Great 'Energy pre-payment meter issues' Hunt

12467

Comments

  • richie53 wrote: »
    Hi Mark, My name is Keith and have been reading what you have to say here about ppm and agree with you and lots of other posts about them, anyway I would like to pick you brains a bit with the following:- Who are EBI? Are they nationwide? And lastly how do I get in contact with them ? I am at the moment with British gas for leccy and for gas and would really like a cheaper source. Thank you in advance. Regards. Keith


    I hope you don't mind me replying :)

    The company are called EBICO and I used to be with them for electricty(prepay) until one day I realised my credit was running out way too fast and checked the meter-they had raised the price of a unit from 9.something p per unit to 14.92p!!
    I changed the supplier some time after that,and received the letter from EBICO 2 months later,notifying me about the price change...
    Useless...
    So from my experience they are not that great for leccy,might be different for gas though,hth
  • Hi, I am on prepayment meters, Scottish Gas and Scottish Power. I no longer have any debt to either, and I have never switched supplier before. I know I can probably save some money by doing so, but I am just so confused about which is the best deal. Is there anyone who could help me do the comparisons for me if I gave my consumption detail? I looked at Ebico this morning, and they quote an exact price for gas per KWh, 3.82p, so I looked at the latest statement from Scottish Gas and it says, 7.402p up to 2680 kWh, and 3.416p thereafter! How do I compare that?
    I also phoned Scottish Power to ask for the unit price I am paying for my electricity, as again it is not on my annual statement, first lady I spoke to wouldn't/couldn't tell me and put me through to the sales department, where I had to listen to another lady giving me a sales pitch about how I should switch my gas to them. After she burbled on for 10 minutes I said I only wanted to know my unit price and she gave me - Daily Service Charge 20.51 per day plus Unit price 11.97 pence per hour. I asked her to compare my current electricity price with Ebico, and she said she had never even heard of this company. I politely said she could not help me and got off the line, but I have thought about this and I am going to put in a complaint because she basically just gave me the runaround, and I am no further forward with being able to compare prices. Can anybody advise me what to do next please.
    C
    Sealed pot Challenge 2011 member No 1241 - Final total £154.21
    Sealed Pot Challenge 2012 - No.
  • Me Again,

    Just called Scottish Power back and the guy I spoke to came up with 11.97p per kWh. He didn't mention the standing charge, which is 20.51p per day though. Comparing Ebico's 3.82p with Scottish Powers 11.97p, that seems to be a huge difference, or have I missed something? Off to see if I can find out whether Ebico have standing charges now.
    C
    Sealed pot Challenge 2011 member No 1241 - Final total £154.21
    Sealed Pot Challenge 2012 - No.
  • claudiac wrote: »
    Me Again,

    Just called Scottish Power back and the guy I spoke to came up with 11.97p per kWh. He didn't mention the standing charge, which is 20.51p per day though. Comparing Ebico's 3.82p with Scottish Powers 11.97p, that seems to be a huge difference, or have I missed something? Off to see if I can find out whether Ebico have standing charges now.
    C

    Ebico's 3.82p is for gas,no?And 11.97p for electricity?
    Hence the big difference?
    Ebico don't have standing charges,try their website for prices for your region
  • I have had and continue to have a nightmare with npower over my prepayment meter. Due to them "mixing up" my usage with usage from a very similar address I was presented with a huge bill. This was resolved and I moved to a prepayment meter to avoid this problem happening again. I notched up a £199 credit with them and six months later that credit dropped to £99 despite being on a prepayment meter. 12 months later the credit disappeared completely. Numerous calls to npower where they kept saying they were investigating and call back in two weeks yielded no resolution.

    I now, despite having a prepayment meter, each quarter am presented with a bill, told to do nothing as I am on prepayment, which increases each time a bill comes in!

    I have called npower on a regular basis and keep getting the same response, due to government changes and charges I will probably be getting a rebate, we will investigate please call back in 2 weeks. 2 weeks later, same story. I cannot understand how you can run up a bill (which now stands at over £130) when you pay as you go!

    Any advice would be most welcome.
  • After speaking to British Gas 3 times to get a top up machine to use at home it finally arrived today,it only took 4 months to get it!
    I decided to register it this afternoon and I use Firefox which it didn't like and I had to use Explorer which I don't like! After trying about 6 times to register I thought it was now OK to top up but no,the page kept disappearing saying there was a problem and had to close so got fed up with it and tried to shut Explorer and it wont now close for some reason! I will try again later but beginning to think they are a Micky Mouse company dealing with this!
  • I have read all the negative comments and experiences with prepay meters, and would like to offer an alternative view. We were initially on prepay meters when we moved in, and after 6 years of debt free power and nagging from friends/relatives about how much more we were paying, we opted to change to credit meters. On prepay, we were using about £60 per month on electric and £50 on gas. Switching was free, but our quaterly bills for the first year were far higher. We were now faced with paying more than we had budgeted, or building up a debt. As this was a spring bill, we allowed scope for the winter usage, but the pattern was repeated over the following year. We opted to return to prepay, and having now payed of the outstanding debt, we have just spent January using £50 on the electric and £60 on the gas - a much better amount than we were being billed quarterly.
    It seems that paying a regular amount upfront avoids any surprises, and ensuring money is on there means we don't get cut off.
    For the record, we are homeowners, and are gainfully employed with an income in excess of 2k p/m, have 5 kids and live in a 3 bed terrace. Overall, prepay has been a greater beenfit to us, and we had to convince BG that we wanted to change back! Both transfers went without hassle or charge, with engineers arriving on time and working courteously and without mess or fuss, and fielding the many questions of an inquisitive toddler with good humour.
  • I managed to sort it out today and got my card charged up at home.
    Don't know if it was BGas or if it was Microsoft but it suddenly righted itself after hours of trying to get into it! Hooray!!!!
  • Joyful
    Joyful Posts: 2,426
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    If anyone has the Home top up with BG and is having problems there is a dedicated team on an 0800 number to talk you through to resolve the error. This number is on the letter you receive with the Home top up.
    Self Employed, Running my Dream Jobs
  • geriann
    geriann Posts: 156 Forumite
    bluecharge wrote: »
    There are so many things that you miss out on if you have pre-payment meters. :mad:
    Recent "promotions" include the free Nectar Points (BG customers exc those on pre-payment meters) and also these new fangled energy monitors.

    i have a pre-payment meter for gas and electrc.

    when i was with EON i got tesco points.
    my parents are wth EON, but don't have thier own tesco card, so thier EON tesco points go onto my tesco card.:p

    i've been with EDF Energy for a while now.
    i got nectar points from them.
    i could have got a nectar card, but i'd never use it, sainsbury's in the other side of the city to me.
    so i let my parents have the EDF points on thier nectar card. they shop at sainsbury's, it's thier nearest supermarket.
    unfortunatly from the 1st of January this year EDF Energy stopped doing the nectar points.:undecided
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 342.5K Banking & Borrowing
  • 249.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 234.6K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 607.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 172.8K Life & Family
  • 247.4K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.8K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards