Legal

Terms of service

These are the rules for using Somchit — what we will do when you claim a transfer, what we need from you, what each of us is responsible for when something goes wrong, and the few things that will get an account stopped. Written to be read, not to be survived.

Last updated 17 August 2026 See also Privacy policy

1. The short version

The rest of this page is the agreement. This part is only a summary of it — where the two differ, the detailed section governs.

  • Somchit collects money sent to you from abroad and pays it into a bank account. That is the whole service today.
  • We never hold a balance for you, and we cannot send money out or pay cash over a counter.
  • You must be 18 or over, use your own real details, and verify your identity before you can claim.
  • The bank account details are yours to get right. We pay where you tell us to pay.
  • The amount, the rate and any fee are shown before you confirm, and the slip records what was applied.
  • We can hold, refuse or pause a claim where the law requires it or fraud is suspected — and we will tell you.

2. Who this agreement is with

Somchit is operated by Somchit Trading, a company registered in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. These terms are an agreement between that company — we, us, Somchit — and you, the person using the app.

They cover the Somchit app at app.somchit.la, this website, and the support you get from our team by chat, phone or email. How we handle your personal information is set out separately in the privacy policy, which forms part of this agreement.

You accept these terms by using Somchit — by creating an account, or by submitting a claim. If you do not accept them, do not use the service. We may also ask you to confirm your acceptance in the app, and if you have already been using Somchit, continuing to use it after these terms are published means they apply to you.

3. Who can use Somchit

  • You must be 18 or older. The app checks your date of birth when you sign up and will not create an account for someone younger.
  • You must give your own real details — your name as it appears on your identity document, your own date of birth, your own phone number.
  • You must be able to receive money into a bank account, held in your name or in the name of the family member you are claiming for.
  • One account per person. If you need to claim for a relative, add them as a family member under your own account rather than creating a second one — see section 10.
  • You must not be a person we are prohibited from dealing with under Lao law or applicable sanctions.

4. Your account

You sign up with your phone number and a password, and you set a PIN to unlock the app. Where your phone supports it, you can also unlock with your fingerprint or face.

  • Keep your credentials to yourself. Your password, PIN and phone are how we know a claim is coming from you. Do not share them, and do not let anyone else use your account.
  • Tell us straight away if you lose your phone, or think someone else knows your PIN or password, or see a claim you did not make. Call or WhatsApp +856 20 5209 6396. The sooner we know, the more we can do.
  • Keep your details current. If your phone number changes, or your identity document expires, update it — a claim can be refused on details that no longer match.
  • Repeated wrong passwords will lock an account for a period, to make guessing pointless. If you are locked out, use the forgotten-password route or contact support.

Anything done through your account with your credentials, we will treat as done by you. That is not a way of shifting blame if something is our fault or a genuine fraud — see section 15 — but it is why the point above matters.

5. What Somchit does, and does not do

Somchit is a receive-only service. Someone abroad hands money to a transfer partner and is given a reference. You enter that reference in the app, we check it, and the money is paid into the bank account you name. That is the service.

So that there is no confusion about what you are signing up to, Somchit today does not:

  • hold money for you. There is no balance, no wallet, and nothing to top up. Every claim is paid straight out to a bank account;
  • send money abroad, or to anyone else. You cannot pay a person or a business through Somchit;
  • pay cash over a counter. An inbound transfer is paid to a bank account, and only to a bank account;
  • issue the reference code. The sender gets that from the partner they paid, abroad. We cannot create one, and we cannot look one up for you if you have lost it — ask the sender.

The app also carries two directories — insurance companies and logistics companies operating in Laos — and a place to keep parcel tracking codes. These are information only. We are not the insurer or the carrier, we do not act as their agent, we do not check what they tell you, and any dealing you have with them is between you and them. Categories shown in the app as coming later are labels, not services; they cannot be used and nothing in this agreement promises they will arrive.

If we do add features — the ones listed in the app, or others — this agreement will be updated before they open, and the new sections will apply from then.

6. Verifying your identity

You can create an account without verifying anything. You cannot claim until you have. The law that applies to money transfers in Laos requires us to establish who our customers are, and we do that once, before your first claim.

You give your personal details and identity document number, photograph the front and back of the document, take a selfie, and follow a short guided camera sequence that proves you are really there. Your submission is then checked — by our team, or by a specialist verification partner, as described in the privacy policy.

  • Everything you submit must be genuine, current and yours. An expired document, someone else's document, or an edited image will be refused.
  • A refusal is usually fixable — most are an unreadable photograph or a document that has expired. You can submit again, and you can ask a person to look at it.
  • We may ask you to verify again later, or for more information, if your details change, your document expires, or a claim requires it. We may hold a claim until you do.
  • We can decline to verify someone, or to keep them verified, where we are not satisfied about their identity or where the law requires it.

7. Making a claim

A claim is you telling us: this transfer is mine, and here is where to pay it. You enter the 8-digit reference and your date of birth, then choose the currency you want and give the bank account to be paid into.

