How fees work here
Three rules hold across every fee on this page:
- Never your principal. A fee is always a cut of interest/return, a price, or a flat transfer cost — the amount you gave as support, received as support, or deposited is never itself reduced.
- Disclosed before you commit. Wherever a fee applies to an action you're about to take, the exact amount is shown on that confirmation step — not buried until after the fact.
- Config-driven, not hardcoded. Every rate below can change — this page always reflects the live configuration, not a fixed number written once and forgotten.
Supporting & Support Plans
Supporter Return Fee
Charged to: the supporter receiving a payout
Taken off the return portion of any payout that reaches a supporter's wallet — ordinary repayments, Fund returns, and Garder takeover payouts alike. The amount-supported portion of every payout is never touched. Shown live when you create a support offer, so you can see your real net return before publishing it.
Origination Fee
Charged to: the member being supported/Fund owner, at disbursement
A percentage of principal, deducted from what a member actually receives when a support request is approved and disbursed, or when they accept an offer on their Community+ request. The supporter's contract (what they're owed back) is untouched — this fee only affects the disbursed amount. Shown before you send a support request or accept an offer, on the confirmation step.
Stacks with the 1.5% Verified Earner assurance fee below for VE-covered support plans — combined that's ≈2.35% off disbursement for those specifically.
Verified Earner Assurance Fee
Charged to: the supporter, for VE-covered support plans only
A percentage of principal, paid by the supporter when backing a Verified Earner-eligible request, in exchange for the platform's collections/assurance coverage on that specific support plan. See the Verified Earner guide for what the coverage includes.
Ajo
Ajo Organiser Fee — Platform Cut
Charged to: the cycle organiser, out of their own fee — never a member
If a cycle organiser charges an organiser fee, Garder takes 20% of that fee — never a separate deduction from a member's contribution or payout. The organiser fee itself (if any) is collected once, added only to each member's Round 1 contribution, so every payout in every round is the full, undiminished pot — no member ever nets less than they contributed because of this fee.
Garder Exchange
Exchange Sale Fee — On-track Position
Charged to: the seller, out of the sale price
Deducted from what a seller receives when an on-track (no missed repayments) support-plan or Backed Fund repayment position sells on the Exchange. Shown live while you're setting or editing your asking price.
Exchange Sale Fee — Overdue Position
Charged to: the seller, out of the sale price
The same fee, at a lower rate, when the plan has already missed a repayment — a seller passing on an overdue position is already accepting less certainty of being repaid, so exiting costs less.
Member Profile Unlock (optional, not a fee on a transaction)
Paid by: a buyer who chooses to unlock it
Unlike everything else on this page, this isn't a cut of a transaction you're already making — it's an optional paid feature. A listing shows only the member's Trust Score band by default; you can pay to reveal their name, Trust Score, repayment history, and more.
One listing, permanently
₦200
All listings, 48 hours
₦1,000
Full detail in the Garder Exchange guide.
Wallet
NGN Withdrawal Fee
Charged to: the member withdrawing to a Nigerian bank account
A flat amount, not a percentage — real bank-transfer costs don't scale with the amount sent. Your wallet is debited exactly what you asked to withdraw; only the fee-adjusted net actually reaches your bank. Shown live on the withdrawal form and again on the PIN confirmation step before you submit. USD/GBP international withdrawals don't carry this fee yet.
FAQ
Does any fee here ever reduce my principal?
No. Every fee on this page is a cut of interest/return, a sale price, or a flat transfer cost — never the amount you originally gave as support, received as support, deposited, or contributed to an Ajo cycle.
Where do I see the exact fee before I commit to something?
On the confirmation step for the specific action it applies to — creating a support offer (return fee), sending a support request (origination fee), listing or editing an Exchange asking price (sale fee), and the withdrawal form/PIN confirmation (withdrawal fee).
Where do I see fees after the fact?
Every fee-generating transaction shows a "Platform Fee" line with the exact amount and rate on your Wallet → Transactions page.
Can these rates change?
Yes — they're configuration, not hardcoded. This page always reflects whatever is live right now, so re-check it rather than relying on a number you remember from earlier.
Why does the Ajo fee work differently from the others?
Because it's designed so no member's payout can ever come back lower than what they contributed. The platform's cut comes out of the organiser's own fee, not out of any member's pot — the opposite direction from every other fee on this page, which is why it's described separately above.