// Introduction

1.   Vodacom Payment Services (Pty) Ltd (“VPS”) and Vodacom South Africa (Pty) Ltd (“VSA”) (collectively “Vodacom”) have worked together to jointly provide the Vodacom Airtime, Data, and Voice Advance service (“the Service”) to you.

2.  The Service enables you to receive airtime, voice or data when you request it and pay for the airtime, voice or data when you recharge with airtime.

3.     The terms and conditions set out herein (the “Terms and Conditions”) specifically apply to the Service, and the Service shall at all times be subject to these Terms and Conditions.

4.     The Service is provided to you by Vodacom in conjunction with our appointed third-party service providers.

5.     It is important that you read through these Terms and Conditions carefully before using the Service.

6.     By using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions and understand that this shall constitute a binding agreement between you and Vodacom.

7.     Vodacom may amend these Terms and Conditions at its sole discretion and at anytime. Vodacom will bring material changes to these Terms and Conditions to your attention. It remains your responsibility to ensure that you familiarise yourself and understand any changes made to these Terms and Conditions.

// Qualification

8.     You will be eligible to use the Service if you:

8.1.  are a VSA prepaid or TopUp/uChoose customer;
8.2.  have been an active VSA customer for a period of 3 months or longer;
8.3.  have a minimum cumulative recharge of R29 per month for at least 3 consecutive months;
8.4.  are a TopUp/uChoose customer and your account is up to date; and
8.5.  are a qualifying Vodacom Business TopUp/uChoose customers subject to the Corporate Administrator giving you access to the Service.

// The Service

9.     You may access the Service through:

9.1.  USSD *135*082#;
9.2.  My Phone menu (*111# or *135#);
9.3.  the www.vodacom.co.za website; or
9.4.  the MyVodacom Application or any other channel made available to you by Vodacom from time to time.

10.  As part of the Service, you may elect to either to recharge your account with data (“Data Advance”), voice (“Voice Advance”) or airtime (“Airtime Advance”).

11.  You can use the Service to purchase any personalised offers, as provided on any Vodacom channel from time to time. The bundles offered may differ from the standard bundles available through the other Vodacom channels.

12.  Vodacom may set a limit for the Service (“Limit”) depending on your specific profile.

13.  You can use the Services up to your total Limit in the available denominations.

14.  You will receive an SMS notification when the Airtime Advance, Voice Advance or Data Advance has been allocated to your account.

15.  If you reach your total Limit, you will not be able to take additional advances until you have recharged to the value equal to a portion or all of the Airtime Advance, Voice Advance or Data Advance you’ve used.

16.  You are required to recharge at least once a month in order to continue using the Service. If you fail to do this:

16.1.  Vodacom may suspend you from using the Service until you recharge; and/or
16.2.  Vodacom may decrease your Limit.

17.  Vodacom also gives you access to the “Max Option”. The Max Option allows you to receive your total Limit in one or multiple Airtime Advance transactions at the highest denomination available to you. By way of example, if your Limit is R100, and you select the Max Option, you will receive your R100 Limit in 10 Airtime Advance transactions of R10 each.

18.  In addition to the Max Option, you may be given the option to take 25%, 50% or 75% of the “Max Option”, (rounded up to the nearest R10) in multiple Airtime Advance transactions at the highest denomination available to you. By way of example, if your Limit is R100 you may be presented with the option to take R50 allocated in 5 Airtime Advance Transactions of R10 each.

19.  If you are a TopUp/uChoose customer, you may at any time contact Vodacom customer care via email on customercare@vodacom.co.za to request for the Service to be deactivated or removed from your profile.  In such an instance, you will continue to be liable for any outstanding advances (including the applicable access fee) up to the point where the Service has been deactivated from your profile. To have the Service reactivated/reinstated onto your profile, you will need to contact Vodacom.

// Airtime Advance

20.  Airtime Advance can be taken in the denominations as displayed on the appropriate Vodacom channel from time to time.

21.  Airtime Advance can be used for any transaction available on the Vodacom network i.e., Voice, Data, and SMS.

22.  You will be allowed to transfer Airtime from the Airtime Advance as per the current Airtime Transfer business rules.