  • Your name must match the transfer. The sender named a recipient when they paid, and we match the whole name against your verified identity. A nickname, a shortened name or a different spelling can stop a claim that is genuinely yours — which is also what stops someone else taking it.
  • The account details are your responsibility. Check the bank, the account number and the account name before you confirm. We instruct the payout to the account you gave us.
  • Once we have instructed the payout, it cannot simply be pulled back. If money reaches an account you did not intend, tell us immediately and we will do what we can — contact the bank, trace it, ask for a return — but recovering it depends on the bank and on whoever received it. We cannot promise to get it back.
  • One transfer, one claim. A transfer that has already been collected cannot be claimed again. If the sender cancelled it before you claimed it, there is nothing for us to pay and you will need to take that up with them.

If your reference is not recognised. It usually means the sender's payment has not reached us yet, or the code was noted down wrong. Check it with the sender first. Entering wrong codes repeatedly will pause claiming on your account for a while — see section 11.

8. What happens after you submit

A person on our team checks your reference against the transfer record — this is not decided by a machine — and then the payout is instructed to your bank. Your claim tells you where it is:

Checking

We have your claim and are matching the reference. We aim to deal with this within 24 hours; claims arrive at all hours, but they are reviewed during working hours.

Accepted

The reference matched and the money is ours to pay to you.

Awaiting transfer

The payout has been instructed to your bank. The money is on its way — it has not arrived yet.

Completed

The bank has credited the account. Your slip records the reference, the sender, the account, the amount and the dates.

Not found · Failed

The reference did not match, or the payout could not be made. You are given a reason, and support can tell you what to fix. Nothing is lost: a failed claim does not consume the transfer, and you can claim again once the problem is sorted.

How long the last step takes is your bank's timing, not ours. Once we have instructed the payout, when it lands depends on the receiving bank, its cut-off times, and weekends and public holidays. Larger claims need an additional internal approval before they are instructed, so they can take longer.

9. Fees and exchange rates

  • What you will receive is shown before you confirm. The amount, the exchange rate applied, and any fee — including VAT where it applies — are on the screen where you confirm the claim. If you do not accept them, do not confirm.
  • What applies depends on the transfer the sender paid for and the currency you choose to be paid in. Choosing a different payout currency can change both the rate and the fee.
  • Rates change. An exchange rate is the rate at the time your claim is priced, not a rate we guarantee in advance or hold open indefinitely.
  • The slip is the record. Afterwards, your claim keeps a breakdown of what was actually applied. If you think it is wrong, tell us and we will check it against our records.
  • Your bank may charge you separately, and we have no control over and receive nothing from that.

10. Claiming for someone else

Money sent to a parent who does not use a smartphone can be claimed from your phone. Add them as a family member, complete their identity check, and the claim is made in their name and paid to the account you give for them.

  • You may only do this with that person's knowledge and agreement. By adding them, you are telling us you have it, and that you are entitled to act for them.
  • Their identity details must be genuine and theirs, and the same rules in section 6 apply to them.
  • You are responsible for what you do on their behalf, including the account details you give, and for passing on what they need to know — the slip, the amount, the fee.
  • They keep the same rights over their own information as any other customer, and they or you can ask us to remove them.
  • If we are not satisfied that you have authority to act for someone, we can refuse the claim.

11. Holds, locks and refusals

We can hold, refuse, reverse or pause a claim, and suspend or close an account. We do not do it lightly, and these are the reasons:

  • The law requires it. Anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing rules, sanctions, a court order, or a regulator's instruction. Where we are legally prevented from explaining, we will say only that we cannot.
  • We suspect fraud — that a claim is not yours, that documents are not genuine, or that an account has been taken over.
  • The details do not add up — a name that does not match, an expired document, an account that is not the one named.
  • Wrong codes, repeatedly. After several failed reference attempts, claiming is locked for a period — the app tells you roughly how long. It is a brake on guessing, and it clears by itself.
  • Claiming is paused on your account. This is a deliberate step by our team, and the app says so and points you to support. Contact us and we will sort it out with you.

Where we are allowed to tell you why, we will. Where a hold turns out to be unnecessary, we release it and the claim continues. A hold is not a fee — we do not charge you for reviewing your own claim.

An unclaimed transfer does not expire with us. We do not cancel or absorb a transfer because it has been sitting for a while — it stays there for you to claim. The partner the sender paid may have its own rules about cancelling or returning an uncollected transfer, and those are outside our control.

Section 12

What you must not do

Short list, and none of it is a surprise. Any of these will stop an account, and the first three we report where the law requires it.

Claim what is not yours

Using someone else's reference code or identity document, or claiming for a person who has not asked you to. A code you were not given is not an invitation.

Give false information

A forged, altered or borrowed document, a false name or date of birth, or a bank account presented as someone's when it is not. Everything you tell us has to be true.

