Gas meter - Please I need desperate help to get out of this hole.

mr_wes

Dear users thanks for taking time to look at this post I really hope you can help me.

I am a private tenant renting a 3 bedroomed semi detatched property with no central heating. About 18 months ago after suffering a personal financial nightmare I found myself unable to pay my gas and electricity bills and as a result BG fitted 2 key meters outside of my house.

The Electricity meter has this long plastic orange key thing which I have to top up with money. The original debt on the meter was something like £1800 and very slowely Ive been getting that amount down. According to the meter Ive so far put on £1600. The debt now stands at £700. I understand that Im paying out for the debt PLUS the electricity I am using. I use the very bare minimum amount of electricity. Its a massive killer and the bane of my life! But never-the-less Im chipping away at it. Will BG remove the meter when I get the debt to zero does anyone know?

ok now the Gas problem....

The Gas meter was fitted sometime early last summer - a little after the elec was fitted. The original debt on that was something like £300. Not a massive amount but as it was summer I stupidly thought - hey what do I need gas for? and I just never bothered to put any money onto the flat plastic key card. Now that its come to winter though Im really suffering. First of all I tried putting £20 on the card only to have it gobbled up straight away. I think I got about an hours worth of gas off of that £20. I tried again and the same thing happened so I rang BG and a really helpful man talked me through it explaining the 70% for debts and so on. He basically said that I need to put £20 on every wednesday for ever. I could do this but how long is the meter going to gobble up my money as soon as I put it on? I cant afford to do that and Im so cold its having an effect on my health. Also, I found out that because I wasnt putting money onto the card the debt kept rolling over and over up to something like £800! Is this fair? Is there anyway I could contact BG and say look, Im dying here with this meter. Can you reconnect me permenantly and Ill pay off the debt in 4 installments?

Im sorry this has been such a long rambling post but I just dont know what to do. I hope you can help me guys! The other advice on this forum in absolutely excellent!

mr_wes

Cardew

Essentially your pre-pay meters will remain until BG(or any other company) are convinced that you are credit worthy(sorry to put that bluntly)

I suggest you contact these people to see if they can help.

http://www.britishgasenergytrust.org.uk/

Magentasue

mr_wes wrote: »

The Gas meter was fitted sometime early last summer - a little after the elec was fitted. The original debt on that was something like £300. Not a massive amount but as it was summer I stupidly thought - hey what do I need gas for? and I just never bothered to put any money onto the flat plastic key card. Now that its come to winter though Im really suffering. First of all I tried putting £20 on the card only to have it gobbled up straight away. I think I got about an hours worth of gas off of that £20. I tried again and the same thing happened so I rang BG and a really helpful man talked me through it explaining the 70% for debts and so on. He basically said that I need to put £20 on every wednesday for ever. I could do this but how long is the meter going to gobble up my money as soon as I put it on? I cant afford to do that and Im so cold its having an effect on my health. Also, I found out that because I wasnt putting money onto the card the debt kept rolling over and over up to something like £800! Is this fair? Is there anyway I could contact BG and say look, Im dying here with this meter. Can you reconnect me permenantly and Ill pay off the debt in 4 installments?

Im sorry this has been such a long rambling post but I just dont know what to do. I hope you can help me guys! The other advice on this forum in absolutely excellent!

mr_wes

I'm wondering if your gas tariff has a daily standing charge that has mounted up over the summer? Every time you credit the meter, it's taking some for debt, some for standing charge and leaving you with very little for gas. If you only use gas on the coldest days, you would probably be better off with a no standing charge tariff where you pay more for the first kwh used. Definitely worth asking about.

I would explain the situation to BG - I don't know how flexible they can be but you could explain it would be helpful if they could reduce the amount taken for debt for a few weeks while it is so cold. You could also propose instalments, but if you can afford to pay four instalments, couldn't you just feed the meter this amount?

