So much for saving money!

hannoja

Hi

We've been meaning to change our prepayment meters to 'DD' ones for ages. Powergen/eon would have charged £50 per meter for this, so we signed up with EDF when someone came 'cold calling' to the house one day.

Both meters have been changed by EDF now to 'DD' ones free of charge.

I have now received a letter from Powergen, threatening legal action/CCJ if I don't pay them the £50-odd I apparently owe...within 7 days. :mad: There were no previous letters and there's no breakdown or explanation regarding how we owe this on a pre-payment meter. I assume it's because the prepayments were 'estimated', but surely they should explain...?

If I owe it then I'll just have to swallow it won't I. They'll get the £50 for changing one of the meters that they wanted, even though they didn't do it! I'm just concerned that if I phone and ask for a breakdown, etc., they may still take legal action for me not having paid in the time they said...

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Cardew

The £50 is probably because the pre-pay meter tariffs were set too low on the pre-pay meter.

Pre-pay, unfortunately, is nothing of the kind, it means you 'pay something on account'. Had you stayed with Powergen( how long ago did you change?) they would have adjusted the meter to recover what you owed over a period of time.

Some companies(including BG) write of that debt. You obviously should have received a bill though.

hannoja

Thank you for your reply. Sorry to be rude and not respond to thank you sooner

I managed to get through to them in the end and the lady I spoke to was great. They've basically put it on hold whilst they look into it, and it's possible I won't owe anything...

I had a bit of a knee-jerk reaction as the letter was dated 03/10 and said I had 7 days to pay, but I didn't get it till the 7th! :eek:

Anyway, hopefully it will be fine...

<prays>

^..^

shaf00uk

I had prepayment meters (both gas and electric) and I calculated that I was paying approx 10 x more than on standard quaterly bills and 12x if I paid by monthly DD. It took over 10 months to get both of them changed but it was all sorted in January 2008.

The change over was free of charge.

With some suppliers you pay daily charge even if you use NOTHING! What a rip off!! All those who can change do so asap and save a small fortune.

If you getting court letters without getting a bill then call them immediately and say you had not recieved the bill and request a breakdown of exactly what you are being charged for. They should then give you additional time to look at the bill and if necessary make payment.

Never, ever, ever pay without speaking to someone first!

SwanJon

shaf00uk wrote: »

I had prepayment meters (both gas and electric) and I calculated that I was paying approx 10 x more than on standard quaterly bills and 12x if I paid by monthly DD.

That's a huge difference (significantly more than I've ever heard of before).
Are there some unusual circumstances that would cause this (e.g. standing charge and a property that is empty half the year or more?)

What were your unit prices compared to Quarterly & DD? Surely there wasn't a 10/12 fold increase there?

tysfoot

who were you with and who are you with now

littletommytucker

shaf00uk wrote: »

I had prepayment meters (both gas and electric) and I calculated that I was paying approx 10 x more than on standard quaterly bills and 12x if I paid by monthly DD. It took over 10 months to get both of them changed but it was all sorted in January 2008.

The change over was free of charge.

With some suppliers you pay daily charge even if you use NOTHING! What a rip off!! All those who can change do so asap and save a small fortune.

If you getting court letters without getting a bill then call them immediately and say you had not recieved the bill and request a breakdown of exactly what you are being charged for. They should then give you additional time to look at the bill and if necessary make payment.

Never, ever, ever pay without speaking to someone first!

Are you trying to suggest that what would cost you £10 on monthly Direct Debit was costing you £120 on your prepay meter? If so i think you need to change the settings on your calculator