentation accompanying the AO Pay services. If you do not comply with implementation, access, and use requirements you will be liable for all resulting damages suffered by you, AO Pay and third parties. AO Pay may update or discontinue any software upon notice to you. While AO Pay may have (1) integrated certain third-party materials and technology into any web or other application, including its software, and/or (2) accessed and used certain third-party materials and technology to facilitate providing you with the AO Pay Services, you have not been granted and do not otherwise retain any rights in or to any such third-party materials. You agree not to modify, alter, tamper with, repair, copy, reproduce, adapt, distribute, display, publish, reverse engineer, translate, disassemble, decompile, or otherwise attempt to create any source code that is derived from the software or any third-party materials or technology, or otherwise create any derivative works from any of the software or third-party materials or technology. You acknowledge that all rights, title and interest to AO Pay’s software are owned by AO Pay and any third-party materials integrated therein are owned by AO Pay’s third-party service providers. Any other third-party software application you use on the AO Pay websites is subject to the license you agreed to with the third party that provides you with this software. You acknowledge that AO Pay does not own, control nor have any responsibility or liability for any such third-party software application you elect to use on any of our websites, software and/or in connection with the AO Pay services. If you are using the AO Pay services on the AO Pay website, or other website or platform hosted by AO Pay, or a third party, and are not downloading AO Pay’s software or using third party software applications on the AO Pay website, then this section does not apply to your use of the hosted AO Pay services.

2.12.3. License grant from you to AO Pay, intellectual property warranties.

AO Pay does not claim ownership of the content that you provide, upload, submit or send to AO Pay. Nor does AO Pay claim ownership of the content you host on third-party websites or applications that use AO Pay services to provide payments services related to your content. Subject to the next paragraph, when you provide content to AO Pay or post content using AO Pay services, you grant AO Pay (and parties that we work with) a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable, and worldwide license to use your content and associated intellectual property and publicity rights in any media known now or in the future to help us improve, operate and promote our current services and develop new ones. AO Pay will not compensate you for any of your content. You acknowledge that AO Pay’s use of your content will not infringe any intellectual property or publicity rights. Further, you acknowledge and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights of the content you provide, and you agree to waive your moral rights and promise not to assert such rights against AO Pay. You represent and warrant that none of the following infringe any intellectual property or publicity right: your provision of content to AO Pay, your posting of content using the AO Pay Services, and AO Pay’s use of such content (including of works derived from it) in connection with the AO Pay services. Should AO Pay have any intention of using your intellectual property rights outside the terms and conditions of this agreement AO Pay only do so after written permission has been obtained from you.

2.12.4. License grant from sellers to AO Pay

Notwithstanding the provisions of the prior paragraph, if you are a seller using the AO Pay services to accept payments for goods and services, you hereby grant AO Pay and its affiliates a worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable, sublicensable (through multiple tiers), and royalty-free, fully paid-up, right to use and display publicly, during the term of this user agreement, your trademark(s) (including but not limited to registered and unregistered trademarks, trade names, service marks, logos, domain names and other designations owned, licensed to or used by you) for the purpose of (1) identifying you as a merchant that accepts an AO Pay service as a payment form and facilitating consumer transactions with you, and (2) any other use to which you specifically consent.

3. Miscellaneous

3.1. Assignment

You may not transfer or assign any rights or obligations you have under this user agreement without AO Pay’s prior written consent.

3.2. Business Days

“Business Day(s)” means Monday through Friday, excluding national holidays recognized in South Africa

3.3. Dormant accounts

If you do not log in to your AO Pay account for two or more years, AO Pay may close your AO Pay account and any unused funds in your account will be forfeited.

3.4. Complete Agreement and Survival.

This user agreement, along with any applicable Policies on the AO Pay website, sets forth the entire understanding between you and AO Pay with respect to the AO Pay services. All such terms which by their nature should survive, will survive the termination of this user agreement. If any provision of this user agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions shall be enforced.

3.5. Governing law and jurisdiction

This Agreement will be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of South Africa, as such laws are applied to agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within South Africa, without regard to conflict of law provisions. Except as otherwise agreed by the parties, you agree that any claim or dispute you may have against AO Pay must be resolved by a court located in South Africa. You agree to irrevocably submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within South Africa for the purpose of any suit, action or other proceeding arising out of this user agreement or your use of our websites or the services.

