Paying your electric bill online...but not being able to get a bill to begin with
Hi, all! Just posted this on expat.com (definitely recommend that site to anyone who really wants advice on moving/buying in Caribbean) I thought I'd share the post here since it's germane to my desire to chronicle our adventures buying a vacation home in the Caribbean.
Electricity is a love hate relationship on an island. You need it. It costs the most and is basically the only utility bill you will have. AND it's almost never working! LOL!
I was told by many that there was no way to pay your electric bill online in the DR. I have luckily discovered that's not true. If you have a xoom account (I've posted before about wiring money to bank accounts and for cash pick up with them before...it has been so far a very positive experience...and has gotten cheaper! ...) AND you have your account number...you can pay instantly online! It's awesome! I'm amazed so far at how easy things have been buying a house there. I LOVE THAT THE BANKS HAVE NO STAKE IN IT!
Now for a brief history on our adventures with Edenorte:
So, we bought a solid little two bedroom concrete villa that needed some tlc. My better half has spent several trips getting the plumbing and electrical up to snuff...a young family built on the adjacent lots and the builders sort of ransacked our house for the water to build...no problem, reattached the water lines, etc...let them use the pool...even had them repaint the roof and inside...yada yada...fast forward a couple months. While we were there in December...we came home after dinner and noticed the power was out...no biggie...this is the DR...and we haven't gotten a back up system yet...looked over at the neighbors house and noticed that their battery back up light was NOT on...hmmm...that's not a good sign. It's dark out and we walk over to the pole and see that Edenorte had been out to install a meter for the neighbors and saw that we had no meter....thus no business having power so...snip. Electricity cut. Not totally unexpected. We were planning on going into town to officially sign up for an account the next day...but, as luck would have it (and even after all the assurances that they wouldn't notice for a few days that we were there since the house had been basically empty for 10 years...cut...) So, our friendly neighbors start calling around to help us out and I finally realize they are just trying to find someone to illegally reattach us...something like "Juan is a guy we know that could probably get you power for like 1500 pesos...he just needs to find a ladder" To which I say "uh...he works for Edenorte?" (laughter) "No. He'll just get you power." "Well, if what I think you are saying is...just steal the power back...my husband can reattach us and then we'll go down tomorrow and open up an account" "Sh$#! If your husband can do that...have at it!" And he did. So then we went down and got an account rolling and they were to contact us via our real estate agent and/or neighbors to let us know what our account number is, so I could try the xoom transfer. Fast forward again. Our power was turned off AGAIN (but not cut...thank god for the meter install) because we hadn't paid bill...and no one but us was allowed to, but luckily we got a copy of the latest bill and it had our account number. Voila! We are legal paying customers of Edenorte now. :-)
Electricity is a love hate relationship on an island. You need it. It costs the most and is basically the only utility bill you will have. AND it's almost never working! LOL!
I was told by many that there was no way to pay your electric bill online in the DR. I have luckily discovered that's not true. If you have a xoom account (I've posted before about wiring money to bank accounts and for cash pick up with them before...it has been so far a very positive experience...and has gotten cheaper! ...) AND you have your account number...you can pay instantly online! It's awesome! I'm amazed so far at how easy things have been buying a house there. I LOVE THAT THE BANKS HAVE NO STAKE IN IT!
Now for a brief history on our adventures with Edenorte:
So, we bought a solid little two bedroom concrete villa that needed some tlc. My better half has spent several trips getting the plumbing and electrical up to snuff...a young family built on the adjacent lots and the builders sort of ransacked our house for the water to build...no problem, reattached the water lines, etc...let them use the pool...even had them repaint the roof and inside...yada yada...fast forward a couple months. While we were there in December...we came home after dinner and noticed the power was out...no biggie...this is the DR...and we haven't gotten a back up system yet...looked over at the neighbors house and noticed that their battery back up light was NOT on...hmmm...that's not a good sign. It's dark out and we walk over to the pole and see that Edenorte had been out to install a meter for the neighbors and saw that we had no meter....thus no business having power so...snip. Electricity cut. Not totally unexpected. We were planning on going into town to officially sign up for an account the next day...but, as luck would have it (and even after all the assurances that they wouldn't notice for a few days that we were there since the house had been basically empty for 10 years...cut...) So, our friendly neighbors start calling around to help us out and I finally realize they are just trying to find someone to illegally reattach us...something like "Juan is a guy we know that could probably get you power for like 1500 pesos...he just needs to find a ladder" To which I say "uh...he works for Edenorte?" (laughter) "No. He'll just get you power." "Well, if what I think you are saying is...just steal the power back...my husband can reattach us and then we'll go down tomorrow and open up an account" "Sh$#! If your husband can do that...have at it!" And he did. So then we went down and got an account rolling and they were to contact us via our real estate agent and/or neighbors to let us know what our account number is, so I could try the xoom transfer. Fast forward again. Our power was turned off AGAIN (but not cut...thank god for the meter install) because we hadn't paid bill...and no one but us was allowed to, but luckily we got a copy of the latest bill and it had our account number. Voila! We are legal paying customers of Edenorte now. :-)
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