If want to know how to get proof of residence online in South Africa, it is very simple.
We live in an increasingly digital age and paper is becoming a thing of the past in many ways. There days of receiving mail by post are numbered. When applying for many things, your information is needed to confirm that you are who you say you are and are in South Africa. You likely have an account and you
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How to get proof of residence online in South Africa
Bank Statements
The easiest way it get proof of residence online in South Africa is through your banks statements. This is the most common option because almost everybody has a bank account in this day and age. Your bank statement will always have your name and address at the top and you have the choice of getting it verified as well.
To do this, you simply need to log into your online banking platform such as on the (FNB Online Banking App or Nedbank Money App) and go to the statements section. You can either email it to yourself or download it to your device. Just ensure that you always get the latest one. For many banks, only your last 3 statements are free. Anything beyond that is charged at a fee for every download. Although the different fees vary for banks and they make them hard to find, it is usually around R10 for each statement. That’s a lot of money so watch out for that.
While the bank statement is the most common one, some people might not be comfortable with exposing details about personal finance to just anybody as our money affairs are often sensitive and private.
To keep things simple and avoid unlikely but possible inconvenience, use a proof of residence that is only one page
Your Car Bill
If you have a car, that you have taken out a car loan for, you will receive a statement every month giving you the details of how far along your loan is. And like other statements, they have to have your name and address at the top of the statement and this will serve as proof of residence.
The only thing to be aware of here is that sometimes the address that appears on your statement is not the one that you are currently residing in. So what can happen is that if the information on the statement conflicts with an address that is on record for you with the entity you are sending the Proof to, they may reject an application or halt the process by requesting you to send one that matches, which can waste time unnecessarily if time is off the essence.
Credit Account
If you have a retail credit account, for example, the Markhams account that you use to buy clothes. They will send you a statement each month. This is a perfectly good solution for proof of residence that most adults have.
Subscription Service
If you are subscribed to a service that you pay for on a monthly basis, they will send you an invoice each time that they bill you. This includes anything like DSTV, Cellphone bill, Car tracking service or your internet service invoice from your Independent Service Provider (ISP).
Proof of residence online for business
Getting proof of residence online in South Africa for a business is similar to getting one for an individual. The main difference is that instead of your name, the name of the business must be on the document along with the address of the business.
This includes the common forms such as a utility/electricity bill, bank statement, telephone account or any other account with the name and address details to serve as proof.
Similarly to the requirement for current domicile, the address for the business that is required is usually the current address from which the business is working, and not the registered address for the business. Again, be sure that the proof of residence that you submit matches any address that you have already submitted, such as on an application form so that there is no conflict, which is likely to result in the document not being accepted.
See Also: How To Set Up SARS efiling For Business
Tip for getting your proof of residence online
The quickest way to find your proof of residence is to do a search in your email inbox.
So if you have a car financed with Nissan, for example, just go to the search bar and type in “Nissan” and you will get all your most recent proofs of residence.
So this means that you should generally not delete your statements for at least 6 months.
If for some reason you don’t have them saved, then the quickest way to get the proof is through your bank statements as you can get that on demand at any time.
Although utility or bill is mentioned often, this is an unlikely one because these bills are often sent by paper mail as with many government services. Additionally, an increasing number of people are living as renters in complexes with prepaid electricity. And as a renter, you do not get the bill as it goes to the owner of the property. So the electricity bill is becoming less common as a proof of residence.
Bonus Tip
If you are a car driver in Gauteng, you can always use e-toll statements as proof of residence. Okay okay, that is not an online solution but that’s about the only thing those statements are useful for and was worth a mention.
And there you have it. Now you know how to get proof of residence online in South Africa in several different ways.
If you find this article helpful, let us know and feel free tell which way you use to get statements of you feel we have left any good ones out.