Which companies charge extra for key meter?

icefall

Can anyone help clear this up for me. I know Ebico are not charging extra to customers if they use a key meter. All customers pay the same whether direct debit or quarterly or key meter.

But I have recently been advised in a thread that British Gas is also doing this and maybe another energy company too.

Anyone with up to date knowledge of this issue. I pay direct debit myself. But would like to know as I am not sure really. If there are other companies starting to not charge the extra premium for using key meters thats good news. But then why no publicity?

welshsue

Swalec advertise as no longer charging standing charge for pre-payment meters but I have discovered that they hide it in the rates.
I have had major rows with them recently and they will not budge all they say is that all companies still charge standing charges but hide them.
I found out they still charge as have recently gone onto the social tariff with them and I now get charged £1 per week for standing charge which is shown seperately on the meter as there is no code to programme the rate incl standing charge I have been told.

Premier_2

Hi welshsue,

As you appear to be getting no joy from Swalec, have you thought about asking Swalec to transfer you to the ebico tariff?

As Swalec are a trading name of Scottish & Southern, the licensed supply partner of ebico, I understand that this can happen quickly & simply as a tariff change and not a full blown supplier swiitch that would take weeks.

I can assure you that there will be no standing charge to pay with ebico.
(but there are some oddities in the way ebico may have to handle this depending on the pre-payment meter capability - more details here:
http://www.ebico.co.uk/html/c_faq.php#q6)

welshsue

mm sounds interesting. Would ebico honour the social tariff rate I am now being charged by Swalec?.

SwanJon

I work for British Gas - decide if this is useful.
British Gas changed to no difference in December, but that does not include DD discounts or now prompt pay discounts.
However, you may find that even if company X charges key meters more than quarterly, it doesn't mean that they'll be more expensive for key meters than company Y.

icefall

SwanJon wrote: »

I work for British Gas - decide if this is useful.
British Gas changed to no difference in December, but that does not include DD discounts or now prompt pay discounts.
However, you may find that even if company X charges key meters more than quarterly, it doesn't mean that they'll be more expensive for key meters than company Y.

Its very useful info thanks Swanjon.

Does this mean that someone on a key meter with British Gas will still pay more due to not receiving the dd discount/ prompt pay discounts? End result being they still pay more for a key meter (even if its not as much as before) than say Ebico?

So really British Gas have lowered the extra payment for a key meter to same as someone paying extra to pay quarterly rather than direct debit?

SwanJon

icefall wrote: »

Does this mean that someone on a key meter with British Gas will still pay more due to not receiving the dd discount/ prompt pay discounts?

Yes, they pay the same as quarterly 'late' payers.

icefall wrote: »

End result being they still pay more for a key meter (even if its not as much as before) than say Ebico?

This is what I tried to get across above. You'd need to use a comparison site and annual kWh to compare two companies, you can't use two tariffs with one company to make a decision about another company.

icefall wrote: »

So really British Gas have lowered the extra payment for a key meter to same as someone paying extra to pay quarterly rather than direct debit?

Technically it is a discount for DD rather than 'extra' for the other methods.Ofgem asked for discounts & tariffs to more closely reflect the costs involved, and DD is cheaper than quarterly or key for the company.

icefall

So this means if someone posts that they are on a key meter and they use the comparison websites, there is no option for key meters. So they should choose the option for paying quarterly in order to compare and get the correct result? Or as correct a result as an energy comparison website can give anyway...

Premier_2

welshsue wrote: »

mm sounds interesting. Would ebico honour the social tariff rate I am now being charged by Swalec?.

No, if you elect to take the ebico tariff, the price you see is the price you pay. Whilst there are no hidden charges with ebico, there no discounts either.

If the saving on the social tariff rates offered by Swalec is greater than the standing charge Swalec are applying, then do not switch to ebico

SwanJon

icefall wrote: »

So this means if someone posts that they are on a key meter and they use the comparison websites, there is no option for key meters. So they should choose the option for paying quarterly in order to compare and get the correct result? Or as correct a result as an energy comparison website can give anyway...

Key meters are prepayment, so chose prepayment.
You really need to do this as even if yo uintend for your new supplier to swap your meters to quarterly, they can't do it until you join them with the prepayment meter.

icefall

SwanJon wrote: »

Key meters are prepayment, so chose prepayment.
You really need to do this as even if yo uintend for your new supplier to swap your meters to quarterly, they can't do it until you join them with the prepayment meter.

I really need to do what??
As stated in my op I use direct debit personally.

I merely wish to clear up whether a person using a key meter will pay more just for the privilege of using a key meter with British Gas or any other companies. It was stated to me that another company apart from British Gas are also stopping charging extra for key meters. Anyone know who that could be? I believe it was someone called Joyful who works for an energy company who mentioned these facts on another thread as previously mentioned above.