help! prepayment and electricity debt

louiser123

hi,
im not sure if this has been asked but i have looked and cant find anything so apologies if it has.

to cut a long story short i opted to go onto prepayment meter for electricity about 6 years ago now, i had a bill i was unable to payand they gave me this option, i can say i havnt looked back as i like this method as i dont have huge bills, or so i thought!!!

for 5 years and until jan this year nobody had been near meter except to read it. in jan i got a letter to say i had to have my meter (token) replaced with anew key meter, not a problem he came fitted it all done.

however about aug this year i recieved a statement not a bill as it did say this is not a bill it is for reference only. usual thing i get as i pre pay but it was a debt balance of £750!!!! i never querid it as i thought wait till they send a bill or try to arrange collection of the debt on the meter, since this i have heard nothing, but have been told by numerous people that as they failed to maintain the previous meter and update it with any price increases i can dispute this bill. as it is thier fault not re setting it as required as i say not one letter or call from anyone in 5 years.
i actually thought it updated automatically until the guy who fitted the new one in jan told me it didnt and they should have called at least annually.

if i do get a bill for this eventually or a letter to arrange to have this on my meter paid in bits is therre anything i can do as i cant afford to pay that amount and apparently the new key meter does update electronically i am scared they will set it to take loads of money i cant afford without telling me.

hope this makes sense and i will wait for help from any good person on here so thanks in advance.

spiro

There are 3 type of electricity prepayment meters; Key - plastic 'key' used to buy credit, Smartcard - credit type card to buy credit and Token - shop give you token (this type is dying out). For the first 2 they can change the prices remotely for the third they have to visit the property. This means for the 5 years you had the token meter it would appear they have not kept up to date with prices changes. All the big 6 suppliers have an agreed policy on the amount they can back bill on these. If you search this forum you should find some useful information. Once you are armed with that contact your supplier because whilst you only receive a statment you may suddenly find that start to recover 'debt' on your meter to cover this amount. The very least you want is a new statement/bill indicating the amount they have written off.