I’m a huge supporter of takealot.com. I’ve bought everything from a phone to a stick blender to a gift voucher for my mother’s birthday. Takealot’s prices are usually very good, but imagine my surprise when I found out that I can now buy anything on takealot for up to 20% discount.

The back story

I recently started using ZapGo a revolutionary way of spending cash online. Even though I have a credit card I found it useful in cases where my credit card wasn’t accepted like buying iTunes vouchers overseas. ZapGo uses BitCoin as the underlying payment mechanism, but the user does not have to concern him or herself with the technical aspects thereof. You can spend ZapGo anywhere in the world where Bitcoin is accepted. In South Africa this means everywhere that PayFast is accepted, which covers almost 30 000 online stores… including takealot.

I recently bought a R1000 gift voucher on takealot for my mother. Since I had money in my ZapGo wallet I selected the Instant EFT (from PayFast) checkout option and then the Bitcoin option. I scanned the QR code with ZapGo and paid. The amount that was subtracted from my ZapGo wallet was however only R827.55! I first thought this was an error but after some investigation I found out why this happened.

Over the past week the price of Bitcoin in South Africa increased to more than R3500 while the price of Bitcoin in America dropped to below $240. This is a price difference of roughly R700. Since ZapGo automatically buys Bitcoin at the lowest rate (in this case through an American exchange) and PayFast integrates with BitX, the South African exchange, everything is cheaper in South Africa when buying through ZapGo. For the moment it doesn’t seem like this gap is closing. So if you act fast you can also make the most of this unique opportunity. To see the current prices just search for “1 BTC in USD” in Google for the Bitcoin/Dollar exchange rate and visit BitX.co for the Bitcoin/ZAR exhange rate. As long as there is a significant difference between the two this method will work.

The how to

Just follow these easy steps:

Register for ZapGo. You can signup with Google, Facebook or with the usual email and password method. Load your ZapGo account with the amount you would like to spend Through an instant EFT or

If you’re in Stellenbosch you can buy ZapGo with cash from an ZapGo Agent at the Pimp my Book shop in the Neelsie. Choose any item on takealot.com and add it to your cart. Checkout using the Instant EFT option and then the Bitcoin option. Scan the QR code with the ZapGo app or copy the details to the webapp. Pay Jump for joy over the big saving you just made.

Scroll down to see a quick video of how to checkout at takealot using ZapGo.

Ways to save even more

Buy something from takealot’s Daily Deals and get something for dirt cheap by combining it with the above method.

Even more savings

The guys at ZapGo gave me a few R100 ZapGo vouchers to give away. To qualify for this voucher you need to share this post with all your friends and then comment below what you are going to buy on takealot. The most interesting items with the most creative motivation for why you want to buy it will get the vouchers. Remember there are more than a million products on takealot, so surprise me.

Watch this video to see how to buy something on Takealot with ZapGo.

What is ZapGo?