3.6. Improperly Filed Litigation

All claims you bring against AO Pay must be resolved in accordance with this user agreement. All claims filed or brought contrary to this user agreement shall be considered improperly filed and a breach of this user agreement. Should you file a claim contrary to this user agreement, AO Pay may recover attorneys’ fees and costs (including in-house attorneys and paralegals), provided that AO Pay has notified you in writing of the improperly filed claim, and you have failed to withdraw the claim within 5 (five) working days.

3.7. Identity authentication

You authorise AO Pay, directly or through third parties, to make any inquiries we consider necessary to verify your identity. This may include:
(a) asking you for further information, such as your date of birth, your passport or national identification number, your physical address and other information that will allow us to reasonably identify you;
(b) requiring you to take steps to confirm ownership of your email address or financial instruments;
(c) ordering a credit report from a credit reporting agency;
(d) verifying your information against third party databases or through other sources; or
(e) requiring you to provide further documentation, such as your driver’s license or other identifying documents at any time.
Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws may require that AO Pay verify certain identifying information if you use certain AO Pay services. AO Pay reserves the right to close, suspend, or limit access to your AO Pay account and/or the AO Pay services in the event that, after reasonable enquiries, we are unable to obtain information about you required to verify your identity.

3.8. AO Pay is only a payment service provider

We act as a payment service provider only. We do not:
(a) Act as a bank or provide banking services;
(b) Act as an escrow agent with respect to any funds kept in your account;
(c) Act as your agent or trustee;
(d) Enter into a partnership, joint venture, agency or employment relationship with you;
(e) Have control of, nor liability for, the products or services that are paid for with the AO Pay services;
(f) Guarantee the identity of any buyer or seller;
(g) Ensure that a buyer or a seller will complete a transaction;
(h) Determine if you are liable for any taxes; or
(i) Unless otherwise expressly set out in this user agreement, collect, or pay any taxes that may arise from your use of our services.

3.9. Privacy

Protecting your privacy is very important to us. Please review our Privacy Policy in order to better understand our commitment to maintaining your privacy, as well as our use and disclosure of your information.

3.10. Terms in English; Translation of agreement

It is the express wish of the parties that these terms and any directly or indirectly related documents be drawn up in English. Any translation of this user agreement is provided solely for your convenience and is not intended to modify the terms of this user agreement. In the event of a conflict between the English version of this user agreement and a version in a language other than English, the English version shall control.

3.11. Your use (as a seller) of personal data; Data protection laws

If you (as a seller) receive personal data about another AO Pay customer, you must keep such personal data confidential and only use it in connection with the AO Pay services. You may not disclose or distribute any personal data about AO Pay customers to a third party or use such personal data for marketing purposes unless you receive that customer’s express consent to do so. You may not send unsolicited emails to an AO Pay customer or use the AO Pay services to collect payments to send, or assist in sending, unsolicited emails to third parties.
To the extent that you process any personal data about an AO Pay customer pursuant to this user agreement, you and AO Pay will each be an independent data controller (and not joint controllers), meaning we will each separately determine the purposes and means of processing such personal data. We each agree to comply with the requirements of any applicable privacy and data protection laws, including any applicable regulations, directives, codes of practice, and regulatory requirements applicable to data controllers in connection with this user agreement. We each also have and will follow our own, independently determined privacy statements, notices, policies and procedures for any such personal data that we process in connection with this user agreement.
In complying with the applicable data protection laws, we will each:
(a) implement and maintain all appropriate security measures in relation to the processing of personal data;
(b) maintain a record of all processing activities carried out under this user agreement; and
(c) not knowingly or intentionally do anything, or knowingly or intentionally permit anything to be done, which might lead to a breach by the other party of the applicable data protection laws.

Any personal data you collect in connection with the AO Pay services (and not otherwise generated, collected, or obtained by you through a customer’s separate relationship with you outside the use of the AO Pay services) will be used by you only to the limited extent that is necessary and relevant to the AO Pay services and for no other purpose unless you have obtained the prior express consent of the customer.