Small loans under R2 000

Covers every amount up to R1 999.

Yes, you can borrow R1 000 — here is what it costs

Finding a lender at this size is not the hard part. Plenty of them advertise from R500, and one revolving facility starts at R100. The question worth asking is what the money costs by the time you have finished paying it back.

On a six-month short-term loan priced at the legal maximum, R1 000 costs about R938 in interest and fees, and R1 500 costs about R1 185. Those are estimates at the statutory ceiling, not offers. Your actual rate is set by the lender after a credit and affordability assessment, and is usually lower than the legal maximum.

One thing surprises most people at this size, and it is worth knowing before you apply. On a R1 000 loan over six months the fixed monthly fees cost more than the interest does. That is why very small loans look cheap per month and are expensive in total, and why this page spends as much time on the alternatives as on the lenders.

Before you go further

What is this for?

At this size, why you need the money matters more than the number. What it is for decides which lender and which product fits, so start here.

The price rules that apply under R2 000

A loan of R8 000 or less, repaid over six months or less, is short-term credit under the National Credit Act. It is priced by its own set of caps, which are not the same as the caps on an ordinary personal loan:

• Interest: up to 5,00% per month on a first loan, and up to 3,00% per month if you have borrowed and repaid before.
• Monthly service fee: R60 excluding VAT, which is R69 including VAT, charged every month of the term.
• Initiation fee: R165, plus "10 per cent of the amount in excess of R1 000", capped at R1 050 — and, on top of all of that, never more than 15,00% of the loan itself. Those figures exclude VAT; multiply by 1,15 for what you actually pay.

That last rule is the one that bites down here and almost nowhere else. Below R1 300, 15,00% of the loan is less than the R165 base, so the ceiling takes over and the fee comes down. Any page that tells you the initiation fee on a R1 000 loan is R165 has skipped a step in the law.

The two amounts below are worked at the ceiling, with every fee shown as its own line. All rand figures include VAT at 15,00%. The method is published lower down.

R1 000 loan

Over six months at the 5,00% monthly cap, a R1 000 loan costs about R938 on top of the R1 000 you borrowed, so you repay roughly R1 938 in total, at about R323 a month. The initiation fee is R173 including VAT, because the 15,00%-of-loan ceiling cuts it below the R165 base rate — this is the one amount on the whole ladder where that rule does the work.

The part worth reading twice is where the money goes. Six monthly service fees of R69 come to R414, which is more than the R352 of interest the loan itself earns. The fixed fee, not the interest rate, is what makes a very small loan expensive.

If you have borrowed and repaid before, the repeat rate of 3,00% a month applies instead, bringing the total to about R1 798 at roughly R300 a month. Same fixed fees, half the interest.

R1 500 loan

Over six months at the same 5,00% monthly cap, R1 500 comes to about R2 685 in total, at roughly R448 a month, with R1 185 of that being interest and fees. The initiation fee is R247 including VAT, and here it comes from the "R165 plus 10 per cent of the amount in excess of R1 000" formula rather than the 15,00% ceiling — R1 300 is the crossover point where the formula takes back over.

R1 500 is also where your options change shape. It is the advertised minimum for Absa's Express Loan, so this is the first amount on the ladder where a big-four bank product competes with the short-term brands over the same one-to-six-month horizon.

On a repeat loan at 3,00% a month, the total is about R2 476 instead of R2 685.

Three different products wear the same price tag here

Under R2 000, "a loan" can mean three genuinely different things. They can cost a similar amount and leave you in very different positions.

A single repayment on your next pay date. Sunshine Loans runs from 4 to 49 days; Mpowa Finance is built around repayment on your next pay date. The whole amount plus its costs comes out of one pay cheque. If that pay cheque is already spoken for, this is the shape most likely to send you straight back for another loan.

A short-term instalment loan. Boodle and Wonga spread the same amount over roughly one to six months, Lime24 over up to 90 days, and Absa's Express Loan over one to six months from R1 500. The instalment is smaller, but the R69 service fee is charged in every month of the term, so a longer term costs more in total even before the interest.

A revolving facility. FinChoice MobiMoney is a credit limit you draw from, not a loan you take once, with withdrawals from R100 over 1 to 3 months. It is the most flexible and the easiest to keep using — the limit stays there after you repay, which is convenient when you plan it and expensive when you do not.

Capfin sits slightly apart from all three. Its instalment loan starts at R1 000 and runs 6, 12 or 24 months, so at this size you can be offered a repayment horizon two years long for an amount most people expect to clear in one.

Who lends under R2 000

Most of the short-term market competes at this size, and one big-four bank does too. The table below shows only the lenders whose advertised minimum reaches down into this range, and what shape their product takes — the full comparison lives on the short-term lender page rather than being repeated here.

If you need R2 000 or more, the lender set changes materially: several banks and large personal-loan houses switch on at exactly that point. That is covered on loans from R2 000 to R4 999.

the full short-term lender comparison table

A big-four bank lends from R350

This is the fact almost no comparison page carries. Absa runs two short-term products that sit inside the R350 to R8 000 window, which means a big-four bank competes directly with the payday brands at amounts most people assume banks will not touch.

These are bank products with bank terms, and they are shown separately for that reason. The application, the affordability assessment and the consequences of missing a repayment are the bank's own — a bank product is not a payday loan with a different logo, in either direction. If you already bank with Absa, it is worth pricing these before you apply anywhere else, simply because the lender already has your income history.

