Pre-paid electricity

You guys are SUCH nerds.  Have you never heard of pre-paid electricity?  We have pre-paid electricity, pre-paid telephones, pre-paid cell phones etc.  It is actually quite a good idea if you think about it, win-win situation for all.  Here in SA, there are a lot of (poor) people who do not have access to credit, in the form of credit cards, accounts etc.  In fact a large percentage of our country’s population is un-banked, or under-banked.  This is due to high levels of poverty and unemployment. 

What do you do when you have no job, no income, yet you want to purchase electricity or talk time on your cell phone?  You buy it with cash when you have it, i.e. pre-paid, or not at all. Who is going to grant you credit when you don’t have a fixed address because you stay in a shack and no income because you are unemployed?

Rose has a pre-paid cell phone, she buys ‘talk time’ or ‘air time’ in certain amounts when she has money.  Or like today for example, I buy it for her.  (Rose v v bad with managing her money, spends it all in the first week on clothes and shoes).  My cell phone is on contract, in other words I pay for my usage at the end of the month.  I have a job, I have an income that allows me to have credit.  But some people choose to be on pre-paid any way, just because they prefer paying for things upfront and not waiting for the surprise at the end of the month.

Pre-paid opens up a whole new world of utilities and communication to people who never before had access to these things. 

This is how pre-paid electricity works (it’s a fairly new thing here, last 10 years or so, the older houses still have the system where you pay for your usage at the end of the month, but all the new houses have pre-paid boxes).  The electricity people come and install a pre-paid meter in your house.  You then buy virtual tokens for the meter, either by taking your electricity card (like a swipe credit card) to the local grocery store, or 7/11 etc, or via the internet, or via your cell phone.  You decide how much you want to purchase.  10 bucks, 100 bucks ,500 bucks, whatever amount.  You decide the amount and you will be issued with a 20-digit number (the virtual token) that you then have to enter into your meter.  Once you hit enter on your meter (it is a small box, about A5 size, mine is in my garage), the box sends a signal via wireless radio transmission to a receiving beacon, the token is verified, and access to the purchased amount of electricity is returned to the meter.  Voila!  You have electricity. No mess, no fuss.

I don’t often run out of electricity because Marko walks past the meter when he gets out his car every day (a red pilot light also flashes to tell you when you are running low).  But because he has been away I forgot.  I normally buy for about three months at a time.  So it was actually HIS fault, like every thing else around here. 

Buying pre-paid talk time also works the same way.  You purchase a certain denomination, you are then issued with a virtual token, you enter the token and you are allocated the purchased amount of talk time in return.

Sheez, you guys are SO last season. 

Winner story:  About three years ago M and I woke up at about 3 am to discover that the electricity had run out.  We thought about leaving it until morning but we were scared there would be no hot water for a shower in the morning.  So clever, technologically-advanced (not to mention G&D) me came up with this cunning, Magyver-like plan.  Got up, fired up laptop (luckily there was enough battery time left on the laptop), dialed in, signed on to electricity website, took out credit card, (all in the dark), held card up to light of laptop screen to read number, entered number, bought tokens, logged off, took laptop to meter, held up laptop to meter so that light of screen could shine on keypad, keyed in token number, electricity restored.  Total time elapsed – 8 minutes.  Including Ibex-speed dial up, log on and log off.  How cool am I!  Tertia = total winner.

This time was only slightly less impressive with me sitting in restaurant (drinking), Marko in Johannesburg (working) a few thousand miles away, my credit in my purse, Rose at home on her cell phone (stressing) and between the three of us we managed to purchase electricity virtually and within a few minutes. 

And you call *US* third world ;-)

BTW – have you noticed I have gmail now?  Am v cool in nerdy-type way.  Even cooler, gmail is set up in such a way that I read and reply to message in Outlook Express meaning I get my offline replication functionality I was looking for. 

Sometimes I amaze myself with my extraordinary intelligence.  (Not to mention my good looks, wit and charm)

Ok, I can’t lie to you, it wasn’t me who set it up.  It was one of the techie dudes at work.  But it took great intelligence to delegate said task.

Shutting up now. 

One last thing.  Why are my footnotes and PS’es getting longer than my posts?

PS  Do you think I will ever shut up*?

PPS  Really going now.  Good night.

*Not while I drink wine when blogging.

Comments

[neety]

Wow, that sounds totally crazy! We MUST be living in the dark ages in Sydney, I've only ever heard of pre-paid mobile phones.
I don't think I like the idea for me, I'd properly always forget about it and then find myself having cold showers and no coffee in the morning.
Good idea though - especially if you live in a shack. Although I always imagined people that lived in shacks just had candles. I never knew of high-tech shacks! I wonder if there's shacks with high speed internet, jaffle makers, and 64 inch televisions? I don't think I'd like living in a shack at all.

[Boulder]

Tertia=G&D nerd.

