PREPAYMENT METERING BENEFITS

For Owners and Body Corporates
Prepayment meters can either replace an existing meter or be installed as a sub-meter with the existing meter being retained as a check meter
Prepayment meters reduce the risk of non-payment; split meters reduce this risk further, the meter is locked away and the resident only has access to an in-home display.
Prepayment vending reports show monthly sales values.
Low and no sales may indicate tampering or a fault.
High sales may indicate overcrowding.
Should residents be in arrears, the owner may agree to a payment plan, these arrears may be recovered using the vending system, the arrear instalment as agreed would need to be paid before any electricity units .
Cash flow is enhanced as payment for the electricity sold is received before the council account is due.
There is no need for monthly readings, accounts and follow-ups for payment
No need to disconnect for non-payment, the meter does this automatically.

For Residents.
The meter or display shows how many units are available as well as an LED light that flashes to indicate electricity consumption. Therefore you have constant visibility of your electricity use.
This allows residents to budget and control their electricity costs.
Prepayment meters allow residents to extract information from the meter, examples are how much power is currently being consumed, other meters may allow users to compare consumption for the previous 24 hours to the 24hour prior to that or for the last month compared to the month before that. These are handy tools to assess your consumption and see if any changes are required.

METHODS TO SELL OR PURCHASE TOKENS

Direct from the owner / caretaker.
There are 2 prepayment vending systems available, firstly the owner or his caretaker can sell tokens directly to the tenants, they can immediately receive payment and hand-over the electricity token. This option is cheaper as no fees are payable to a shop to sell the tokens and works well if there is already a caretaker on site. Levubu Prepayment Services supplies a list of tokens for each meter, the caretaker receives payment and supplies a token. These tokens are provided to the owner at a charge of R 5 each.

Third-party sales points.
Some clients prefer that the residents are able to purchase tokens at a third party retailer, preferably with extended vending hours or 24 hour operations. In this instance the residents can purchase a UniPIN at their local Sasol, Spar, BP, Caltex www.prepaid24.co.za or local store. The resident selects the UniPIN valus that he would like to purchase, the following denominations are available :- R20, R30,R 50, R100, R250, R500. The receipt contains a PIN number which is sent along with their meter number using a USSD (*120* _ _ _) transaction from their cellphone. They type in the 11 digit meter number star and then the PIN number, the message can be sent via SMSto 41589 or USSD (*120* xxx) method. The system processes the request and a 20 digit electricity token number is returned via SMS. Electricity refunds are made at the beginning of the following month. Third party tokens are generated at a cost of 14% of the transaction value.

Electricity token sheet

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