What are the advantages and disadvantages of prepaid meters?

2018/06/14 20:08:58
Author: Colin Bouwer

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What are the advantages and disadvantages of prepaid meters?
Prepaid meters can be a useful tool for managing your energy costs. As the name suggests they require you to pay for your energy in advance. With a prepaid meter it’s much easier to avoid building up a debt for your water and electricity

Advantages of prepaid meters
* You’re in control of how much and how often you top up
* You don’t have to worry about building up debt as you purchase your energy before you use it making you more aware of your running energy costs
* You always have an idea of what your remaining balance is as it’s displayed clearly on the meter screen which helps you avoid nasty surprises
* You don’t receive any bills, you pay in advance
Disadvantages of Prepaid meters
* Prepaid meters are more expensive to operate than other types of meter which means you might not be able to access the cheapest tariffs available
* Topping up at a local newsagent, petrol station or supermarket is inconvenient (especially when it’s cold)
* If your prepaid meter has run out of credit and your supply is off, to restore your supply you will need to access your meters directly which may be positioned out of easy reach
* You may also need to account for any debt repayment plan that has been agreed
* This could mean you need to top-up a bit more than you usually would so please be aware this may affect your budgeting

Your energy usage will almost certainly increase during winter months; meaning your weekly top-ups would also have to increase. When you ‘pay-as-you-go’ this may be even more noticeable and have greater impact on your daily and weekly budgeting. It may help to spread out your payments evenly over the year to build up credit during the summer months, ready for the winter. If you leave home for several days, you must remember to charge your key or card, and to credit your meter. This is because your credit is used to pay for your daily standing charge (on selected tariffs) and any debt repayments – so if you don’t charge your meter enough before going away, appliances that you may want to have on all the time (for example, freezers) may switch off.

There’s been much discussion about reducing electricity consumption and saving on your electricity bills. But HIGH electricity bills remain a concern for many people. As a result, many have controlled their energy consumption more actively by switching to prepaid electricity. Rates4u (https://1click-info.rates4u.co.za/) would like to illuminate the subject and give you the pros and cons so you have enough information to decide what would work best for you.

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Tenant: For many tenants, a prepaid electricity meter is the most convenient way to manage their electricity expenses. Not only does it save money but it also eliminates any unpleasantness that tenants might experience when querying the bill with their landlords.

Disconnect services: You must maintain your account balance at or above the disconnection balance. Otherwise, your service may get disconnected.

When your units run out: When your prepaid electricity account runs out of units, your service gets turned off.

Bad weather: You’ll have to top-up more often when the weather is cold outside.

Remember to TOP-UP: If you go on a business trip or take a holiday, you have to remember to make sure your account has enough credit, so you don’t lose electricity while you’re away, which could cause many problems (e.g., coming home to spoiled food since your refrigerator lost electricity).

For more prepaid energy meterinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.