Prime and repo rate in South Africa today, and what they do to your loan

What are the repo and prime rates right now?

The repo rate is 7.25% and the prime rate is 10.75%, both unchanged since the September decision. EWN's report on the September decision gave the 0.25-point increase as the Reserve Bank's response to an escalating Middle East conflict and the fuel-price shock that has followed it. Absa's published rates page shows prime at 10.75% with an effective date of 25 September 2026.

What is the repo rate?

The repo rate is the rate at which the Reserve Bank lends to commercial banks. Its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) sets it at scheduled meetings through the year, with inflation as the main concern. Banks build their own lending rates on top of it, which is how a decision made in Pretoria ends up in your monthly instalment.

What is the prime rate, and how does it relate to repo?

Prime is the benchmark banks use to price loans, and it is repo plus 3.5 percentage points. At 7.25% repo that gives 10.75%. A lot of credit agreements are written as prime plus or minus a margin, so they move whenever repo does. The margin itself is personal: it depends on the product and on your credit profile, and it is written into your contract.

What did the MPC decide this year?

Three decisions are on record since March. In May the committee raised repo by 0.25 to 7% on a 4-2 vote, as EWN reported it on 28 May. In July it held at 7%, again by 4 to 2, but this time two members wanted another hike, and markets had expected one (EWN's July report). September then brought the move to 7.25%. Before May the repo rate stood at 6.75%.

How does a prime change affect my repayments?

If your loan is variable, the instalment moves with prime. A fixed-rate loan keeps its instalment until the term ends. How much you feel it depends on the amount owed, the time left and your margin.

To make that concrete, take a R100 000 personal loan over 60 months, repaid in equal monthly instalments, ignoring fees. The standard annuity formula gives these figures.

Three points over prime costs R152 more each month and R9 125 more in interest over the five years. Real quotes add an initiation fee and a monthly service fee, so treat these as a yardstick, not an offer.

What does it mean for a home loan or a credit card?

A bond is the most sensitive in rand terms because the amount and the term are both large. On R1 000 000 over 20 years, a 0.25-point rise from 10.50% to 10.75% adds about R169 to the monthly instalment. Credit cards and other revolving facilities are also priced off prime, so they respond quickly. Fixed-rate credit does not change at all, and if you are unsure which one you have, ask your lender whether it will reprice your agreement and by how much.

How do the legal interest caps move with the repo rate?

For most credit types the National Credit Regulations cap interest at the repo rate plus a set margin, so every cap moves by the same amount as repo. Regulation 42 of the National Credit Regulations sets the margins. Short-term credit is the exception, because its cap is a flat monthly percentage that ignores repo.

Fees such as the initiation fee and the monthly service fee are limited by separate rules. The guide to what payday loans cost works through a short-term example, and anyone juggling several repayments can read about debt consolidation loans.

When is the next rate decision?

The Reserve Bank holds its last MPC meeting of 2026 in November. We update this page and publish a news item in finance news after every announcement. Until then, prime stays at 10.75%. If you are thinking about a new loan, you can compare terms in the lender directory and keep in mind that a variable rate can rise before the loan is paid off.