Help So Mad !!

janey70

HI WONDER CAN ANYONE HELP OR HAD A SIMILAR THING HAPPEN TO THEM ? I AM ON AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN ON ELECTRIC PAYMENT METER 2 WEEKS AGO THEY CAME OUT TO CHANGE MY EXSISTING CARD METER TO A KEY METER NOW SCOTTISH POWER HAVE WROTE TO ME SAYING THAT IM IN DEBT ! AND THEY ARE GOING TO RESET MY METER TO RECOVER THE £225 THEY ARE TRYING TO RESET IT TO £16.24 A WEEK :mad: THATS BEFORE I EVEN PUT ANY ELECTRIC IN !!!! IM A SINGLE PARENT AND STRUGGLING AS IT IS I HAVE RANG THEM TONIGHT AFTER BEING ON THE LINE FOR 20 MINS THEY ANSWERED THEN ASKED ME TO PUSH CERTAIN BUTTONS ON METER PUT ME ON HOLD FOR 10 MINS THEN TOLD ME THEY COULDNT HELP ME AS DEPT THAT I NEEDED WAS CLOSED :mad: AND TO RING BACK IN MORNING HOW THE HELL CAN I AFFORD THIS AT MY WITS END ANY ADVICE ANYONE ????? PLZZ

smileyt_2

Hi

I think you need to get yourself down to your local advice agency (check in phone book/online for Citizens Advice Bureau). Take any documents/bills/statements with you. They should phone for you and may be able to negotiate a lower weekly repayment rate. They may want to do an income/outgoings sheet with you first so take a list of what you pay out for everything and any benefits, wages etc you have coming in. I'm not sure if there is a law about how much they can take back at one go, but if there is the CAB should know about it.

If there isn't a CAB near you, you might have to go looking on their website https://www.adviceguide.org.uk and try and find some stuff out yourself. I think they might do e-mail advice but I'm not sure.

Good luck.

epsilondraconis

I can't advise you; however if you do choose to ring ScottishPower again, you should at least use their freephone number (assuming you are calling from a landline). Alternatively, if calling from a mobile, call a geographical number ranther than the 0845 / 0870 numbers so that it is from your inclusive minutes. See:

www.saynoto0870.com/search.php

Then just type "Scottish Power" in the company name edit box and click search. You will then be shown a list of freephone and geographical numbers for Scottish Power.

Hope you get everything sorted...

IvanOpinion

Just something to be aware off because it is often misunderstood how pepayment meters operate ... I will oversimplify this. A person is billed based upon the taiff they have signed up for, the prepayment meter will then be set to try to record that tariff as best as possible so that the person does not build up a debt. However the two actions are totaly independent.

For example, if a customer changes tariff then this can usually be done overnight on the billing system however the meter is still calculating based on the old tariff. For a key meter, the next time the customer vends their 'key' is updated and when they apply it to the meter the tariff will be changed and things go back in line.

However for some transactions only a single action can be applied to a meter at a time and therefore changes could get 'queued'. This basically means that it could take more than one vend before the tariff change gets applied to the meter. During this time the meter is recording one thing while the customer is being billed for something else (this could either be to the benefit or detriment of the customer).

The main point is that, in this sense, prepayment meters are a bit like estimates, they may not accurately reflect actual amounts.

Ivan

wornoutmumoftwo

British Gas set me up at #15 a week before I'd put any electric in and after struggling for the first month or so I rang them up and explained I really could not afford it and got it reduced to #10 a week.(went from credit meter to ppm)

Also, check with them about special low tarif for low income/on benefits families, with British Gas it's called the essential tarif so I pay the same as if I was on standard rate electric.

Also if you haven't done so already apply for free loft insulation/wall cavity to warm your place up

And when you ring them find the land line number by going to saynoto0870.com and save on your phone bill too.

IvanOpinion

wornoutmumoftwo wrote: »

British Gas set me up at #15 a week before I'd put any electric in and after struggling for the first month or so I rang them up and explained I really could not afford it and got it reduced to #10 a week.(went from credit meter to ppm)

Just be careful here. Many times people get their monthly/weekly payment reduced but in essence all they are doing is increasing their debt (they simply are not paying enough to cover their usage) ... the bill may be a nasty shock.

Ivan

janey70

thanks to all rang this morning got freephone number and spoke to a lovely women who istently dropped the payments to 6 pound a week i can sleep easy now