Prepaid gas meter

hueygeorge

Morning all
We ended up moving just before Christmas and discovered once we were in the house that the gas is a prepaid meter one. We topped up by £20 on Christmas Eve and we will need to top again today as its currently on £4. We really cannot afford this as its working out at more than £20 per week!! Our last house was costing approx £50 per month for gas. We aren't ones for having the heating on full blast and try to be economical with baths etc but this just seems to be too expensive. Does anyone know if the prepaid meter can be taken out and a normal one installed? Tried ringing British Gas but no-one there until after Christmas!
Any advice greatly appreciated, and a Happy New Year to you all x

Pink_fluff

Maybe the person that lived there before you was paying off debt. Have you tried looking through the settings?

HeaRtsAtWaR

Hey, I have the same problem the gas is taking too much money compared to everyone else and we hardly use it at my house (everything is electric) It comes to £25 for us a week on prepaid meter which is absolutely insane. I have no idea if this is meant to be like this and would like to know other peoples opinions but i do know however that you can get it changed to pay monthly by ringing your gas supplier and going through a credit check, then they will arrange a meeting (usually within 2 weeks) to come and take out your old meter.

Even if your paying for other peoples debts it usually tells you what credit you have to use before you turn on the gas, so for whatever credit you have on there to be going so quickly doesnt sound right to me at all and there is no way it should cost anyone close to £30 a wk on gas to live even for people who eat it like candy!!

Pips_Mum

We are the same.
Our gas usage is £25 per week....we only have a boiler!!!:eek:
Scottish Power were very unhelpful and say its just one of those things.

olly300

Nothing you can do until after Christmas.

1. First check that the key you have been given doesn't have any debt repayments on it for the other person.

2. Ask them if it costs to change your meter from a prepayment meter. Then if it doesn't arrange a date to get it changed.

3. If they do levy a charge to change your meter - post your area - and someone will tell you of a utility company that won't charge you for this. Then what you do is change to prepayment with that company and after about 6 weeks phone up and ask them to change your meter to a non-prepayment one. After that wait for one bill and change to a better tariff.

Pink_fluff

Pips_Mum wrote: »

We are the same.
Our gas usage is £25 per week....we only have a boiler!!!:eek:
Scottish Power were very unhelpful and say its just one of those things.

I dont understand - you 'only' have a boiler. I'm taking a guess you have gas central heating and also use gas for hot water and cooking (hob etc.)

You are obviously using alot of gas to heat/use hot water/cook

Pips_Mum

Nope we literally only have a boiler for hot water and heating.
Cooking is all electric.
The boiler is on a timer and only comes on between 7am and 9am and then again at 6pm until 10pm.
It is a very old boiler so I think its efficiency rating is ZERO!!

Pssst

Hueygeorge-the gascard that you are using in the meter-where did you get it from?

robredz

Phone the gas company as soon as they are open, and make sure you register as the new occupier, tell them that the card was from the previous incumbent, and that you are not responsible for their debt. You want a card in your name and any debt recovery on the meter to be reset to zero. You should have took a reading when you moved in give that to the gas co along with the current reading. also tell them that you are going to contact the regulator/ombudsman et.al

advantix

robredz wrote: »

Phone the gas company as soon as they are open, and make sure you register as the new occupier, tell them that the card was from the previous incumbent, and that you are not responsible for their debt. You want a card in your name and any debt recovery on the meter to be reset to zero. You should have took a reading when you moved in give that to the gas co along with the current reading. also tell them that you are going to contact the regulator/ombudsman et.al

Contacting the ombusdsman / regulator will get you absolutely nowhere at all. It is the new occupiers responsibility to contact the supplier of electricity / Gas when they take responsibility for the property so that any debt settings on the pp meters can be removed and a key / card be issued in the new occupiers name. The energy provider cannot be expected to know when someone has taken responsibilty for a property and therefore remove debt settings etc!

Pssst

Regulator/ombudsman..?ROTFL.

Privatisation of the gas industry has created so many insoluble headaches that they eradicated the so called industry watchdog (energywatch) and put a toothless dachsund in its place.


The reason? The massive volume of complaints and the massive time and cost involved in trying to address them.

There is effectively no watchdog now who can intervene between energy companies and end user.
you are all on your own.