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new !!! key meters !! , what do you think of them ?
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kerryallc71
Posts: 365 Forumite
in Energy
we had an old token meter just before xmas it was already in our house when we bought it in 1997 , got a letter just before xmas to say they are gonna replace it with this new key meter , they came on the 4th jan 07 and put this new one in .
before they replaced it they had been and changed the tarif on the old style meter so that was upto date a few weeks earler.
anyway this new meter is costing us a fortune , before we were putting in £15.00 per week , now its costing us £25.00 plus per week , £3.50 plus per day to run , we are with ebico. have been for a few months now.
we have contacted them and they say its alright £3.50 per day.
anyway my question is , is anyone else got these new key meters and are they have more expensive bills and having to buy more electric.
ps/
ebico/southern electric have said they can replace it with a normal meter if we like it will be 6% less cheaper or something.
see you from kerry......
before they replaced it they had been and changed the tarif on the old style meter so that was upto date a few weeks earler.
anyway this new meter is costing us a fortune , before we were putting in £15.00 per week , now its costing us £25.00 plus per week , £3.50 plus per day to run , we are with ebico. have been for a few months now.
we have contacted them and they say its alright £3.50 per day.
anyway my question is , is anyone else got these new key meters and are they have more expensive bills and having to buy more electric.
ps/
ebico/southern electric have said they can replace it with a normal meter if we like it will be 6% less cheaper or something.
see you from kerry......
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me again , ive just found a sticker next to the new meter and the old tariff for the old meter was 6.74 ( it was supposed to have been changed ) and the new one is a whopping ( 10.37 ) standing charge of £1.23, im really shocked no wonder we are going through electric..
see you from kerry....0 -
We had our Gas meter changed and we've been spending loads more! We're with British Gas not sure how to find out what tariff we are on, but it's definately more expensive!Official DFW Nerd Club - Member no. 092
::£2 - CSC - Terramundi is filling up!! :: Joined 3/3/06 :: 5/2/07 - 835kg + £280 Banked!!::
::5p,10p & 20p - Savings Tin :: Founded 9/4/06 :: 23/3/07 - 3.2kg ::
Lost to date - 9kg (22/8/06) Next weigh in 2007!!0 -
You pay more per unit used and more for a standing charge (generally, not sure on your suppliers charges).
Any chance of getting rid of the meters???? You can use payment cards at the post office, or I use Powergen. I pay online per month using a debit card and submit meter readings every time I pay too. Keeps me exactly upto date with what I am spending.
I work out an average usage and add a little to cover unexpected things and it helps out on my budget for the year. I currently pay £75 for my gas and electric and this is too much, so as of next month I am downgrading to £50 a month payment.
I get a much better deal than a pre-payment meter, but I am now self taught to be disciplined in paying each month. Plus I can change supplier whenever I like without hassle (if I wanted!)0 -
hi kerryall
All energy costs have gone up the same lately.
Unfortunately prepayment meters have always been an expensive way to buy either electric or gas.
If you can go back onto a normal meter and then look on the internet for the cheapest supplier for your area. This will be cheaper than any prepayment meter.
Just make sure you have it in writing that they will change your meter free of charge.
Dont sign up for more that a 1 year contract cos all energy prices will start to fall in another month or so.0 -
Keymeters are better because they are far more likely to charge you correctly as they can be updated remotely. This means when prices go up you shouldn't build up a debt, and when they drop your meter should reflect that quickly too. Ebico don't charge you a premium for being on a pp meter so you should be paying the same as you would if you paid by direct debit.
British Gas don't charge a premium for gas pp meters either - they are set to their standard cash/cheque tariff. However, there would be scope to make some savings if you switched to another supplier, or had the meter swapped to a credit meter and paid by dd (or both)0 -
In my opinion these prepay metres are a rip off. We had an old card meter and had the key put in on the 30th November. Since then we have put £110 in just a month and a half. We are paying 10.36p a kwh with Scottish power plus standing charge and a charge of £1.27 for usage of the meter.
We are also have to pay £3.73 a week for a debt as they could not be bothered coming out to change the meter price. (Not our fault)
Lat night we had 46p left in the meter plus the £5.00 emergancy. I reput the key in to activate the emergancy thinking i would have £5.46 left in the meter only for it to completely take up my 46p leaving me with only the £5.00 emergancy.
The idea of the emergancy is to help you in an emergancy when you are low of money not to take money of you. Absolute rubbish.
I will be ring up and paying off debt by Bank card and changing suppliers and have a normal meter put in. By this i can save about £25 a month to change to Ebico0 -
we are with ebico , im gonna ring them later today and have an old meter style one put in... we put £20.00 in yesterday that will be £50.00 electric since 13th jan . we dont owe any money on our meter or anything.
i think the same as all you lot now , pre-payment meters are a complete con and cost a fortune for what ?? .
see you later.
from kerry...0 -
British Gas came and did the same with us on our electricity meter just before Christmas. We used to buy the paper card to charge the meter and we were using about £5 per week.. then they said they HAD to change our meter to a key meter and I specifically asked them at the time AND the man changing the meter whether this would change our tarrif or how much we pay and they both said no. However, since then we have been paying at least £10 per week, every week!! ...now if that's not a change I must be missing something!!!!!!!! :mad: What can we do about this?If you don't want to know my opinion, don't ask for it!0
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Replying as someone who worked in the Electricity Pre-payment dept of a large Energy Supplier, I can speak with some authority.
Pre-payment meters are NOT designed to help users budget.
These meters are how the Energy companies recoup debts from people who cannot afford to pay the bills that they run up.
They generally charge more per unit and/or Standing Charge than being on a normal 'credit' meter - think of this as being the equivalent of interest charged on a bank loan. The meters are also configured to deduct a set amount per week, usually in the region of £5 to £10 which is purely to repay the outstanding balance.
If you move into a property which has a pre-payment meter my advice is to take ALL the readings from the meter - including the ones that don't make any sense to you! - and call the supplier immediately. This is to ensure that you can get the meter reset, if necessary, so that you are not paying back someone else's debt.
If there is no debt on the meter - ask for the meter to be changed.
If it is a rental property, and the landlord has had the pre-payment meter installed for their 'piece of mind' then there is little that you about changing the meter but still ensure that there is no debt set on the meter to be collected.
If anyone has any further questions about Electricity prepayment meters, I'll do my best to help!0 -
h4zel wrote:British Gas came and did the same with us on our electricity meter just before Christmas. We used to buy the paper card to charge the meter and we were using about £5 per week.. then they said they HAD to change our meter to a key meter and I specifically asked them at the time AND the man changing the meter whether this would change our tarrif or how much we pay and they both said no. However, since then we have been paying at least £10 per week, every week!! ...now if that's not a change I must be missing something!!!!!!!! :mad: What can we do about this?
Unfortunately, sometimes electricity meters 'stop' recording the number of electricity units used correctly - therefore when a new meter is installed, which is working correctly, you can find that the amount that you put into them increases.
If you have a Electricity statement from your supplier, you can check it to see if there was a Standing Charge on the previous meter - if this works out to be about £5 per week, then my guess would be that your card meter had stopped and the Key meter is now recording your usage correctly and therefore asking you for more money.
If you can, it would be better value for you to change to a normal 'credit' meter and use a weekly/monthly payment card.
Hope this helps0
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