Prepayment capped prices?

MummyHol

We're desparatly trying to follow good advice and swap to capped electricity and gas suppliers- we're currently with birtish gas for both :eek:

The problem is that our housing association flat has prepayment meters for both gas and electric...

so far we've tried

1) energyhelpline.com don't give you the option of picking capped prices and no capped price plans seem to be coming up

2) uswitch and moneysupermarket both say they can give no information on deals for our criteria (eg prepayment and capped)

Has anyone else had this problem? Are there no capped priceplans for people on prepayment meters or are we doing something wrong??

Any help appreciated

RyanC_3

As far as i am aware. There are not Price fix/cap tariff available for Prapayment customers with any supplier.

The only way you can get your prices fixed/capped is to arrange a credit meter to be installed.

MummyHol

thank you

what is a credit meter?

BexTech

MummyHol wrote: »

thank you

what is a credit meter?

The opposite of a pre-payment meter.

MummyHol

Oh i see, lol. I can't believe i had to ask!!! We'll blame that lapse in brain power on a lack of sleep.

BexTech

MummyHol wrote: »

Oh i see, lol. I can't believe i had to ask!!! We'll blame that lapse in brain power on a lack of sleep.

No worries, we all have off days.

Joyful

BG are now promoting Click pay as you go for prepayment meters than can save up to £70 per year. Check it out here with no tie ins http://www.britishgas.co.uk/pdf/PAUG_elec.pdf

vermin_munky

If you are not in debt to your utilities suppliers then you can request they change the pre-payment meter to a standard quartly payment meter (credit meter).

They cannot force you to keep a pre-payment meter if you have no debt.
(I am sure some one will correct me if that is wrong).

Once you have a credit meter in place you then have the option of paying the bills quarterly, or by monthly Direct Debit, whichever is best for you.

I did this in the first housing association place I rented as soon as I moved in and was surprisingly easy. If they try to say you have to keep them keep re-iterating you have no debt and want it changing. Your not in debt and entitled to not pay forward for your gas and electric.

Hope this helps!!

Joyful

If someone wants to get rid of the PP meter a company will usually credit vet them. if they fail they may be asked for a security deposit- returnable after 1 year if they run their account correctly.

webwahm

Yes, I just had same issue with price comparisons - pre-payment meters installed (my choice) after bankruptcy and no capped rates coming up...but did stumble on Ebico which are way cheaper it seems (no standing charges for a start, according to EnergyHelpline) ... so even if they put prices up, might not be as bad??? Confusing or what.

Most advise to get rid of PP, but although I hate it when the gas and electric go off (and I have to get on all fours to sort out the gas since it's under the stairs - literally!), I would hate it even more getting a huge, unexpected bill that I couldn't pay, so I guess for me its the best of a bad situation, at the moment anyway :rolleyes:

Researching Ebico, seems ok and I like the social/not for profit aspect.

MummyHol

thank you all for the advice- i'll look into changing meters and if i can't then Ebico seems like a good option. Someone was telling me that the reason the rates are worse for prepayment meters is because the shops that sell you the gas/electric make a big cut, don't know how true that is though!?