in debt with household bills

roswell

The good thing with pre payment meters is when you have no money the lights go out :-) so no debt.

Yes they do charge a standing rate but this is likely to be less that having estimated bills that you have never corrected, You can also phone the company once the meters are in and ask them to change yur tarrif to "Standered rate" same as being on mains but you just pay through your meter for what you use.

If you change to energy saving light bulbs you well get savings from the moment you turn the lights on.

The propblem you need to look at is stopping the debts growning and start paying them off, you may not want the meters but if its going to stop your debts taking over ????

tango

Thanks for replying money bunny,good to hear that you are going to ring about utlities companies tomorrow,before you do,check what you can afford,and have all the facts in front of you so you are not caught short.
Glad the overdraft is authorised,but we will have to choose to disagree on the meter idea,which i think would be good
Give your dad a hug for being nice .Let us now how it goes tomorrow

bitza81

Hiya
I live in suffolk and my local citizens advice bureau have application forms for the 'anglian water trust fund' (for people who live in east anglia(?))
Basically its for people who are on benefits and you can apply to the fund for help with arrears in household bills and other similar things. Your local area may do something similar... it may be worth asking at your local CAB.

Good luck

Helen

harrie_2

Kimberley wrote:

I prefer paying by keymeter, payment cards etc, i hate receiving quarterly high bills. paying weekly may be a pain and may be slightly dearer, but at least what i pay is only a small amount compared to paying it off every three months with huge bills. I'd only switch back to DD if i win the lotto

i agree with you on that one even when we were comftable money wise i chose them you are more carefull when i was on quaterly you go forget to turn heating off leave lites on mine cheaper now because i am more care full

jcr16

we had a pre pay elec meter , as we had our power with n-power and it took them a year to acknowlege we were with them , so had a bill for £500 for the year. so they put a key meter in , and ok it was fab knowing we were paying the debt down and not getting a bigger debt. but if we ran out of money on the key meter and had no money in the bank we were stuck in darkness and cold. we did have a £5 emergancy on the meter but this seemed to go down quicker than the rest.

i would advise think very hard before having one put it. they work for some families , but not for others.

another thing , make sure you have a local shop that can put money on the key meter. as we found our shop did , but they shut at 5 , and the next shop was miles away.

CLAPTON

You need to provide more information before people can advice and suggestions

I would suggest you post a Statement of Affairs (SoA) here and people will give advice.

If you browse the bulletin board you will see examples but the general format is

: statement of income:

: statement of expenditure
this should be quite detailed but excluding debt repayment
: a subtotal to save us all having to add it up

: statement of all debts including
outstanding amount, monthly repayment , APR
a subtotal to save us having to add it up

also add a brief details of you situation, partner, any children, rent or own property, value of house and mortgage, any special circumstances that are relevant


you say neither of you are working ...is there a particular reason for that?

livilou

on the job front, maybe look at employment that doesn't rely on child care, i.e. nightwork? I started work at asda last year and work 8-midnight 4 times a week, hubby is home from work so we don't have childcare issues. it's not ideal and it is very tiring but it's the only way if we want to be debt free.
good luck

CLAPTON

you say there are no child minders (well only one ) in your area....seems a great opportunity to me and quite well paid too.