Charging a fee to load airtime

QUESTION:

Zaid advertises that he’ll load airtime on a phone immediately for someone, to save them time. The person has to message Zaid, and Zaid will load the airtime within 5-10 minutes, and the person will pay him later. Can a 10% service fee be charged (i.e. for R100 of airtime, a person will pay R110)?

ANSWER:

In the queried scenario, the customer is purchasing R100.00 airtime for R100.00. He then hires Zaid to load the airtime at a rate of R10.00, which is 10% of the airtime value. The transaction is in order since pre-paid users generally load the airtime themselves. Zaid is therefore entitled to charge for the additional service that he is offering. If both parties (the purchaser and seller) are happy with the agreement, and the fee is known to both parties, the transaction will be in order. It is necessary for Zaid to make it clear to the customers that he will be charging a 10% fee (that is, 10% of the airtime value) for loading airtime, and if they do not require his services, then they are at liberty to load the airtime themselves.

ALLAH TA’ALA ALONE IN HIS INFINITE KNOWLEDGE KNOWS BEST!

Mufti Mohammed Desai

Date:-  11 Muharram 1445 / 30 July 2023