The pre-paid thing is very interesting. We too have pre-paid cell phones, etc. But haven't heard of pp-electricity in US. The way you tell it, the idea makes sense - giving access to technology & electricity, etc to those who don't have credit available to them.

I wonder if the ecomony here would shut down if it made a shift to buying only what you could afford in the given moment. That hasn't been the American way for some time now - generations in fact.

[Bee]

TERTIA!!! I totally set up my gmail account on my own - took 5 minutes. Therefore am more g&d than you in that regard! Haha - I wiiiieen. I completely HATE pre-paid electricity. Feels like is always a monkey on your shoulder waiting for you to run out. Always felt cursed by it - but hey that's just me. Email me on gmail acc as above

[Boulder]

WAIT!! - we also have pre-paid IVF.

Now, what you use for currency is your choice (check, cash, credit), but it MUST be paid for before any expense on the RE's part. You can pre-pay as you go, or pre-pay the entire amount.

Are RE's very fashion forward in this thought?

[corvine]

Pre-paid electricity is pretty common in the UK, too. My first flat had an old coin meter (ate 50p's, pain in the arse), but since then I've had it billed. It's the same - low-income people prepay using a coin meter or top-up swipe card, but I don't think it's as widespread as in SA.

and yay for gmail!

[Jen (yup, another one)]

What's A5?

[Kez]

Had prepaid electricity when I lived in the UK (yep, the ol' 50p meter) and I hated it too. Like getting to a fabulous will-they won't-they moment in The X Files and having the TV go off, and having to scritch around in the pitch dark looking for more 50p's. Or no power halfway through the macaroni and cheese in the microwave. Luckily a mate gave us a master key that opened the meter box and when the power went off, we'd just open the box, take out the coins we'd previously deposited and use them again. Of course, we replaced them later when we had change. Yah, right ;)
Couldn't see it taking off here in Australia, but you're right Tertia, good for people who can't get credit. I'd rather have someone text me to tell me the power will be cut off in 24 hours unless I cough up, and then I pay it online ASAP.
We have prepaid mobile phones here but that's about it I think. Maybe we had coin operated meters in the past. Must ask my olds - I'm too young to remember :)

[Judy]

Paying up front would work if I actually could get ahead and pay off some of my bills! However, when I started charging my utility bill to my cc I knew I was in trouble!

I'm gonna have to find SOMETHING that pays pretty soon or we'll be in the dark!

[Bee]

Ok ok I take it back - YOU are the ruler of all you survey. I bow to your superior intellect oh wise one. Now tell me how to hook up Outlook to Gmail dammit. (I can totally hook you up - haha)

[Michele]

I have a prepaid Virgin phone because when I did the cell phone on contract thing it went to waste. I rarely use my cell phone, so it is perfect for me to be able to add $20 to it every other month.

Also, I'm famous for losing cell phones.

I love my prepaid cell phone!!!

[KelliAmanda]

Well, we do have prepaid cell service, and prepaid electric sounds like a good idea, as I personally hate getting a bill that's much higher than I'm anticipating. The problem for me, though, would be having to plan ahead so as to have money for electricity! That would be terrible, as I can't manage money for the life of me (shameful, I know...).

On another note - your writing style makes me laugh sometimes! I particularly love the "Am v cool in nerdy-type way." You're too funny (and g&d!!!).

[Rebecca]

I lived in Germany in the late 90s and we had prepaid cell there too and I LOVED it. So much easier to manage. You talk until you are broke. end of story. We didn't pay for incoming calls on the cell either. When I moved back to the USA I missed it honestly. Now I am back in Germany and loving the prepaid cell.

Prepaid is really a win-win deal.

[Laura]

Another Jen,
I think A5 is a paper size, close to 8 1/2 x 11" like we have in the U.S.

[stephu]

your resident translator strikes again!

Short answer:
A5 is about half the size of 8 1/2 x 11.

Long answer
A (and B) paper sizes are a very clever innovation because everything is proportionate to everything else and you can tell by the number how big or small it is. A4 is almost equivalent to 8 1/2 x 11. If you fold an A4 in half, you get A5. If you put 2 A4s next to each other you get A3 (much like an 11x17). And so on.. 2 A3s make A2, 1/2 an A5 is an A6. You also have B paper sizes, which follow the same principle but the sides are in different proportions to one another.

The proportions of A paper are not quite the same as 8 1/2 x 11, i forget the exact lengths of the sides. Perhaps (don't quote me) B paper sizes are the same as 8 1/2 x 11...

S

[Debi]

Can you talk Rose into putting 5 or 10% of her weekly earnings into savings? Whether that be your personal safe/bank et?

I am Rose but in the US and I care for their Dog not a set of twins. My friend offered to set up a savings account for me but I am too daft at the moment just wanting to spend my newly small amount of money I get on me. But in theory the idea is Divine.

[Annie]

What is gmail?

