Help! I am out of (prepaid) electricity!

Written by Delwin Keasberry Friday, 03 February 2012 22:07

Image source: sultanknish.blogspot.com

Just had an interesting experience. I was half way through putting together a video from #TweepUpBn when all of a sudden, everything in the house switched off all at once. As you do in these sorts of instances, you do either one of two things. You either first take a look at the power board to see if there was a 'trip' (is there a technical word for it?) or, if you are anything like me, you take a peek at the neighbour's place to see if their lights are still going. They were doing fine. So off I went to the power board only to find the trip switch down and the words 'low crdt' flashing back at me. I flipped it back up and it automatically flipped back down again (I have one of those clever prepaid systems).

Now what? I could have thought any of the following: "Well, I am the BruneiTweet! People come to me for answers on Twitter! I connect people to the right people! I will find the answer!" Instead, I instinctively picked up my mobile device (which was thankfully charged) pressed a few buttons and before I knew it, "Hello? Ko (big brother)? Any idea where to get a Power Card? We are out of credit." Heheh, I am oldschool like that.

Anyway, long story short, we sourced a Power Card and now the electricity is back on.

If you ever find yourself in the same situation and you happened to turn to the internet for answers and it brought you my blog, here are some of the options:

- Buy a tangible card from an authorised seller; we got ours from the Kedai Runcit on the same block as Semporna Enak Restaurant in Gadong

- Read this write-up by The Brunei Times about prepaid power users having options to buy credits online

- Buy the recharge pin code from www.incomm.com.bn

- Make use of Standard Chartered Bank's Online Prepaid Electrical Bill Payment system (or call +673 2658000 to ask about it)

- Send me a tweet (@BruneiTweet) and I will get you sorted (probably by getting my brother's help, heheh)

(Are there any other options that I missed?)

Hope that helps.