Trust and safety
How Rotaro keeps a circle honest
A savings circle runs on trust. Rotaro does not ask you to trust us with your money, because we never touch it. What we give the group is a record everyone shares and rules that apply the same way to everyone.
Our promises
We never hold your money
Rotaro has no wallet and no pot of its own. Every contribution goes from one member's bank account to another's, the way your circle pays today. Rotaro keeps the record of who said they paid, who confirmed it and whose turn it is. Because the money never passes through us, there is nothing for us to lose, freeze or spend.
Nothing is quietly changed
Every payment, confirmation, dispute and decision is an entry in the group's record, with who made it and when. Nobody can edit or delete an entry, not the organiser and not Rotaro. A mistake is put right with a new entry that names the one it corrects, so every member sees both. Each entry also carries a code worked out from the one before it, so a changed entry would break the chain, and the app shows whether the record checks out.
Nobody confirms their own payment
A member marks a payment as paid, and the member who received it checks their bank and confirms. Only a confirmed payment counts. If the recipient does not answer within the group's waiting time, the organiser decides, and when the organiser is the one receiving, the deputy decides. Every group needs a deputy before it starts, so no one is ever the judge of a payment made to themselves.
Disputes are settled in the open
Either side of a payment can raise a dispute from the payment itself and say what happened. The outcome is recorded by the organiser or the deputy, and never by someone who paid or received that payment. The dispute, each side's account and the outcome stay on the group's record for every member to read.
The rules are agreed at the start
Before you join, you read the group's rules: the amount, how often, the number of rounds, when a payment counts as late, what happens to a missed payment, and who needs a guarantor. You accept them before you are in, and the app applies them the same way to everyone. Once the group has started, the amount, currency or rhythm change only when every member agrees in the app. Cancelling, redrawing or swapping turns needs both the organiser and the deputy.
Members never pay Rotaro
Members pay each other the amount the group agreed, and nothing is added on top. Rotaro never takes a fee from members' money. What an organiser pays, if anything, is set for each country and shown on the pricing page, exactly as the app shows it.
What Rotaro cannot do
- Rotaro cannot reverse a bank transfer or get money back from a member who stops paying.
- Rotaro does not hold the pot, at any point. There is no Rotaro balance to fall back on.
- Rotaro is not a lender and is not a bank. Nobody owes Rotaro anything.
What Rotaro does is make the record plain to everyone, tell the organiser and any guarantor when a payment is late, and apply the group’s own missed-payment rule the same way to every member.
How the record shows a change
Each entry in a group’s record carries a code worked out from the entry before it, like links in a chain. If anyone changed or removed an earlier entry, the codes after it would no longer match. The app checks the chain and tells members whether the record checks out. A correction is always a new entry that names the one it corrects, so the history stays whole.
How a dispute goes
- Either side of a payment raises a dispute from the payment itself and says what happened.
- The other side can add their own account.
- The organiser or the deputy records the outcome. Someone who paid or received that payment never decides it.
- The dispute and its outcome stay on the record, for every member to read.
Your data stays in Nigeria
Groups in Nigeria are kept on Rotaro's servers for Nigeria, under the Nigeria Data Protection Act. Each country has its own servers and its own database. There is no advertising, no tracking across other apps, and no selling of data. This website keeps only your choice of country and look, in your own browser. The privacy notice has the detail.
Keeping your circle safe
Rotaro helps, but the best protection is still the people you choose. Join with people you know, agree the rules before the first payment, and be wary of anyone who promises more back than you pay in or asks for a fee to join. Our guide Is a savings circle safe? goes through the warning signs.
Report a problem
If something in your group does not look right, raise it with your organiser or deputy first, or raise a dispute from the payment. For anything about Rotaro itself, the Help page says how to reach us.