Whenever asked the sequence in which one would prefer hearing news, it’s always bad then good. Not so with EcoCash, they first sent out the good news of slashed transaction tariffs and now the bad news of slashing their debit card’s international transaction limits (now this type of slashing, we don’t like).
Initially, the international transaction limits per month was US$400 i.e. US$200 for ATM and US$200 for POS + online payments. However, effect from the 2nd of August, the limit has been slashed to a total of US$300 with an interesting allocation of US$200 on POS, US$50 on ATM and US$50 on online payments.
Notice how initially POS and online payments shared the US$200 limit, which means you could spend the whole US$200 on either or; but now, each has its own limit. This is especially bad news for those who actually found it more convenient to not go out of the country but depended on buying their international goods remotely instead (online shopping).
Well, for an individual, the US$50 limit might not be that bad particularly if you’re buying from countries whose currency ranks less than the USD e.g. in South Africa. It becomes a different story when using the debit card to buy goods in bulk or for retail purposes. More so for those whose line of business merely depended that e.g. Avon agents.
Nevertheless, the local EcoCash debit card transaction limits haven’t changed….yet, the limit per month is still US$5000. We can’t be too quick to give the sigh of relief. I mean who knows, tomorrow we might be telling a different story altogether. But if not, then maybe this is an attempt to keep money circulating in locally, what do you think?-TECHZIM
