Advantages / Disadvantages
When using the ”credit meter”(postpaid), the consumer is not visually in control of his/her consumption and only has visibility of his consumption when the bill is delivered at the end of the month and many consumers do not fully understand the accounts for the billed system or how the amounts are calculated.
In prepayment system the customer has full visibility and is in total control of the consumption. Since the prepaid meter provides a continuous display of how much electricity he/she has left and the prepaid meter also has a flashing light showing how fast he/she is using electricity, many consumers find it much easier to budget their electricity usage and to actually save electricity.
Prepaid also allows the consumer to only pay for what he/she can afford in advance and forced to make it last, so it's a bit more budget friendly. With a ”credit meter” (postpaid) it is difficult for the consumer to control what he / she uses and in a way is less budget friendly since he/she could use more than he/she budgeted or can afford for that month.
With prepaid meters there will be no embarrassing manual disconnections for non payment and consumers will save the applicable “disconnection / reconnection fees “.
A landlord is assured that his / her tenant is paying for electricity before consuming it. This ensures that the landlord will not be stuck with large unpaid bill at the end of a lease.
Once the meter is installed, residents will benefit in the following ways:
• No more meter reading estimates
• No more bill surprises
• Better oversight on consumption with an in-home display, making budgeting easier.
Prepaid meters can be inconvenient, if you don't have Internet access you will have to go out to a “vendor” (shop) to purchase a token. If you can’t reach a “vendor” (shop) to top up your meter, your electricity will be off until you get access to a "vendor" (shop).
With prepaid, your electricity is disconnected as soon as your units reach a zero balance while with the post-paid system, you can pay your bills monthly without being disconnected.
