United African Stokvel is registered in South Africa – but is it legit?

United African Stokvel is a registered business, but the organisation has very poor reviews and has recently experiences some payment delays.

United African Stokvel is a registered business in South Africa. But since there is no regulatory body for stokvels in South Africa, this registration does not mean much for the legitimacy of the organisation.

United African Stokvel is registered in South Africa – but is it legit?

Stokvels can be a great way to boost your savings. But unfortunately, because stokvels are largely informal and usually self-regulated, it is very difficult to distinguish between a legitimate stokvel and an illegitimate one.

United African Stokvel (or UASV, for short) brands itself as a very modern and digitally-focused version of the traditional community stokvel.

UASV does operate as a legal business within South Africa (registration number: K2015/440792/07) and it has been operating since 2015.

However, since there is no regulatory body in charge of regulating stokvels in South Africa and these organisations are usually responsible for regulating themselves, the customer reviews and a few other warning signs are generally the only thing that prospective savers have to go on.

In UASV’s case, poor reviews and the recent payment issues all suggest that this stokvel may not be as legitimate as it seems at first glance.

UASV’s poor reviews

It can often be difficult to know whether a stokvel is legitimate or not, before it is too late. Therefore, it is always important to do thorough research before you start investing any of your own money.

United African Stokvel’s reviews on Hellopeter paint a pretty bleak picture. UASV has an extremely poor TrustIndex rating of 1.8 out of 10, and it has only managed to get a one out of five star average from over 70 reviews, thus far.

UASV’s recent payment delays

Another factor about UASV that may make the scam alarm bells go off in your head is the fact that the organisation recently experienced a very widespread and public delay in payments.

In fact, some commenters on the UASV Facebook page were still waiting for their March pay-outs as recently as two days ago, and it seems as though the organisation has not provided any new updates about the delays since 21 May 2023.

Other stokvel red flags to be on the lookout for

Spotting a less-than legitimate stokvel is not always as simple as noticing bad reviews or complaints about delayed payments.

However, some of the most obvious warning signs that you may be dealing with an illegitimate stokvel include instances when people are rewarded for recruiting other members.

Additionally, instances where organisations promise huge rewards in short periods of time and instances where there are no clear terms.