One thing I wish my mom used is the Meralco App. I still see her month after month filing her paper bills in her utilities envelope. And although I know some people really like filing, it is a lot of effort, especially given what the Meralco App has to offer.
Just to get it out of the way, you will need to add a service or an account, so have your Meralco Bill ready. From it, you will
need
- Service ID No. this is 12 digits long, and this is different from the Customer Account Number (CAN), which is 10 digits long
- Total kWh (should match the bill date)
- Bill Date (should match the Total kWh)
You can use the app in no time after you submit this information.
THE PRODUCT
You will land in the Overview Page. It has tiles for
- Username and Service ID No.: this is helpful if you have multiple accounts for different houses/ apartments
- Outstanding Balance with Due Date, Pay Now shortcut: This is ₱0 once you have paid your latest bill and the system has been updated
- Consumption report: bar chart of the last 12 months
- Messages: on the upper right, you will be notified of any power interruptions and any announcements
Under Bills and Payments Page
- Unpaid: Gives you details and the short cut to pay. It only accepts Credit Cards for now (Visa and Mastercard have Convenience Fees of ₱15), but there is a shortcut for, as of now, a non-working E-Wallets option (Paymongo and Bayad) . This is a useful feature because it lessens errors: you do not have to input your CAN and Service ID No.
- Paid: You have both a non-PDF and PDF view of your bills of up to 12 months historical.
Appliance Calculator:
I actually use this a lot to get an estimate of my would-be power usage when buying electronics.
- Monthly Bill Amount: as you guys know, the higher your electric bill, the more expensive your per Watt is.
- Appliance: let’s the app put in a default Wattage (though this can be edited later)
- Wattage: this gets pre-filled upon selection of Appliance, but can be edited
- Hours, Days and Weeks Used: drop down to compute how many hours per month you esetimate to use the appliance
- Amount in Php per hour, per day, per week and per month: the app gives you these results once you click calculate
Other Pages include:
- Accounts: one app can be used to setup and view several accounts, and you can simply switch which one you are viewing.
- Consumption Report: just a bigger version than the one on the overview page, though I wish it had the paper bill’s vs. last year data as well
- Contact Us: shows the usual email and hotline, but also contains the shortcut for setting an appointment
ANG OKAY
The data visualization of the consumption report is right up
my alley: I am always trying to bring down my monthly bill vs. previous! It allows
you to see your bill a day or two after your cutoff. You do not need to wait
for the paper bill, nor do you need to keep a physical copy. It keeps a maximum
of 12 bills, but you can always just download bills monthly as they come. The
Appliance Calculator is a very useful feature.
ANG HINDI OKAY
I hope it’s in the works, but I wish there were other
payment channels on the app. When you’re on other e-money apps like GCash or
Lazada, Meralco is available, but you still have to input your details (or scan
the physical bill’s barcode). Jumping off from the correct bill and current month
to a payment portal just ensures there are less mistakes.
THE VERDICT
This is a good utility app. In terms of information and any features,
there isn’t anything else I want. All the data that you need is there, and
there is a jump-off to pay your bill right away. The only thing lacking is more
options for payment.