Prepaid gas meter

Blondermoo

I am in a similar situation....... the lady who lived here before me was in debt so when i moved in ( ihave never had gas before was all elec) plus it was summer, so i had no probs using the card ( i did have a new one sent out first) i was usin glike £10 and it was lasting me 2 weeks. Well now the winters here and we have had the meter for a year we decided we were finantially stable enough to change and have it direct debited....bristish gas had other ideas!!!!! I rang then and spoke to a rude lady who done a credit check on me and said i didnt meet there criteria ( i was about 10 points off) and therfore wouldnt take the meter out... however i could pay then £200 (and something) to have them take it out and after a year of me paying all my dd i would get the money back (yeah right) i explained this was not acceptable and spoke to a manager who told me all the same, i explained why would a mortgage company accept me but a gas company wouldnt, all he kept saying is that just ourcriteria and you dont meet it..i told him it wasnt my choice to have the meter in! Still no Joy....... a few weeks later we had a gas fire fitted by a man from npower who said the reason why they wont take you off is because theres a debt to be paid and i had noticed that it was saying so and so taken for debt everytime i topped up the card... so i got on the phone to bb again the lady i spoke to kept puttin me on hold so after 10 minutes of doing not much other than listening to crappy music i asked her to call me back she said no, and that what i need to do it note down what it says every time i put the card in and how much debt it takes... at this point i am so angry! Does anyone have a suggestion of how i can get my meter taken out and it wont cost me anything! Where can i go and who can i talk to! Its driving me mad paying £40 a week!!!
Thanks (sorry to rant)

KimYeovil

What is unacceptable about a small deposit of £200? You are spending £174 per month or £521 in a winter quarter! (£458 if you take off a 12% prepayment premium) And they only ask for a £200 deposit. You are being unreasonable. But if you want to unnecessarily pay the premium for a prepayment meter then that's your choice. Seems a crazy idea to me.

markharding557

1/you should never use someone else's card because then you are paying into their account
2/ebico are as cheap as it gets on prepayment gas

Nicky321

MIL had prepaid meters with BG for both Gas and Electricity. She had them both removed no problems. Make sure you gave BG your meter reading when you moved into the property and dont use someone elses card to top up. Hold in the red button till it beeps and you should be able to scroll through all the settings on the meter.

hotpot1000

I dont see how we can get in debt on a pre payment meter, my tenant moved out in feb, there was arrears showing on gas meter. I had to use his card to top up a tenner till the new card came, it only added £3 to the gas coz of arrears. I wrote to complain but have never received any reply.
Since then Npower have last month finally quashed their claim of £75 arrears owing from this tenant.

CloudedPearl

With the recent price increases and extremely cold snap, this isn't excessive. I have a 2 bedroom flat and had a new high efficiency boiler installed at the end of the summer (SEDBUK A rated, highest efficiency boiler) and my usage over the past month has averaged 75kWh per day (heating off whilst out 8am to 6pm) which, with an average gas price of between 3.5p and 4p per kWh means an average daily usage of between £2.25 and £3.00 per day (£15.75 to £21 per week). For older boilers, larger properties or people in mostly during the day, £25 to £40 per week for gas, would not be unusual. My usage with the old boiler during the winter period last year (not as cold as this year) averaged 147 kWh per day.


[qusote=Pipts Mum;17104961]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.[/quote]

Krakers

We had a prepayment meter fitted on Friday at 2pm. It had £10 of gas on it. By Saturday that had run out. I topped up with £20, it took the £10 + £4 leaving £6. Then in the first 20 mins used 79p with the heating on the lowest stting. Its run out again, been topped up again and British Gas don't seem to think theres a problem.

Keep topping up is their answer and take meter readings when I do. They'll review it after the first few. At this rate its going to cost me £100 for 1 week, where previously we were averaging £15 p/w.

Surely they've set something badly wrong with this meter, but they will only look at it once I've topped up several times. Averaging £15 per day at the moment.

Krakers.

Jason21alnwick

Hello there, please help, i have the same problem except mine seems to be worse!, new flat, 4 rooms, new card in my name, heating on 20 degrees timed, from 6.30 to 8 and 5 til ten. It has used up 17 pound in about 30 hours, this is incredible, there is no way i can sustain this cost im living on my own and its hard enough as it is, am really starting to panic now, going to phone npower up tomorrow but im assuming that they may not be able to deal with it straight away. can some one please advise

jason

KimYeovil

Well, with four rooms and just one of you I can think of an easy way to (almost) quarter your heating bill. And is it really necessary to have it on the morning if you're not in during the day?

And, of course, next winter you will be prepared because you will have saved up money over summer to spend in winter.

filmnoir

Pssst wrote: »

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.

Energywatch disolved and is replaced by consumer Direct at the request of the Goverment not the industry. Energywatch were not a watchdog, neither is Consumer Direct. They provide advice on how to resolve issues with electric and gas supplies and act as an intermidatary. As does Consumer Focus.

The "watchdog" is the Energy Ombursdsmen which has been in place since 2006 and has the power to decide on an individual complaint and ensure both parties stick to their resolution if it goes that far.

There is now strict guideline for managing complaints since Energywatch's demise, which suppliers have to follow as its in their supplier license, so know your rights and you can resolve things.