South Africa is closer to a cashless society than almost anywhere a European or North American visitor will travel in Africa. Tapping a card or a phone is normal for a coffee, a tank of petrol and a supermarket shop, and the country has decades of card infrastructure behind it.
What survives, and what you should plan for, is a small cash economy that runs alongside it.
The rand
The rand divides into 100 cents, and prices are written with an R, so R150 is a hundred and fifty rand. After years in which the smallest useful coin was worth very little, South Africa stopped minting the smallest denominations, and everyday prices are now quoted in rands rather than in cents, often rounded to the nearest ten.
The rand is freely traded, which means you can buy it at home, change it at the airport, or simply use a card and let your bank do the conversion. There is nothing complicated about getting it, and nothing to plan around except the rate.
What things cost
By the standards of Western Europe and North America, South Africa is inexpensive for a visitor and expensive for the people who live there, which is a combination worth being aware of when you tip.
A coffee, a beer, a sandwich: modest. A restaurant meal in a city: reasonable. Petrol, which is a large part of any road trip: cheap by European standards and a common topic of complaint locally. National park entry fees: priced for visitors, and among the larger single costs of a safari trip. Accommodation spans an enormous range, from a hostel bed to a private game lodge that costs more than a month of everything else.
Converting in your head
The widget below uses a reference rate for one day, so treat it as a guide. Your bank will give you something slightly worse, and a card transaction a little worse still.
The number worth memorising is what a hundred rand buys. Once you know that a hundred rand is a coffee and a pastry, or two beers, or a short taxi ride, every price on a menu becomes readable at a glance.
Cards, and how to pay well
Use a card for almost everything. Tap where you can, because it is faster and reduces the amount of time your card is out of your hand.
Two habits make it cheaper. When a terminal offers to charge you in your own currency rather than in rand, decline it and pay in rand, because the conversion offered at the point of sale is almost always worse than what your bank will do. And when you withdraw cash, take a sensible amount in one go rather than several small withdrawals, since the fee is charged each time.
Cash, and where it still matters
Cash still matters in four places, and they are all small. Tips. Car guards, the informal attendants who watch parked cars in many areas and expect a few rand for it. Fuel station attendants, because most stations in South Africa are full service and someone will fill your tank and check your tyres. And some informal traders at markets and roadsides.
A few hundred rand in small notes covers all of that for days. What you do not want is a large amount of cash in a wallet, both because it is a risk and because there is no need for it.
Using an ATM sensibly
ATMs are everywhere, and the precautions are the ones that work anywhere rather than anything specific to South Africa. Use a machine inside a bank branch, a shopping mall or a fuel station, in daylight where you have the choice. Do not accept help from a stranger, however kind the offer. If the slot looks loose or the machine behaves oddly, walk away and use another.
Card skimming is a real phenomenon here, as it is in many countries, and covering the keypad and checking the machine costs nothing and prevents most of it. Keep your cards in two different places so that a lost wallet is an inconvenience rather than the end of the trip’s money.
Tipping
Tipping is expected, and the figures are easy. Ten to fifteen percent in a restaurant, and check the bill, because a service charge is sometimes already included. A few rand for a car guard. A few rand for the attendant who filled your tank. Something for a guide or a driver at the end of a day.
One last thought, and it is the local one. Paying by card is not just convenient here, it is the norm, and a visitor who insists on cash stands out more than one who taps. Keep the cash for the small economy and let the card do the rest.
If you are still sorting out data for the trip, an eSIM for South Africa covers it, and what the networks reach explains where signal is thin.