You must have watched that ad, where this guy who works with a motorbike selling spare parts explains how his friends wonder how he manages to stay online “forever”. At the end of the ad he exclaims “Flex Inatosha”.
In a document detailing how “Flex Inatosha”, Safaricom provides that Flex bundles allow Safaricom Subscribers to enjoy a 40% value add, as not only do the subscribers get to make calls, browse and send text messages at lower than usual rates, but they are able to do so all under one Flex package.
Generally, the slogan “Flex Inatosha” was coined to convey the message that with Flex Bundles, one does not have to buy data bundles, subscribe to minutes, and subscribe to SMS bundles independent of each other – as with Flex Bundles, the subscriber has the flexibility of accessing all these services under one “roof”.
It works like this: when one buys Flex bundles, the subscriber receives Flex Units consumarate with the value of Flex Bundles desired. The options available are as follows:
- Daily 50 Flex Units at Ksh 50 valid for 24 hours
- Daily 115 Flex Units at Ksh 99 valid for 24 hours
- Weekly 700 Flex Units at Ksh 599 valid for 7 days
- Monthly 1,100 Flex Units at Ksh 999 valid for 30 days
- Monthly 1700 Flex Units at Ksh 1499 valid for 30 days
- Monthly 2700 Flex Units at Kshs 1,999 valid for 30 days
- Monthly 3500 Flex Units @ Kshs 2,499 valid for 30 days
- Monthly 7500 Flex Units @ Kshs 4,999 valid for 30 days
After receiving the purchased Flex Units, the subscriber can use the units for calls, text, or bundles as follows: 1 minute talk time will consume 3 flex units, 3 text messages will consumer 1 flex unit, and 3MBs of data will likewise consume 1 flex unit. The worth of a single flex unit depends on the Flex Bundles bought. For example, purchasing the daily 50 Flex Units for Kshs 50 means you’ll be spending Kshs 1 per Flex Unit hence Kshs 3 bob per minute on calls, whereas purchasing the monthly 7500 units for Kshs 5000 means you’ll be spending Kshs 0.667 per flex unit, meaning you’ll be spending Kshs 2 per minute on calls.
The weekly and the monthly flex units can be bought in two ways, either by dialing *100# (or *200# for post paid subscribers) then replying with 0 (zero) in the feedback prompt or via MySafaricom App for those who have smartphones. The daily flex units however can only be purchased through the USSD prompts.
Then there is this issue that Safaricom should look into – every time you send Kshs 100 or more via MPESA, Safaricom awards you with FREE 3 Flex units. It doesn’t matter whether you send Kshs 100 or Kshs 70,000 – all you get is 3 flex units. If you want more free flex units by sending money through MPESA, then your work around is to send the higher amount (e.g. the Kshs 70,000), in bunches of Kshs 100 at a time – which would potentially give you 2100 free flex units.
