My Normal: Top-Up Cards

In the first two hours, on my very first day in Tanzania, nearly four years ago, I was told about top-up cards. I had no idea what this guy was talking about except that it related to phones and being able to call people. It honestly took me longer than I generally like to admit to understand how top-up cards work and that they are AWESOME!

So, basically you buy a certain amount of credit, say 10,000TZS (Tanzanian shillings), a little over $6. You enter the code that is on the card into your phone and then you have that much credit for texting, calling and internet (if your phone can do that). 10,000TZS usually lasts me about a month.

But the top-up cards don't stop there! That is how I purchase internet too. I get top-up cards for 25,000TZS and buy 6GB of internet and add it onto my dongle. 6GB usually lasts me a month.

This is the best one though: electricity. Yes, I pre-pay for my electricity, get a top-up receipt and when the power goes out (or before if I happen to think of it), I simply punch in the code and voila! I have power again. Granted, some times the power goes out because of a power cut...top-up cards can't help me in that circumstance. But otherwise, voila!

It definitely takes some getting used to and you have to be able to plan ahead a bit to ensure that you have phone, internet, or electricity credit, but hey! no hassles from these companies!

(Unlike the water company that has come and shut off my water twice in the last two months...)