Does a prepaid meter actually save money?

[Freaksta]

For Tshwane the prepaid and normal tariffs are the same price. I switched to pre-paid 3 years ago when I saw a billboard which promised 20% saving. Now, I think I was a fool for not checking properly.

Where it does help, is to buy a lot of electricity before a price increase. I am still using electricity on the pre July 2011 prices, and we are almost at the next increase again. So I made my saving there.

The other nice thing is that there is no stupid readings (happened to my water bill the last 2 months where the first one was double the normal amount, and this month I have to pay nothing for water).

The bad thing is that they block you from buying electricity as soon as there is a payment outstanding on your normal rates/services account.

Yea patents did that too, purchased 30k worth of electricity over about a month or so! Lasted pretty long lol

 

[Fudzy]

Yea patents did that too, purchased 30k worth of electricity over about a month or so! Lasted pretty long lol

Be careful of IBT when you do that, you could be purchasing a lot less than you expect.

 

[Albereth]

For Tshwane the prepaid and normal tariffs are the same price. I switched to pre-paid 3 years ago when I saw a billboard which promised 20% saving. Now, I think I was a fool for not checking properly.

Where it does help, is to buy a lot of electricity before a price increase. I am still using electricity on the pre July 2011 prices, and we are almost at the next increase again. So I made my saving there.

The other nice thing is that there is no stupid readings (happened to my water bill the last 2 months where the first one was double the normal amount, and this month I have to pay nothing for water).

The bad thing is that they block you from buying electricity as soon as there is a payment outstanding on your normal rates/services account.

How does it help? There is a step rate for electricity - the more you buy, the less you get.

 

[zamicro]

How does it help? There is a step rate for electricity - the more you buy, the less you get.

Example if you use 1000 units per month:
The current peak tariff starts at 600kwh and is R1.15 ex vat. Thus 1000 * 1.15 = 1150.
The cost of buying 1000kwh (incl discount) is 50kwh*R0.965 + 300kwh*R1.026 + 250kwh*R1.0852 + 400kwh*R1.15 = R1119.05
R1150 - 1119.05 = R30.95 * 1.14 vat = R35.28 which you will lose per month because of the discount.

But, with the new prices it will be:
The cost of buying 1000kwh (incl discount) is:
100kwh*R1.0326 + 300kwh*R1.1652 + 250kwh*R1.2154 + 350kwh*R1.2936 = R1209.43
Thus a saving of R1209.43-R1150=R59.43 ex vat

Now if you are using 1500 units/month like me, then it becomes for the year:
1500kwh * 12 months * R1.15 = R20700 ex vat if I buy it this month and
100kwh*R1.0326 + 300kwh*R1.1652 + 250kwh*R1.2154 + 850kwh*R1.2936 = R1856.23 * 12 months = R22274.76 ex vat for the year.
So it is still a saving of R22274.76 - R20700 = R1574.76 * 1.14 vat = R1795.23 incl vat.

Now the question is, would I have earned a better return elsewhere? And I can still buy electricity every month, just to enjoy the saving of the cheaper units up to 650kwh.

 

[zamicro]

How does it help? There is a step rate for electricity - the more you buy, the less you get.

To add: If you use less than 100kwh/month, then it does not make sense to buy it in bulk. From next month all units more than 100 will cost more than the current max rate.

EDIT: Both these posts are for Tshwane only.

 

[waynegohl]

A Broken Pre-Paid Meter Saves You Money Indeed.

Yesterday at about 2:45pm I find that the electricity is off in the house. I look at the box and there are no figures on the box screen and besides there were 30 odd units just that morning BUT I do find the switch of the box is down which was weird. I try to switch the box on but the box keeps tripping. I turn off all the switches in the big board and slowely one by one run through them but still nothing so assume it's out all over. I look outside and see neighbours talking to each other and again assume that they are also off. About an hour later my wife rocks up and I ask her if the shops and the robots on the main road are off as we all on the same grid so she says no go next door and ask them. The neighbours are on and they say it's the box so phone the 0800...number.

Within an hour the technicians arrive and change the box (we been in this house 10 years and never had an issue with the box) and install a new modern slick unit and the gave us about 80 or so units above the 30 or so we had in the box. When they left there was 101 units.

I phoned the 0800.... number later to thank the lady who I spoke to for the quick service.

The only problem we had after all this was done was the fact that my wife had spent R70 on units for the old box as she had no idea that the box had stopped working but I did phone the 0800.. number again this morning to sort that issue out and they will issue us with another set of numbers for the new meter.