Frequently asked questions
Short answers, and honest ones — including the one about whether the checks are real.
Are the checks real?
Is TrustID verifying against real Home Affairs, bank and sanctions data?
Not during the evaluation period, and we would rather say so than let you find out. Every verification rail — ID, bank AVS, facial match, vehicle and AML/PEP — is simulated. Requests, responses, credits, keys and the ledger all work exactly as they will in production; the answers come from a simulator, not from the authoritative source.
This is estate policy, not an accident: a rail goes live only when the certified provider integration is connected for that deployment. Until then the banner at the top of every page says "Evaluation environment", and GET /metrics/system reports "provider": "simulated" for the whole deployment.
So what is the evaluation for?
To integrate against the real API surface before a live rail is switched on — authentication, request shapes, error handling, credit accounting, the dashboard and the ledger are all the production code. The only thing that changes at go-live is what answers the question.
Can I rely on a simulated result for FICA or KYC compliance?
No. A simulated check satisfies no regulatory obligation. Do not onboard a real customer, open a real account or make a real decision on the strength of a result from this environment.
Credits and billing
What does a check cost?
One credit per live check, any type. Sandbox checks are free. A new account starts with 10 credits. Packs: Starter pack: 100 credits for R299 (R2.99 per check); Growth pack: 500 credits for R1,395 (R2.79 per check); Scale pack: 2000 credits for R5,380 (R2.69 per check).
Will my card be charged?
Not in this environment. Card payments are deliberately not connected while rails are simulated — the same policy that keeps the checks simulated keeps real money out. The billing pages record what you chose; nothing is charged.
Why does the banner say accounts and data are rotated?
Because they are. During evaluation, accounts, credits, API keys and history may be reset without notice. Treat anything here as disposable.
Using the product
Which checks can I run today?
Five: South African ID (sa_id), bank account AVS (bank), facial liveness and match (face), vehicle and licence (vehicle), and AML/PEP screening (aml). The CIPC company lookup on the services page is planned and not yet callable. See the user guide.
What is the difference between a sandbox key and a production key?
A sandbox key never consumes credits and is meant for development. A production key deducts one credit per check. Both are shown once at creation and stored as hashes — lose one and you create another; nobody, including us, can read it back.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes — every page, including the dashboard and the docs, is checked at a 375px-wide viewport with no horizontal scrolling.
I cannot create an account.
On the UAT environment sign-up is deliberately disabled: test credentials are issued, never self-created, so the credentials in a test guide keep working for everyone who follows it. The sandbox demo on the home page needs no account at all.