[expat]

I always had a prepaid mobile at home - loved it because I knew exactly how much I was using.

(can't do it in America - crap and pricey SMS service, and phones hardwired to companies)

I'd like to have the warning partway through the month that I was churning through the power. Except that our phone is cordless, and runs on power, so I could never get more...

[Jessica]

Tertia,

I have been reading your blog for a few months and was immediately hooked. You sound like a very interesting, nice, and witty person. You sound like an excellent, loving mother. I like the different questions you ask.

I am not one to ever ask for trouble. I don't like it when people are outright mean to others, or are judgmental, and are just out hurt other people's feelings. So, with that said, I have a question for you. I am feeling embarassed about it, because of that "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" stuff. Also, I know that I have a choice whether or not to read your blog.

However, lately you seem to (God, this sounds silly to write) just go on and on about how gorgeous and fabulous you are. I know that is your thing, that you are gorgeous and divine. From the picture that you had up (before the naked babies) I would say that you are very pretty. I don't know if you are just joking, but it is hard for me to sort of relate to you because I feel like maybe you think you are better than everyone else. Am I wrong? Am I missing that maybe you are just being funny and I am foolish enough not to get it?

[Jen (yup, another one)]

Stephu - thanks for the translation!!

Now I'll return the favor:

Annie, gmail is an online e-mail service sponsored by Google. It lets you store a TON of e-mail and has some other unique features but the storage is the only thing that really matters to me.

[amy]

this prepaid electricity thing is about to come to Canada (well, I think it already is in some parts) but where I live it is suppose to be installed in the next couple of years. The only thing that is a bugger about it is the cost of them installing the meter. That is going to make our rates jump by quite a bit. Does sound pretty easy though!

[Gina]

I'm surprised that no one in the US has heard of prepaid electricity. I live in Arizona and when I got my first apartment a few years ago it was offered to me as an option, but I chose the end-of-the-month bills instead. Is AZ the only state that offers that? I don't think it's very popular, but we definitely have it. Strange...

And I just have to add, to Jessica, I personally take Tertia's comments about being gorgeous, divine, etc, as a part of her humor. Rather than making me think that she's full of herself or conceited or whatever else, it gives me the impression that she doesn't take herself too seriously, because it's done jokingly. I seem to remember it being brought up in the past as a sort of empowerment phrase for her and her friends to say to themselves in humor. Like instead of getting down on yourself, you tell yourself you are gorgeous and divine. That's just how I remember it though, so maybe Tertia can fill us in on how she sees it.

[mim]

The instructions for reading and saving gmail messages using an e-mail clients (like Outlook or Eudora or Thunderbird or whatever) are available from gmail. Just log in, go to Settings, then click on Forwarding and POP, then choose to enable the feature etcetc, then there's configuration instructions for a lot of e-mail clients. A lot of the instructions include little auto-configuration tools, but it's just as easy to do manually, and in general, manual is what I'd recommend:)

I personally use yahoo more cos it's got 1gb of storage (same as gmail? or is gmail more now?) and I'm probably never going to hit that:p and yahoo has my! yahoo and messenger and all sorts of other stuff that I use a lot. But no POP access, so if you want to do the offline replication stuff then gmail's still the way to go.

Also, I hate when people say things like, "I don't intend for this to be rude/hurt your feelings/mean/obnoxious/whatever BUT..." and then lots of exactly that! I mean, how else could you possibly mean it?!
Tertia (besides being g&d) is funny! It's tongue-in cheek! Seriously, I don't mean to be grumpy, but you are a rudesby, to go on her comments and imply that she's conceited, then claim that you don't mean to be mean! (I echoed the sentence structure on purpose by the way.)

Please re-read!

"Sometimes I amaze myself with my extraordinary intelligence. (Not to mention my good looks, wit and charm)

Ok, I can’t lie to you, it wasn’t me who set it up. It was one of the techie dudes at work. But it took great intelligence to delegate said task." (from Tertia's post)

It's witty & funny (henceforth w&f:p)

[Meggan]

Tertia, you are hilarious. I never comment (well, except for on the survey post, but you said we HAD TO) but man, I think I might love you. The G&D thing cracks me up daily.

Also, in reference to Jessica, I agree with Gina. That's how I take it, anyway.

And I've never heard of pre-paid electricity. Sounds like a good idea though.

[projgen]

Never heard of pre-paid electric until now, but it sounds very logical! We have pre-paid cellular, but unfortunately, there's a stigma attached to it - only "poor" people (read: losers) have to get pre-paid cell. I think it's getting better (am seeing more friends getting pre-paid), so hopefully that stigma will be gone soon and rather than being seen as "losers" people who use pre-paid will be seen as forward-thinkers who take advantage of plans that help them take advantage of technology.

[Gina]

Ok, am I the only one who thought you were actually putting tokens in the meter? Come on, I can't be?