Did Econet just change their airtime credit system?

So my cousin came to me last week to recharge his airtime balance using my phone because of the Econet airtime credit he had for a long time now. He had been doing this for quite some time and in fact a lot of people did the same.

It usually went like this: he buys data using my phone and then sends it to his number to avoid Econet recovering the money and just like that he gets to use the bundle with no repercussions. This time around it didn’t go quite as planned. He bought the data as always but somehow it wasn’t working.

Just as he was about to contact customer support, a text message from Econet popped out “Dear customer, just now you have reimbursed USD$0.20 Of Credit Loan, and left unpaid amount USD$0.40”.

The voice bundle never reached his phone instead Econet took their 20cents and reminded him he had 40cents more left to pay. We quickly brushed it off until I came across a lot of videos and posts across social media talking about the same experience.

From my research, Econet now doesn’t wait to take their money when you accidentally recharge airtime directly to your phone after forgetting your outstanding debt. Instead when your credit is due they simply wait for the next time you try to buy data bundles. It doesn’t matter if you do it from your friend’s phone or directly from Ecocash. Let’s say you buy a 20cents voice bundle on credit so you now owe Econet 40cents. The next time you try to buy a $1 Whatsapp bundle using Ecocash or another phone they will first take their 40 cents and inform you that you are left with 60cents and if you still want to buy your data bundle you will have to top up 40cents. The old tricks and techniques have been patched.

Quite a number of our community members have had the same experience as my brother. In fact some have reported that at times Econet had taken more money than what was owed to them. To my knowledge it doesn’t look like Econet had informed its customers on their new airtime credit system beforehand. They are still yet to speak about it, with that being said all the conclusions I made are from testimonies across the web and our community.

People across social media have different mixed opinions when it comes to the new credit system. With some even joking “Econet yakutora chero mari irikuseri kwepouch kana une chikwereti”. However one thing we can all agree on is, it’s just business.

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