App for purchasing prepaid electricity

application...

not wanting to hijack the thread...

from www.powertime.co.za
BlackBerry Application
Did you know that Powertime has a Blackberry application? Check out the Blackberry App World for more info!

maybe it is the one he referenced. Just for info - I buy my electricity mostly on powertime.co.za (although its not the cheapest - a service fee apply I think relating to credit card) ... maybe there is some price benefit using the app but I doubt it.

c
 
my bill

KSINGH said:
Yip. Powertime. Any idea what the fee is?
Click to expand...

As said I buy online with a registered credit card. I think part of the fee is credit card payment charges related (ie. you can't pay electricity on credit card at your local point of sale)

On R500 purchase I get...
Electricity Value VAT Electricity Units Receipt Number
R 423.25 R 59.25 431.10 kWh 4xxx/52xxxxx

Total paid
R482.50 (That mean R17-50 in fees/privilige to buy online, but is sliding scale depend on amount)

There are a lot of electricity vendors online - the cheapest would probably be if you can find one that accept EFT where you yourself pay transfer charges upfront as banking fees.

Out of interest - referencing an earlier post our council (Ekurhuleni) is supposed to charge R0.97/kWh (EXCLUDING VAT) or my interpretation thereof. I see the paid Powertime rate calculates to R0.98 (EXCLUDING VAT). Maybe they have some fine print stating that they charge more to cover their obvious expenses - website, hosting, staffing etc.

Anyway...the approx R5 paid as hidden fee (unless I'm totally wrong) and the R17-50 is still very convenient and affordable compared to having to get in a car and drive to a local shop and hope and pray that they are actually online so you can buy electricity. Powertime only had 1 problem with supplying me with a voucher (30 minute wait before trying again and succeeding) wheras my local point of sale is offline 25-50% of the time. Then you have to start driving around 'hunting' for your electricity!

But hey - if I'm in a shop with cash in hand and I see the electricity stall is open then I will definitely still buy on the spot.

Powertime provide the quota free units of electricity aswell, so no loss there. AS a nice feature they started keeping 'track' of electricity usage over a period...too soon to see if that is really worth anything but at least they try to improve on their service offering.

I can't think that the BB application would be any cheaper..... but maybe so convenient you don't even have to switch PC on... you could be saving electricity in the process ie. some bucks?!? Who knows? :-)

Regds,
c
 
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I use ibuy.co.za, no additional fees for buying electricity. Also FNB Acc holders can buy electricity from their Internet Banking also with no transaction fees.
The only thing power time has over ibuy is the wap site, but at R17.50 transaction fee i rather use the desktop.
 
Just a question CranialBlaze... is your payments/kWh matching exactly with what your municipality/supplier states? In the initial stages my gf tried to pay on our meter with FNB...at that stage the meter/municipality was not linked yet - I guess we never tried again. I guess the Banks would be the best way to go if you can trust them :-)
 
cluney said:
Just a question CranialBlaze... is your payments/kWh matching exactly with what your municipality/supplier states? In the initial stages my gf tried to pay on our meter with FNB...at that stage the meter/municipality was not linked yet - I guess we never tried again. I guess the Banks would be the best way to go if you can trust them :-)
Click to expand...

not a cent difference between Municipal and ibuy, i checked that when i firs started, also noted last night that powertime showed me the same unit charge when i registered. When i first tried FNB it never accepted my Meter No., then 2 maybe 3 weeks later i tried again and it worked.
 
will get my wife to check out the ABSA option as well.
 
KSINGH said:
will get my wife to check out the ABSA option as well.
Click to expand...

checked, ABSA dont have it.

Ben Mossel Bay said:
Hi guys you can try our service at www.prepaid24.co.za. You can purchase from us via EFT. We support a lot of munic's including Cape town, tswane and JHB. You regsiter on the site, it takes less than a minute, do your transaction, and you should receive your token in less than 10 minutes. Please come back and comment on the service once you have tried us. Yes, and we do not have a service charge! Hope we can be of service...
Click to expand...

Thanks Ben for the suggestion.
 
just a note that I got an email about re-registering on prepaid24. was a long email. has any registered members re-registered. something about another sms type of service.
 
The Ammo app works on my Bold 9700.

There is R3/R100 service fee when loading money onto your account.
 
vdda said:
The Ammo app works on my Bold 9700.

There is R3/R100 service fee when loading money onto your account.
Click to expand...

wow, thats quite harsh. 3% from you as well as the kickback from the municipality. How do they justify it?
 
Doh! You're right Madman. I had my facts wrong.

The 3% is for credit or cheque card banking fees (loading via EFT is free). The cost for the electricity is the same as it would be at any other point of sale.
 
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