Convert from prepaid to billed?

DGK

My girlfriend and I have recently bought our first house, we've paid the property a visit this weekend as the previous tenants moved out yesterday, only to find that the electricity and gas are supplied via pre-paid meters and not billed as we had expected. We were expecting to exchange contracts tomorrow, and no one thought to tell us this little fact... being our first home, we did not think to ask, we simply viewed the house, saw electrical and gas powered items working, and made the assumption.

The gas is apparently being supplied by British Gas and the electricity by nPower.

Does anyone know if we will be able to call them both up and get a simple change over to normal billed supplies/meters (I'm aware that a physical meter changeover is likely)?

SwanJon

Call the suppliers first thing tomorrow morning and ask them.
You'll need to get your names on the accounts anyway so they can get you a card/key if you weren't wanting to swap.
If you have any history of paying bills to either of them they'll probably be able to do it, or they might want to credit check you. If you pass they should be able to swap the meters on 2 days notice.
Good luck.

DGK

Thanks for your reply.

We gave the suppliers a call, british gas will perform a credit check then have the meter changed in 3 days. nPower can't do it until August 8th (I assume they also credit check, though nothing was mentioned). Both companies said the switch over will be free.

There's a few other things to work through before we get the keys, but this is good news