Thoughts on Safaricom Post Pay – One Month Later

If you’re thinking of switching to Safaricom Post Pay, the first article you should read is the one I did over a month ago. Here it is:

It explains almost everything to detail and packs all the necessary information you’ll need. This current post is a look back at how my first month has been on Post Pay.

Here are the things I’ve loved most about Post Pay:

1. An easy life – I can make calls, browse the internet, and live simply. This is because I have set a limit, and I know how much I’ll pay at the end of the month.
2. No hustle on whether or not I have airtime– I have a credit limit that I can use up as much as I want and wait for the bill at the end of the month. There’s no topping up airtime or anything else.
3. Organised spending – With my limit, I have set the maximum I am willing to spend on my SIM card in a month. So I have a budget and I’m spending according to the budget. Unlike the past where nothing was organised.

So what happens after the month elapses?

1. All unused resources roll over to the new month. So if you have a postpay bundle, your remaining minutes, data, etc. will rollover.
2. The Post Pay bundle you are on auto-renews itself from your new month’s credit limit.
3. You get a message on your outstanding bill from the last month.

What I like is even without paying last month’s bill, my new month’s resources are already allocated and usable. I have until the 16th of each new month to ensure I’ve made payment. After the 16th is when there’ll be issue if I haven’t paid.

Here is how it went for me:

On April 1st I received a message that my KES. 1000 bundle had been autorenewed.

On April 2nd I received a message that my outstanding bill as of 1st April was 1394.79. This is what I spent during the month of March. To make the payment, I needed to go to M-Pesa and use Paybill 200200 with my phone number.

On April 4th I made payment. I decided to try out excess payment to see what happens. And it worked. The excess payment was credited to my Post Pay account, and that amount is shown in the MySafaricom App as pre-payment. Also, my credit limit increased from 1800 to 3405 automatically. So I won’t have to make any payments for this month. And I can also easily spend an upward of 3405 and pay later. (But I will be reducing the limit to 1800 because that’s where I am comfortable).

What isn’t very smooth:

1. Safaricom needs to properly explain the bills. It felt confusing. People need to understand where the extra cents come from – with premium USSD codes and all. I think a proper breakdown of every spent cent will be very welcome.
2. For many people, the signup process is still a pain. Hopefully, this will be sorted. If you can’t sign up for Post Pay, reach out to Safaricom, they helped me with my move from Blaze.
3. The Postpay bundles though quite good, don’t quite suit everyone. You can sign up and choose not to buy any postpay bundle, and just buy other bundles. You will still be on Post Pay. Which is what I think I’ll do from next month as 5GB is proving not to be enough.
4. I am yet to receive any email even though this was promised. I think emails are a good way to track bills, payments, and any other usage or charges. A full email explaining all used resources will be very welcome.

How Post Pay could be better:

I know Safaricom has promised big things in the future. From buying of devices on Post Pay, to calls to more countries. These are important, but I think my suggestions below are even better:

1. Better explain how to add other Safaricom bills to Post Pay – For example, I’ve seen one can add their HOME FIBRE account bills to their Post Pay, and I’d like to know how this is done, so I have only one bill every month.
2. Have a family postpay option – One family gets one bill for their different phone numbers. Have a portal where parents set credit limits, and buy bundles for all phone numbers. This will work very well with the device financing plans Safaricom currently has.
3. Sharing of Post Pay – This is like the family plan, but only for people with multiple devices. So that if someone has an always-connected laptop, a tablet, and a phone, instead of always tethering their WiFi from the phone, they can have all their 3 SIM cards as part of one Post Pay plan with one bill at the end of the month.
4. Automated payments – Have M-Pesa automated payments so that one doesn’t have to remember to key in stuff to make payments. Similar in fashion to how bank accounts allow automated transfers.

So one month later, should you sign up? If you’ve loved what you’ve read from the first post, to this one, then I think you should get on board. No more buying airtime when you want to make a call, or buy a bundle.