Change electric from card meter to quarterly bill?

roger56 · 14 November 2006 at 9:40AM

Cardew wrote:

Direct Debit is the cheapest method of paying for gas and electricity with almost every company.(not Ebico)

It is the cheapest with Ebico also, but then so are pre pay meters etc
Ebico have just one tarriff for all payment methods that's their fair trade policy.

taxi97w · 14 November 2006 at 10:44AM

roger56 wrote:

Cardew wrote:

Direct Debit is the cheapest method of paying for gas and electricity with almost every company.(not Ebico)

It is the cheapest with Ebico also, but then so are pre pay meters etc
Ebico have just one tarriff for all payment methods that's their fair trade policy.

Thank you Roger, you've made my point perfectly. Keep the meter and change to Ebico is my advice to the OP.

pondie1 · 14 November 2006 at 10:47AM

If like us, we changed from a pre payment(electric) to normal meter in January, & still questioning British Gas as they insist we are still on prepayment.
I got energywatch involved to sort this out,as i but £5 saving stamps so at the mo i have over £200 worth of stamps.
Was promised a bill by today, post has just been no bill GGGRRRR

I have been using a card to pay for Gas & received a bill saying i was £38 to them as they had changed my price plan from £10 to £17 a week!!! no letter saying this was going up either.

so BG will be dumped as soon as possible.

taxi97w · 14 November 2006 at 10:54AM

espresso wrote:

Have you still got a washboard and mangle?

:rotfl:

Now there's an idea! Would save on electric. I find buying tokens while i'm out is no effort at all. Personally I don't want to be stuck behind a computer for the rest of my life banking online, bill paying online and shopping online with home delivery thrown in, and not only that i'm trying my darndest to not to be swallowed up by this totalitarian society by handing the control to them. You might think it's easier to go along with all the new systems- but realise it's not for your benefit. Happy days!
:beer:

taxi97w · 14 November 2006 at 11:01AM

pondie1 wrote:

If like us, we changed from a pre payment(electric) to normal meter in January, & still questioning British Gas as they insist we are still on prepayment.
I got energywatch involved to sort this out,as i but £5 saving stamps so at the mo i have over £200 worth of stamps.
Was promised a bill by today, post has just been no bill GGGRRRR

I have been using a card to pay for Gas & received a bill saying i was £38 to them as they had changed my price plan from £10 to £17 a week!!! no letter saying this was going up either.

so BG will be dumped as soon as possible.

EBICo was founded in 1998 and is a not-for-profit Company, limited by Guarantee. The Company's aim is to harness the power of ‘the market’ to tackle real issues of social concern.
EBICo's guiding principles are a bias towards those on low incomes and stewardship of resources. We believe that these principles are entirely consistent with those of the Christian Gospel. Our initiatives have been making a real difference to households since 1999.

http://www.ebico.co.uk/en/open/pages/welcomeen.php

Cardew · 14 November 2006 at 11:07AM

roger56 wrote:

Cardew wrote:

Direct Debit is the cheapest method of paying for gas and electricity with almost every company.(not Ebico)

It is the cheapest with Ebico also, but then so are pre pay meters etc
Ebico have just one tarriff for all payment methods that's their fair trade policy.

Roger,
We are at cross purposes and are down to semantics..

My quote above(which I accept could have been phrased differently) is that DD payment is not cheaper with Ebico(than for pre-payment meters), but is with most other companies.

Therefore I don't think my statement is incorrect - it is not the cheapest method with Ebico as tariffs are all the same.

LadFromWales85 · 26 October 2007 at 3:11AM

Hmm, my yearly spend with prepayment with Scottish Elec is £524 for 5700kWh with a 45% E7 split. According to the switching sites, if I switch to Southerns Price Fix 2008 tariff, I'd be spending £420 for the same usage!

Think I'll call them to see if they'll switch the meter if I come over, as Scottish want a refundable £120 deposit (I'm a new customer with <12 months history)

Terrylw1 · 31 October 2007 at 12:52AM

shelly wrote: »

Hi all. Hoping for some advice.

I know that I currently pay more for my electricity by having a card meter than I would if I changed to quarterly bill and I'm *thinking* about changing. I'm not sure if its worth it though. I know from a spending POV its cheaper but I'm not sure its worth it from a peace of mind POV. At the moment I know I can't get a big bill drop on the mat, Iv'e heard of lots of people having trouble with ridiculously high bills, way more than they should be.
Hubby pays all the bills in the house by DD, except for the electricity, thats my bill, always has been so I chose to stay with the card meter.

How much would I save by changing over? I'm not sure if the monetary saving is worth losing my peace of mind over.
Also If I do change over and then decide I want to pay by card meter again can I do this without any penalties?

Edit to add....Powergen is my electricity provider.

Thanks all in advance.

Hi,

Ok, forget about the horror stories including those you see on this board. There are just as many issues with PP metering if you look carefully enough.

Credit tariffs are always cheaper except where mentioned otherwise on this thread by other posters.

You have total control and will get additional benefits such as dual fual discounts.

You actually have just as much control as Taxi is mentioning. Taxi doesn't realsie that PP meters can have their charges changed very easily, via the key or card without entering the property. PP is good for some (and my mum has the same thoughts as Taxi) but if you are able to monitor your bills, credit is the better way.

Take your readings each quarter and make your Supplier re-issue your bill (do it as soon as you get the bill) and you will be billed accurately. You will then get an accurate DD.

Where DD's are inaccurate, it always comes down to Supplier estimates, so don't live with them.

(Obviously, things like meter changes can cause high DD's but they happen to PP customers as well as far as messed up bills & accounts go)

Terrylw1 · 31 October 2007 at 12:57AM

pondie1 wrote: »

If like us, we changed from a pre payment(electric) to normal meter in January, & still questioning British Gas as they insist we are still on prepayment.
I got energywatch involved to sort this out,as i but £5 saving stamps so at the mo i have over £200 worth of stamps.
Was promised a bill by today, post has just been no bill GGGRRRR

I have been using a card to pay for Gas & received a bill saying i was £38 to them as they had changed my price plan from £10 to £17 a week!!! no letter saying this was going up either.

so BG will be dumped as soon as possible.

They should always write to you, that should be covered somewhere in Ofgem's standards but of course like anything else, customer services issues happen.

Chase Energywatch up, they can be slower than they should be. They will relax and not chase Suppliers as much as they should if they are not being chased as well.

Here's some info off another thread. If Energywatch have nto responded as they have, write back to them and send a copy to BGas's MD:

Phil Bentley
Managing Director
British Gas
Millstream
Maidenhead Road
Windsor
Berkshire SL4 5GD

shelly · 1 November 2007 at 7:01PM

I forgot I had started this thread as its so old.

I have now moved house and have to pay by DD so don't worry about replying anymore as my original query is no longer an issue.

Thanks

Change electric from card meter to quarterly bill?

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