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi,

In some cases if a pre-payment meter has been installed in a property to collect an outstanding balance, they may not remove the meter at all; this does depend on the supplier.

Most pre-payment meters are billed on a standing charge tariff, this is the reason that you have built up a debt, even though you haven’t used much gas.

When the meter is not topped up with credit, the standing charge will build up as a debt, when you do put some money on to the meter, it will start to claim this back.

I'd contact British Gas and ask if the offer a no standing charge tariff, you can also pay debts back at different amounts depending on your circumstances and the supplier, this is something else to ask when you call.

spiro

You mention paying off the gas in 4 installments. If you can afford to do this then do it, then at least you will no longer have a debt on the meter so you will only be paying for what you use. Once you are debt free you can then switch suppliers. You should note that OFGEM are pushing suppliers to reduce the differencial between credit and prepayment tariffs and British Gas started to do this as part of the recent price reduction.

Cardew

spiro wrote: »

You mention paying off the gas in 4 installments. If you can afford to do this then do it, then at least you will no longer have a debt on the meter so you will only be paying for what you use. Once you are debt free you can then switch suppliers. You should note that OFGEM are pushing suppliers to reduce the differencial between credit and prepayment tariffs and British Gas started to do this as part of the recent price reduction.

Once you have cleared your debt, as you are a low user, you may wish to consider Ebico for gas. They are very competitive for pre-pay low users.

However they are not competitive for Electricity.

mr_wes

Thank you all for your words of advice. I'll get onto British Gas and see what they can do. Once again thank you all!

kjsmith7

British Gas does have a standing charge for prepayment meters and I agree that it is likely that your money is getting gobbled up due to this building up. As soon as that's gone you should notice it is a little easier to manage.

I believe that you are credit checked (you'd have to have a shocking credit rating and/or not paid your bill for a long time to fail it), but you have to actually ring up & request credit meters. Hope that helps!

SwanJon

Contrary to what KJ says, BG do not have a standing charge for prepayment meters (apart from for 2 rate electricity). If you have an older electricity meter that does have one you can ask them to swap it to a new one that doesn't for free.
However, your contract (gas) is for the first 670kWh each quarter at a higher rate, which might be why it is using more than expected.
Also, when the meter was installed, I assume that you agreed to a weekly recovery rate? This was programmed on to the meter and the key word was weekly.
If you were not using gas your debt will nothave gone up.
You can check how much the gas meter thinks you now owe by looking at three different screens.
1) - 'General Debt' - mainly emergency credit (standing charge with some suppliers)
If the meter screen is blank press the red button (Please Wait), so that it changes to show your current credit. Now press the red button and it will change to a screen that says x.xx OWED. (You do not need the card)
2) - Gas Debt - the gas bill
This depends on the meter. From the screen with your credit on and the card out, press the red button in and don't let go. The screen will change to either
2a) 27 GD remaining - this is the amount of the bill remaining
2b) 00 Last Credit. Release the red button and press it again. Each time you press it the number will increase (01,02 etc) and the screen will change. The meter will ask you to insert the card after scrren 23. Put it in and press the button again until you rech screen 27 above
3) Non Gas Debt. Charges other than for gas (for lost gascards, warrant or follow up charges). From screen 27 press the red button again.
If your meter is type a in step 2 the numbers won't be in order, if it is type B they will be.
You are looking for screen 31 - NGD remaining.

Your electricity meter is a bit simpler. With your key in press the blue button until you see screens S - this is the balance remaining.

PS - Credit is harder to come by than the last few years. Don't trust KJ on what he thinks your credit history needs to be.

Edit - If you want to make a payment direct, thay can reduce the amount on the meter by sending a message to the chip on the key/card.

kjsmith7

SwanJon wrote: »

Contrary to what KJ says, BG do not have a standing charge for prepayment meters (apart from for 2 rate electricity). If you have an older electricity meter that does have one you can ask them to swap it to a new one that doesn't for free.

I learn something new everyday - kudos SwanJon