Paying bills in Egypt

Hello everyone,

What bills do you pay? If you are renting, are bills included in the price of rent, and is this common practice in Egypt?

How can you pay your bills (e.g. online, at provider's store, at the post office)? Which is the most convenient or reliable way?

With what frequency are different bills sent in Egypt? Are there different deadlines for payment?

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Priscilla

It depends on the initial agreement with the owner of the house. Some owners include electricity and gas bills in the rent payment (they particularly do that for expats).
But the common thing here is that you pay your own bills: electricity, gas and water bills. The electricity and gas bills are paid monthly, and a representative from the government will come to your house to give you the bill and take the money. In case you're not home, he'll leave the bill and you'll go pay later.

I live in a nice development in Al Ahiya iin Hurghada .I am here for six months of the year  and have done this regularly for 12 years.
  Our service charges for our flats are payable monthly and when I return to my home country at the end of my six-month stay in Egypt I pay for my service charges in advance by giving the accountant here in my development six months payment.
Water charges are included in our service charges, but electricity is not. We receive our bills for electricity monthly and I am lucky in that I have a very good Egyptian friend who deals with my finances (he is an accountant), and he pays the bills for me and gives me the Bill back, stamped to show that it has been paid . No one understands how to calculate their electricity bills -it is so complicated. We have a meter in an accessible place for flats  in the building (there are six), and the meter reader does not need to disturb us in order to read the meter. Theoretically,, you can take your own reading and calculate what electricity you have used but as I said before it is extremely complicated.  It  is not just a matter  of working out how many kilowatts you have used and multiplying it by the cost of a kilowatt of electricity.
  If I had to pay the electricity bill myself  it would be inconvenient because as far as I know you cannot pay  it online. I would have to go to the electricity office which is some way from our development in order to pay.
I understand that they are quite severe when it comes to non-payment or late payment and will cut you off quite quickly.
Any other bills I have such as Internet are paid online by myself. I have an Egyptian bank account and a debit card . Often, debit or credit cards which have not been issued in Egypt will not work for online payments.
Telephone bills can be paid online I have both landline and mobile telephone and the landline can be paid online as well using my Egyptian debit card,  but my friend normally pays that bill for me as well by going to the telephone office and paying it

I pay most of my bills to the shop, via internet or cash to the bawab. I had some issue with some that are made for egyptian (vadafone cash) they took my money and didn t want to give me back, so read all the conditions and terms.

No issues at all , just keep a few hundred Egyptian pounds in the house and the collectors for the electricity and the gas will come to your door and ask to read the meter and receive payment around the same time once a month - this will differ depending on where you are - just ask your neighbours or your doorman.

If you are away when they arrive you can make arrangements with your doorman to have it paid on your behalf. If you are out often, you can ask your doorman when he expects the bill collectors to come, and give him a photo of the meter around that time. Then when they leave an invoice you can leave the money with the doorman for payment the following day.

Anything else, like telephone and internet you need to go in person to the TE Data office to make payments - you can pay up to three months in advance but if you miss the renewal date there is no penalty but you won't have service. ;) pretty simple really.

If you need any help reading your bill you can find a sample and instructions here: https://www.facebook.com/LivingInCairo
Living in al-Qāhirah - Cairo, Egypt

Hope that helps!

Usually I am paying the bills in persons and  cash without fins but the could disconnect the service if there is no payment