Finance apps

Palmpay vs Opay: which is better ? fees, bonuses, users feedback and trust in 2023

Online banking in Nigeria is currently on an uptrend, with several Fintech firms occupying almost every nuke and cranny of the Nigerian banking industry.

Palmpay and opay technologies are two organizations that have revolutionize the fintech space and have a big influence on how financial services are carried out in the country. Despite a plethora of other competing services, they have really held their ground well.

Being two of the most used online banking applications, it’s no surprise that users may be divided on which of them to use.

That’s exactly why I brought the palmpay vs opay analysis post here, after making my research I’ve been able to come up with the below comparison.

Palmpay vs opay comparison

Palmpay and opay statistics

Palmpay:

Downoads: 10 Million +
Combine reviews android and iOS: over 266,000
Combined average Ratings: 4.35

Opay:

Downoads: 11 Million +
Combine reviews android and iOS: over 246,000
Combined average Ratings: 4.3
According to TechCrunch opay is Africa fastest growing unicorn and it is valued at over $2bn

Accessibility

Here, both palmpay and kuda are very good, they are fast and swift, registration is straightforward, the application doesn’t lag and both have good transfer speed.

You’ll likely experience occasional network issues while using both applications and that usually impacts transfer and bill payments. So there’s still room for improvement in this aspect.

Both apps actually need good smartphone with at least 2gb of RAM to run smoothly.

Features & Functionalities

Although both are similar in terms of features, palmpay has up its game a bit and has integrated some features that I find very interesting and are really worth mentioning.

These are:

Split bill and Recharge2cash feature. These two features are really good and the recharge2cash is a really sought after feature.

Opay on the other hand is also very good when it comes to features, what palmpay uses to best it is the availability of those two features mentioned above.

Loan

When it comes to loan financing opay has an inbuilt service called okash, with okash you can get a loan almost instantly, and the loan amount can be up to N500k, this depends on your credit rating and report though.

For palmpay the loan service here is flexi fixed, what I don’t personally like about this palmpay loan service is that you can’t get a loan without actually using the application for some time.

In essence, if you want an app for a quick loan, opay (okash will be the best option)

Savings

Here, opay has 5 savings modes, which are:

Flexible savings (owealth)
Fixed savings
Spend and save
Targets savings
Safebox

You can use any of these savings to save and get interests, interest earned will depend on which of the savings mode you choose, with fixed savings offering the highest at 18% per annum. Read everything about opay savings.

Palmpay on the other hand appears to have no savings function on the application, nothing about savings can be found at all.

Security

When it comes to security, both opay and kuda are extremely secured, there are both PCI DSS compliance. Both on their end and on your end, they have provided means to ensure your funds is secure at all times. As a user make sure your mobile banking application PIN is only known to you and ensure to also set-up fingerprint unlock, with this, no one can temper with your account.

For deposits, Both palmpay and opay are insured by the Nigerian deposit insurance commission (NDIC), As such your funds are as secure as possible.

You can see how opay secure it users here

As well as here for palmpay

For deposits, Both opay and Kuda are insured by the Nigerian deposit insurance commission (NDIC). As such your funds are as secure as possible.

Users feedback and complaints

No matter how good a service is there must be glitches and errors, everyone can’t be satisfied, and all users will surely get one or more issues.

So for opay, the main issue seems to be about the network, for the period of time I’ve use the opay application, I do get the system busy error, and it’s not funny in any way and can ruin your plans if you wanted doing a quick transaction. I hope opay looks into this and try to get a solution as soon as possible.

For palmpay, the main problem is about the ok-card plugin. The ok card is a service that allows palmpay users to spend on credit and payback in a later date or when they receive funds into their account.

So the problem with this ok-card is that, on failure to repay borrowed money on time, there’s a plugin that will limit how you can use your phone, which is very bad, some users even report that the plugin can go as far as seizing their network, which makes them unable to browse.

I think palmpay should look for other means to recover loans as what they are doing is very irresponsible and out of the terms of service.

Palmpay vs Opay fees

Both palmpay and opay offer free transfer on their application.

for palmpay, the first three transfers for the day are free and N10 is charged for subsequent transfers to other banks and 0.9% to other mobile money platforms.

Transfers on opay application are free, you don’t pay any fee.

Palmpay vs opay similarities

Opay and palmpay has some similarities that recognizes them as a financial application, the similarities are:

Both opay and kuda can be accessed through mobile app
You can send and receive money on both apps via cash deposit by any POS agent, online transfer or USSD transfer
Both apps gives access to loan, with varying interest rates

Palmpay pros and cons

Pros:

Very secure banking experience
Free 3 transfers daily
fast transactions confirmation, transfers take less than 5 minutes to appear, this is great for people running transfer centered business.
Access to POS device
You can convert unused airtime to cash on the application
Split bills with other palmpay users
Cashback and bonuses are available

Cons:

Loan takes longer to be eligible compared to okash
User interface can be very confusing and bulky at first
No USSD banking
Occasional network issues
No access to physical debit cards

Opay pros and cons:

Pros:

cashbacks and bonuses are available
access to virtual and physical debit cards
Wide range of products are being integrated
Fast access to loan via okash
Access to POS devices
Free daily transfers
USSD banking
Access to secure savings with high interest rates
Fast transaction confirmation time, usually less than 5 minutes

Cons:

Occasional network issues (system busy)

User interface can be overwhelming and confusing at first