I am so cross! £210 to remove my pre payment meter!!! What shall i do? Please read

nurse34

hi there. im a student nurse with 3 children so am on a low income.
i have gas and electric from scottish power, both on prepayment meters but am forever misplacing my cards and having to pay £8 a time to replace them!
i rang them to ask about removing my gas meter and setting up a direct debit.
she said yes but it is a £150 deposit(deposit for what!!_) and also a £60-09p fee (for admin?)
i dont want to leave scottish power, i simply want to make life easier for myself by not having to top up and wait around for lost cards etc.
also gas is cheaper without pre payment.
i certtainly wasnt made aware of this when i signed up for gas, its a new policy from feb-thats no good to me.
its an outrage................does anyone have any suggestions please.:mad::money:

Premier_2

I'm sorry SP did not explain what the deposit was for.

It is as security as they will be extending credit to you. i.e. in case you don't pay the bill. I think they also pay interest on the deposit (but check that out)

The £60 sounds like the charge for switching the meter. You get nowt for nowt in this world unless you can find a different supplier who'll do it for nowt but they'll still probably want a deposit which may be more or less than £150 ... that's if they agree to extend credit to you at all.

Edit: they are required to pay interest on the deposit equivilent to Barclays bank base rate at time of asking (assuming you don't default).
http://cfe.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/cfe.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5438&p_created=1210075142&p_sid=b3o3FZKj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9ODQsODQmcF9wcm9kcz0wJnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9ZGVwb3NpdA**&p_li=&p_topview=1

hothothot_3

EDF switched me from PPM to 'normal' one for nothing. I was with them for about a year, no deposit, no admin fee.

Tell them that you not happy other companies dont charge for it.

littlemrtinkle

if edf will do it for free , perhaps switch to them in the short term (£40 cashback being offered by cashback sites)

robpw2

edf did mine for free bg wanted 250 for gas and 250 for electric

Cardew

Sadly pre-pay meters are associated with customers who have problems with paying bills(although that obviously doesn't apply to most people with PP meters) and asking for a returnable deposit is quite common and justified in many cases.

Ask to speak to a supervisor, and assuming you don't have a poor credit record, you could try threatening to leave SP if they won't change the meters for free. stress you want to pay by DD

Cardew

littlemrtinkle wrote: »

if edf will do it for free , perhaps switch to them in the short term (£40 cashback being offered by cashback sites)

I doubt any company will change meters as soon as a pre-pay customer joins.

Vestra

Cardew wrote: »

I doubt any company will change meters as soon as a pre-pay customer joins.

Some will and do.

nurse34

they have had a fortune out of me , and i think its a cheek as us on a low income, that prefer to use a pre-payment meter are being diddled because of it.
ive never had a debt on my meter , i chose this way as a budgeting method, but have realised that it is not only time consuming topping up and remembering where i have put the card- but also costing me over the odds.
i will write to scottish power and complain about this , it is not made clear enough to customers old and new.:rolleyes:

mattcanary

It is a disgrace in most cases that suppliers won;t remove a prepayment meter without a hefty deposit. If the customer has been in debt before with their utility bills, then that is a valid reason to refuse the request. Otherwise, there is no excuse. People cannot take advantage of special offers if they have a prepayment meter. This is unfair and a restrictive practice.
Utility companies' apparent policy of credit-scoring the address, rather than the individual is even more of an outrage. Experian and other credit reference agencies discarded with this policy many years ago as it was totally unfair. Utility companies should do the same.

mattcanary

Cardew, I would recommend switching your supplier to someone that will remove the meter. It would appear to be the case that EDF and Southern are prepared to do this, in many cases. Scottish Power don't deserve your continued custom.