23.  Airtime Advance will be seen as a normal recharge in your account.

24.  No recharge benefits/incentives such as Night Shift, Talking Points or Extra Airtime will be allocated for an Airtime Advance. These benefits/incentives will be triggered once a recharge is made to pay the airtime advance.

// Data Advance

25.  Data Advances can be taken in the denominations as displayed on the appropriate Vodacom channel from time to time.

26.  These data allocations will be standard data allocations and will be valid until 23h59 (i.e., midnight) on the day of allocation

27.  You may not use the Data Advance for data roaming.

28.  Data Advance will not trigger any recharge or bundle purchase promotions/incentives (e.g., Talking Points, Night Shift, etc.).

// Voice Advance

29.  Voice Advances can be taken in the denominations as displayed on the appropriate Vodacom channel from time to time.

30.  Voice Advance allocations will be valid until 23h59 (i.e. midnight) on the day of allocation.

31.  You may not use the Voice Advance for roaming.

32.  Voice Advance will not trigger any recharge or bundle purchase promotions/incentives (e.g., Talking Points, Night Shift, etc.).

// Auto Advance

33.  Auto Advance is a Service that automatically triggers an Airtime Advance if your airtime balance is less than or equal to R1.50.

34.  You may opt in to Auto Advance by dialing *135*082#.

35.  Auto Advance is limited to a maximum of  3 Airtime Advances per day, subject to your available Limit and you will be offered the highest Airtime Advance denomination you qualify for, limited to a maximum of R10.00 for each Auto Advance.

36.  You can opt out of the Auto Advance at any time by dialling *135*082#.

// Access Fee and Recharges

37.  For each Airtime Advance, Data Advance, Voice Advance and/or Auto Advance, Vodacom shall deduct an access fee of R1.10 (VAT inclusive) (the “Access Fee”) from the airtime or bundle recharge following any advance. The Access Fee shall be over and above the value of the Airtime Advance, Voice Advance or Data Advance that you may need to repay. By way of example:

If you take a R10 Airtime Advance and recharge with R20, only R8.90 will be left due to:
The R10 (Airtime Advance) + R1.10 (access fee) = R11.10 will be deducted, leaving you with a balance of R8.90.

38.  For the avoidance of doubt, if you select the Max Option or any variant thereof, you will be charged an Access Fee for each transaction.

39.  The Access Fee is deducted from your airtime for:

39.1.  bearer costs;
39.2.  third-party costs; and
39.3.  costs of deploying, operating, and maintaining the airtime advance infrastructure and a special algorithm developed to ensure the sustainable provision of the product.

40.  Outstanding Airtime Advance, Voice Advance or Data Advances will be deducted from ANY recharges, including Airtime Transfers, CRM recharge incentives and bundle purchases that have not been purchased using airtime. For the avoidance of doubt, outstanding Airtime Advance, Voice Advance or Data Advances will not be deducted from any Advance taken within the Limit, and only actual recharges.

41.  Should you recharge with a lower denomination than that of the full value of the payable Airtime Advance, Voice Advance or Data Advance, the full recharge will be deducted until the total cumulative value of the payable Advance amount has been paid.

42.  Should you purchase a bundle not using your airtime, the bundle value will be converted into Airtime with a Rand value equal to the price of the bundle purchased. A maximum of 50% of the value of the bundle will be used to repay the Airtime Advance, plus the Access Fee. The remaining airtime will be allocated as a normal airtime recharge to be used for any other bundle purchase, for example a data bundle purchase. For example, if you purchase a 1.5GB bundle for R99, and has an outstanding Airtime Advance of R100, R49.50 will be used to repay the Airtime Advance, and you will be recharged with R49.50, which can be used to purchase any other bundle such asa data bundle purchase. 

43.  If you are a prepaid customer with an Airtime Advance, Voice Advance or Data Advance and you migrate to a TopUp/uChoose or a postpaid plan, the Airtime Advance, Voice Advance or Data Advance value plus Access Fee will be added to your first month’s invoice.

44.  You will receive an SMS notification to advise you if any deduction has been made to your airtime recharge value.

// Personal Information

45.  Your personal information will be stored, processed, and only used by our appointed administrative partners. This may include your MSISDN number and information regarding your airtime payment history.

46.  These Terms and Conditions are subject to Vodacom’s Privacy Notice which you can find here and which is incorporated to these Terms and Conditions by reference.

// Privacy Notice