Use Somchit for anything unlawful

Money laundering, financing terrorism, moving the proceeds of crime, evading sanctions, or any other unlawful purpose — including helping someone else do it.

Interfere with the service

Probing or attacking our systems, automating or scraping the app, reverse engineering it, working around a lock or a limit, or letting someone else use your account.

13. When something goes wrong

Money moving between countries goes wrong occasionally. What matters is what happens next.

If it is our mistake

If we pay the wrong amount, pay the wrong account through our own error, apply a fee or rate we did not show you, or lose your claim, tell us and we will put it right — correct the payment, refund what was wrongly charged, and explain what happened. We will not make you argue for that.

If it is a mistake in what you gave us

A mistyped account number, the wrong bank, or a name that does not match the account: tell us as soon as you notice. Before the payout is instructed we can usually fix it. Afterwards we will help chase it, but the outcome is in the receiving bank's hands, and we cannot promise recovery.

If it is the sender's mistake

Wrong amount, wrong recipient, wrong name — we cannot change what the sender instructed abroad. Ask the sender to sort it out with the partner they paid.

How to raise it

The in-app chat is fastest, because the team can see your claim while they read your message. Or email info@somchit.la, or call +856 20 5209 6396. We will acknowledge you promptly and aim to resolve a complaint within 30 days, telling you if something needs longer and why. If you are not happy with the answer, ask for it to be escalated and someone more senior will look at it again.

14. Availability and changes

We work to keep Somchit running, but we do not promise it will be available without interruption. It can be down for maintenance, because of a network or bank outage, or because of something outside our control. Claim reviews and payouts also depend on banking hours, weekends and public holidays.

We may change, add or withdraw features. Where a change materially affects you — a service you use going away, a new charge — we will tell you in the app in advance where we reasonably can. Interruptions and changes do not affect a transfer that is already yours: the money remains claimable.

15. Our responsibility, and its limits

We are responsible for doing what we said we would do:

  • checking your claim honestly, and instructing the payout to the account you gave us, for the amount and at the rate and fee we showed you;
  • keeping accurate records of your claims, and giving you a slip for each one;
  • looking after your personal information as set out in the privacy policy;
  • fixing our own errors, as in section 13.

We are not responsible for:

  • how long your bank takes to credit the money, or a bank refusing or returning a payment;
  • details you gave us that were wrong, or a claim delayed because your document or name did not match;
  • what the sender did or did not do abroad, or the terms of the partner they paid;
  • anything you do with an insurance company, carrier or other business you found through a directory in the app;
  • loss caused by someone using your account because your PIN, password or phone was not kept safe — unless we could have prevented it and did not;
  • events outside our reasonable control: network and power failures, bank outages, natural events, or changes in law.

Where we are liable, our liability is limited to putting the transaction right — the amount of the transfer concerned and any fee wrongly charged on it, together with direct losses you can show flowed from our error. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, such as lost profit or lost opportunity, or for loss you could have avoided by telling us promptly.

Nothing here limits liability we cannot limit by law — including for our own fraud, and any rights you have under Lao law that an agreement cannot take away. If any part of this section is unenforceable, the rest still stands.

16. The app itself

The Somchit name, logo, app and this website are ours or our licensors'. You may use the app as it is intended to be used, for your own claims — that is the whole of the permission you are given. You may not copy it, modify it, reverse engineer it, extract its data, or build something else out of it. Anything you upload stays yours; you give us permission to use it only to run the service and meet our legal obligations.

17. Ending your use of Somchit

You can stop at any time. Ask us to close your account through the app chat, by email or by phone, and we will. Deleting the app from your phone does not close your account by itself.

We may suspend or close an account where a rule in section 12 has been broken, where the law requires it, where an account has been dormant for a long time, or where we can no longer verify who the account belongs to. Except where we are legally prevented, we will tell you and explain what happens next.

Closing an account does not cancel a claim already in progress, does not remove your right to money that is genuinely yours, and does not release either of us from what we already owe. We are also required to keep transaction and identity records for a period afterwards — see how long we keep it.

18. Changes to these terms

We update this page when the service changes. The date at the top always shows the current version. For a change that materially affects you, we will give notice in the app rather than rely on you noticing this page, and where the change is significant we will give you reasonable time before it takes effect. Continuing to use Somchit after that means the updated terms apply. If you do not accept a change, you can close your account.

19. Law, language and disputes

This agreement is governed by the laws of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and the courts of Laos have jurisdiction over any dispute under it.

Before that, please come to us — most problems are a misunderstanding about a status or a rate, and are sorted out in a single conversation. See section 13.

These terms are published in English. Where we also publish a Lao version and the two differ in meaning, tell us — we will correct the translation, and we will not rely on a translation error against you.

20. How to reach us

For anything on this page — a question, a complaint, or to close your account — the fastest route is the chat inside the app, because the team can see your claim while they read your message. If you are not signed in:

Open the app Read the privacy policy