Card payments are live on Laces. At checkout you can now pay with a Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Verve or AfriGO card, as well as with MTN MoMo or Airtel Money. Pick whichever you have on you.
Mobile money is still the way most people pay, and nothing about it has changed. Card is for everyone else: a participant travelling in for an event, a company paying for a team, a friend registering you from abroad, or anyone whose mobile money balance isn’t where they need it on the day entries open.
How paying by card works
- Register for the event as usual and continue to payment.
- Choose Card.
- Enter your card details on our payment partner’s secure page, and complete your bank’s verification step if your card asks for one.
- You land on the same confirmation screen as a mobile money payment, with the same order code, and your ticket arrives by email.
Laces never sees your card number. You type it on our payment partner’s hosted page, on their domain. The number, expiry date, CVV and PIN never pass through anything Laces runs. What comes back to us is the result of the payment and the last four digits, for your receipt.
What it costs
Card costs more to process than mobile money, so the Laces service fee on a card payment is higher. Both rates are published side by side on our pricing page, and the exact total is always shown before you pay. You are never charged more than the amount on the Pay button.
Card payments are charged in US dollars at our payment partner’s exchange rate. The Pay button shows the exact dollar amount, and the rate it works out to, before you confirm, and that is the amount that leaves your card. Some banks add their own fee for a payment in a foreign currency. That fee is set by your bank, not by Laces.
If you’d rather pay the lower fee, mobile money is still right there at checkout, and you can switch between the two on the payment page without losing your place.
Refunds
If an organizer refunds your entry, a card refund goes back to the card you paid with. It can’t be sent to a different card or to a mobile money number, and it takes longer to arrive than a mobile money refund because it travels back through the card networks and your bank. The Refund Policy has the details.
For organizers
There is nothing to switch on. Card is live on every event that is selling entries, and you receive the price you set whichever way a participant pays. The fee is added on top and paid by the participant.
The one difference worth knowing is timing. MTN mobile money is still credited to your Instant Wallet the moment a payment is confirmed. Card payments, like Airtel Money, settle into your Standard Wallet, usually within about a day and a half. Cards are now accepted at checkout covers the rates, settlement and refunds in full.
Questions about a specific payment go to payments@laces.run, with your order code.
Related: Cards are now accepted at checkout · How Laces works, end to end · Pricing
Running an event?
Card is on for every event that is selling, with nothing to switch on. Create your event, share the link, and participants choose how they pay.