Prime rate today and your instalment against earlier rates
The prime rate is 10.75% since 25 September 2026, the repo rate plus 3.5 points. Pick an earlier date to compare your instalment.
Example: a R1,500,000 bond over 20 years· change a figure to see yours
Instalment at today’s 10.75%
R15,228
+R504 a month against 10.25% on 21 November 2025
| At 10.25% | R14,725 |
| Prime is the repo rate plus | 3.50 points |
Compiled by Radif Partners · How the estimate is made
The prime lending rate is the rate South African banks charge their lowest-risk borrowers, and the reference for most variable-rate home loans, vehicle finance, personal loans and overdrafts. By convention, banks set it at the Reserve Bank’s repo rate plus 3.5 percentage points, so it changes only when the Monetary Policy Committee moves the repo rate. Prime has been 10.75% since 25 September 2026; a year earlier, in November 2025, it was 10.50%. On a R1,500,000 bond over 20 years, the instalment at prime is R15,228 a month, against R14,976 at 10.50%. Your own rate is prime plus or minus the margin in your agreement: a borrower at prime minus 0.5 pays R14,725, one at prime plus 1 pays R16,256. Vehicle finance is usually priced above prime: R350,000 over 6 years at prime plus 2 costs R6,980 a month.
Prime rate and your instalment since 2023
The table gives each prime rate since 2023 and the instalment it meant on the example bond of R1,500,000 over 20 years. The highest rate of the period, 11.75%, meant R16,256 a month on the same bond.
| From | Prime | Instalment | Against today |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 September 2026 | 10.75% | R15,228 | +R0 |
| 29 May 2026 | 10.50% | R14,976 | -R253 |
| 21 November 2025 | 10.25% | R14,725 | -R504 |
| 1 August 2025 | 10.50% | R14,976 | -R253 |
| 30 May 2025 | 10.75% | R15,228 | +R0 |
| 31 January 2025 | 11.00% | R15,483 | +R254 |
| 22 November 2024 | 11.25% | R15,739 | +R510 |
| 20 September 2024 | 11.50% | R15,996 | +R768 |
| 26 May 2023 | 11.75% | R16,256 | +R1,027 |
| 31 March 2023 | 11.25% | R15,739 | +R510 |
| 27 January 2023 | 10.75% | R15,228 | +R0 |
| 3 January 2023 | 10.50% | R14,976 | -R253 |
Prime rate, repo rate and the gap between them
Prime is not set by law. It is each bank’s own reference rate, but the large banks have kept it at the repo rate plus 3.5 points for many years, and the SARB publishes it as a series beside its own policy rate. That is why a repo decision passes to almost every variable-rate loan in the country the next day.
Other rates sit around prime. The interbank rate JIBAR and the treasury bill rates follow the repo rate closely, while personal loans and credit cards are priced above prime. The interest rates page sets them side by side.
A car instalment and its petrol together
Example: R350,000 over 6 years, 880 km a month· change a figure to see yours
Car instalment and petrol a month
R9,109
R6,980 instalment at 12.75% + R2,129 of petrol 95 (Gauteng)
| Instalment if prime rises 0.25% | R7,026 |
| Petrol from 2 December 2026 (estimate) | R1,966 |
Prime and the cost of driving
A car on finance moves with both prime and the fuel price. At prime plus 2, the example car loan of R350,000 costs R6,980 a month over 6 years, and a 0.25% rise in prime adds about R46. Petrol for 880 km a month adds R2,129 at the November price. The cost per kilometre page shows the fuel side, and the bond calculator the home loan side.