Lender list checked 2 August 2026.

Five things worth pricing before you borrow R1 000

Nobody is going to tell you not to borrow. But at this size the cost of credit is high relative to the amount, and several of the expenses that send people looking for R1 000 have a cheaper route. Each of these takes one phone call or one form.

1. Ask your municipality about its indigent support register. Most municipalities keep one, and registering can reduce or cover basic water, electricity and rates if you qualify. It costs nothing to ask.
2. Ask the school for its fee-exemption application form. Public schools have one. Applying is free, and it is assessed on what your household earns.
3. Ask the creditor before the account goes into arrears. A medical practice, a municipality or a store will often agree a payment arrangement while an account is current, and almost never once it has been handed over.
4. Ask your employer about a salary advance. Many employers will advance against pay already earned, usually with no interest and no fees at all.
5. Ask about a stokvel draw or a family arrangement — and write it down. The cheapest money is usually the money you already have a claim on. Put the repayment date in writing so it stays a favour rather than an argument.

If none of these apply, borrowing is a reasonable decision. Just make it with the total cost in front of you, not the monthly figure.

How to tell a registered lender from a mashonisa

At this size, the alternative to a registered lender is often someone lending informally in the neighbourhood. The difference is not only the price. It is what you can do afterwards if something goes wrong.

Check the NCRCP number. Every legal credit provider in South Africa is registered with the National Credit Regulator and has an NCRCP number. You can look any of them up on the NCR's public register. A lender that will not give you a number, or gives you one that does not match its name on the register, is not one to borrow from.

Expect paperwork before you sign. A registered lender must give you a written pre-agreement quote and an agreement showing the interest rate, the initiation fee, the monthly service fee and the total you will repay. You are allowed to take it away and read it.

Nobody legitimate asks for money first. There is no release fee, no insurance deposit and no admin payment to unlock a loan. A request for payment before the money is paid out is the single clearest sign to stop.

Do not hand over your ID, your bank card, your PIN or your SASSA card. A registered lender will not ask to hold any of them as security. This is the practice that turns a one-month loan into a permanent arrangement, because the lender controls the account the money arrives in.

If something is wrong, phone the National Credit Regulator on 0860 627 627. Complaints are free, and you do not need a lawyer to make one.

If this is not your first small loan this quarter

This is a check, not a lecture. If you have already taken and repaid a short-term loan in the last three months, a bigger one is usually not the answer, and the arithmetic on this page is the reason why.

Every new loan starts the initiation fee again, and the R69 service fee runs for every month of every term. Those costs do not shrink when the loan is small — they are the same rands whether you borrow R1 000 or R1 900. Borrowing repeatedly at this size means paying the fixed costs over and over for the same amount of money.

If you are managing more than one account each month, the "combining debts I already have" route above goes to the right place. If a lender has already turned you down, it helps to understand what lenders check before they approve a small loan before you apply again — a second application into the same assessment usually gets the same answer.

If you are already behind, a new loan is not the fix

Applying while you are in arrears usually does not work, and it leaves another search on your credit record either way. There is a proper route, and it is worth knowing it exists.

Debt review is a legal process under the National Credit Act. A registered debt counsellor looks at everything you owe, works out what you can genuinely afford, and applies to have your repayments restructured. It is not a small step — you cannot take on new credit while you are under review, and it takes time to complete — but it is a real way back, and the protections it gives you are set by law rather than by a lender.

Debt Rescue is one registered debt counselling service. Any counsellor's NCRDC number can be checked on the NCR's register, the same way you would check a lender's.

Compare short-term lenders in one table

How we work these figures out

How we work these figures out

Every rand figure on this page is calculated the same way, and the working is here so you can check it.

• All rand figures include VAT at 15,00%.
• The initiation fee is added to the loan, not paid separately, so interest is charged on the loan plus the financed fee. Some lenders deduct the fee from what they pay out instead — that is each lender's choice, and our figures assume it is financed.
• The initiation fee is the lowest of three rules: R165 plus "10 per cent of the amount in excess of R1 000"; a R1 050 cap; and never more than 15,00% of the loan. All three are before VAT. Below R1 300 the 15,00% rule binds, which is why the fee on R1 000 is R150,00 before VAT and not R165,00.
• The service fee is R69 including VAT per month, charged in every month of the term, and shown as its own line rather than hidden inside an instalment.
• Interest is the short-term cap: 5,00% per month of the financed balance for each month of the term on a first loan, and 3,00% per month on a repeat loan. Loans of R8 000 or less repaid within six months are priced under these rules; longer or larger loans are not.
• Credit-life cover is excluded from every figure here. Credit-life cover is commonly required on unsecured credit and is charged in addition to these figures. Ask each lender what it costs.
• Rounding: the arithmetic is carried at full precision and only the displayed figures are rounded, to the nearest rand. Where the total does not divide evenly by the term, the final instalment absorbs the remainder.
• These are estimates at the legal maximum, not offers. Your actual rate is set by the lender after a credit and affordability assessment, and is usually lower than the legal maximum. Nothing here is a quote or an approval.
• Named inputs: the repo rate is 7,00% and VAT is 15,00%. If either changes, these figures change.

The full working, first loan over six months

Questions people ask about this range

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