Help please - £10 in Electricity on Tue now only £1 odds left?

littlepinkstars44

ok, so this is more about helping my mum out.
She is always moaning about the electricity in our house, and how fast it goes.
We have one of those pre-pay keys you stick in it.

Anyway she put £10 in on Tue, it's now Thursday night and i have just had a look and there is only £1.75 left in it?!

How on earth can that even be possible? I'm not sure if this is what she is always going on about, cause to be honest i don't pay much attention lol!

But she is always saying things like "Careful with that i'm on emergency again"

Is this normal?

kjsmith7

I know that Prepayment meters cost more per unit than Credit/quarterly billed meters... Is there any chance she can switch to one of those? Or would that not be an option? It does still seem like quite high consumption... £4.50 per day is £135/mo (30 day)...

SwanJon

How much emergency does she get?
If she'd borrowed £6 then she'll have paid that back first, and used £4 in 2 days which is realistic.
Does she have electrical heating?

littlepinkstars44

SwanJon wrote: »

How much emergency does she get?
If she'd borrowed £6 then she'll have paid that back first, and used £4 in 2 days which is realistic.
Does she have electrical heating?

I really don't know, what do you mean by borrowning £6? is that when its on emergency?

I don't know what our heating is, i think its gas, as the hob is gas, and we have a gas fire in the living room.
I don't have a heater in my room though, i have a plug in one, would that use much electricty?

littlepinkstars44

kjsmith7 wrote: »

I know that Prepayment meters cost more per unit than Credit/quarterly billed meters... Is there any chance she can switch to one of those? Or would that not be an option? It does still seem like quite high consumption... £4.50 per day is £135/mo (30 day)...

I don't know if she would, we've always been on a pre pay system, we used to have power cards in our old house.

kjsmith7

littlepinkstars44 wrote: »

I don't know if she would, we've always been on a pre pay system, we used to have power cards in our old house.

SwanJon does make a good point... £5 or so in debit would only leave £5 or so for her to actually spend before going into her emergency again..

...But either way. To change to a credit/quarterly billed meter, you (or more preferably due to data protection laws, she) will have to telephone the current supplier and inquire about a credit meter. If the property has always had a prepayment meter, she should pass the checks no problem. I believe my friend who had a very bad credit rating had to pay a 'deposit' as such to go on to a credit meter, which cost £100, but that was returned after 12 months and she ended up saving loads...

kjsmith7

"Emergency" credit is for when you run out of money, as such, on the meter. It gives you a small amount of money, usually around £5, to go and get some credit. If she goes "into her emergency", she is technically borrowing a small amount of money. When she goes and tops up, that money then gets repaid. If she was £5 into her emergency, she would be at -£5, so when she puts £10 on, she is only left with £5 to spend. This could be why she is continually going back into her emergency?

littlepinkstars44

kjsmith7 wrote: »

SwanJon does make a good point... £5 or so in debit would only leave £5 or so for her to actually spend before going into her emergency again..

...But either way. To change to a credit/quarterly billed meter, you (or more preferably due to data protection laws, she) will have to telephone the current supplier and inquire about a credit meter. If the property has always had a prepayment meter, she should pass the checks no problem. I believe my friend who had a very bad credit rating had to pay a 'deposit' as such to go on to a credit meter, which cost £100, but that was returned after 12 months and she ended up saving loads...

Does she have to get a credit check done to switch?

onetomany

yea just have to rember you get carged for using emergancy we are on ones for electric and gas you could always ring the electric board and ask if this is right

littlepinkstars44

kjsmith7 wrote: »

"Emergency" credit is for when you run out of money, as such, on the meter. It gives you a small amount of money, usually around £5, to go and get some credit. If she goes "into her emergency", she is technically borrowing a small amount of money. When she goes and tops up, that money then gets repaid. If she was £5 into her emergency, she would be at -£5, so when she puts £10 on, she is only left with £5 to spend. This could be why she is continually going back into her emergency?

thanks for clearing that up, that makes sence now why we're into emergency every other day! lol

littlepinkstars44

onetomany wrote: »

yea just have to rember you get carged for using emergancy we are on ones for electric and gas you could always ring the electric board and ask if this is right

Thanks, yeah we have a pre-pay one for the gas too, though this is outside and i don't even know where it is! lol