prepayment electric meters - any experience?

shadowdragon

I have both a elec and gas prepay meter, and they were in the house when we moved in so decided to give them a try, and they are great, some people say they are more expensive than having a bill/paying by DD. But we run 2pcs, everything is left on standby. The central heating is on when needed ect and we burn approx £15 per week on elect and the same for gas during the winter months, this will prob drop to £10 each for summer months.

Wouldnt be without them now to be honest. One less big bill. Plus we put the same ammount on the card/key each week and it builds up our credit. so if we need to miss buying them one week due to other bills (car tax MOT ect) we dont have to worry.

I think we have £100 credit on the Gas and approx £80 on the electricty at the moment. Works really well for us.

dreamcatcher73

Just wanted to say thanks to Jenni75, I phoned BG and explained about the BR, they were fine, said the meter would be installed next week but the debt wouldn't be added to it. It apparently takes about 2-3 weeks for them to sort out the final bill but I don't have to pay them for the electric used before BR.

Thanks Jenni, you saved me £8 a week!

jenni75

Your welcome, glad you have sorted it out. Sure £8 don't sound much to some but its alot when your br.
Jenni

Queen

Hi sounds like I'm having the same problem went BR in Nov BGas blocked my account and have no said that if debt of £225 is included in BR then I have to have a pre-payment meter which I don't want very unhelpful lady took block off account and set up new budget scheme including debt with a dd payment of £155 per month, I called back later wnad spoke with a very helpful lady who put account back in que for BR team to deal with and confirmed that new dd of £155 does not include arrears of £225 before BR but does include latest bill since Nov of £600 however I do have some set a side to pay at least 3/4 of this but will wait and see what happens with BR arrears before I pay this.

fiveyearplan

shadowdragon wrote: »

I have both a elec and gas prepay meter, and they were in the house when we moved in so decided to give them a try, and they are great, some people say they are more expensive than having a bill/paying by DD. But we run 2pcs, everything is left on standby. The central heating is on when needed ect and we burn approx £15 per week on elect and the same for gas during the winter months, this will prob drop to £10 each for summer months.

Wouldnt be without them now to be honest. One less big bill. Plus we put the same ammount on the card/key each week and it builds up our credit. so if we need to miss buying them one week due to other bills (car tax MOT ect) we dont have to worry.

I think we have £100 credit on the Gas and approx £80 on the electricty at the moment. Works really well for us.

I would be afraid of running out of credit and not having the money to buy more. Years ago my son was at his friend's house and he was having a bath and the electric went - he was left in the dark.

blind-as-a-bat_2

fiveyearplan wrote: »

I would be afraid of running out of credit and not having the money to buy more. Years ago my son was at his friend's house and he was having a bath and the electric went - he was left in the dark.

That is a problem with the new "key" meters as you need the key to use the emergancy credit, the old meters you just pressed a button.

something that happened to me yesterday, it ran out and OH had the key, and was miles away, so could not use emergancy.

Lukily they sent us two keys so i got round it legaly, though it may screw the account up, will have to wait and see.

But it is something i intend to have words about.

Im actually qualified to work on stuff like that, so could bypass the meter legaly, if i could proof justified cause, which would not be easy, but doable

Now that is not something i would recomend anyone doing, either on a safety, or legal level, but the supplier must make sure you have access to a certain amount of emergancy credit.

The way these new meters work does not comply with that requirement in my view, due to the fact if the person with the key is out, you cant accsess it, so it is not available, which is against the requirements laid down by the governing body of energy suppliers

lisamummytoarchieplusbump

im with eon and the do a pre pay card where you load it with money and it goes in a pot and when the bill comes in they just take it out the pot.

they do a strange way of DD they dont have a set amount every month ie pay the same in the summer to cover winter, it goes up and down with the seasons so i think the pre pay card is good as i just load on a set amount each month that covers me all year.

philnicandamy

One thing that made me laught with them as well....the engineer fitted in last place said "oh dont worry an audible tone will sound if you need to activate the emergency credit"...hmm nice thought the meters were outside though !

blind-as-a-bat_2

philnicandamy wrote: »

One thing that made me laught with them as well....the engineer fitted in last place said "oh dont worry an audible tone will sound if you need to activate the emergency credit"...hmm nice thought the meters were outside though !

Ours our inside, and you dont always hear it:rolleyes:

peachyprice

philnicandamy wrote: »

One thing that made me laught with them as well....the engineer fitted in last place said "oh dont worry an audible tone will sound if you need to activate the emergency credit"...hmm nice thought the meters were outside though !

Phil, I now have visions of you and your neighbours peeking out their front doors in their jimjams to see who's meter is bleeping
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