Pre-payment Gas Meter Problem

fedup100pc

I’m wondering if any of your members can shine any light on this problem that is causing me a great deal of distress. A couple of weeks ago, to give an example, if I had £3.00 credit on my pre-payment Gas meter, the £3.00 would last me abut 3-4 days using the gas cooker and gas central heating for roughly 2-3 hours per day. The following day though I noticed that the meter was taking off about £1.00-per-hour if I was cooking or heating the house for only “one” hour. A massive difference.

I’ve contacted my energy supplier who claims the only thing that has changed is that they have done away with the standing change and recalculated the meter to take the money off in a different way by adjusting the unit price of the gas (I think that is what they said, you’d need to be a genius to understand how they explain it). I know that something drastically has changed for my meter to be gobbling up that amount of money. My supplier, however, is denying this and I feel as if I’m banging my head against brick wall. I’m absolutely desperate for help. I’m freezing cold.

poppyjay

yes we are having same problem i put £8.00 on our meter and got about 1 hours heating .I would love to know whats happening too

dogshome

Hi fedup100% - You have not mentioned the company you are with, but there was a recent post where Scot Power had loaded Debt onto a prepay meter by "In error"
If they have indeed changed your tariff you are entitled to see a hard copy, but I would not bother with phoning the Customer Services Desk. WRITE to them

KimYeovil

Monthly charges charges range from £3 to more than £20 per month. When taken off daily via a two tier tariff then more than 12 kWh per day will be charged at a higher price. The chances are your supplier is correct - the actual total cost of the tariff will be exactly the same.

But if you are not using your heating every day and just cooking then you may not be using up all the more expensive units equally. In the same way that you can get a backlog of daily charges that eat in to your credit you can get massive arrears of Tier 1 units.

If on a prepayment meter it is important to regularly top it up - you should not just top it up when it threatens to hit the emergency. (Especially just now as the cold weather encroaches.)

sequence

Surely that penalizes any user who does not use a lot of gas. The tariff will only work out "right" if you use an average amount of gas ? If you use little or conserve, then you will always be paying over the odds ?

Pre-payment meters are awful .

fedup100pc

KimYeovil wrote: »

Monthly charges charges range from £3 to more than £20 per month. When taken off daily via a two tier tariff then more than 12 kWh per day will be charged at a higher price. The chances are your supplier is correct - the actual total cost of the tariff will be exactly the same.

But if you are not using your heating every day and just cooking then you may not be using up all the more expensive units equally. In the same way that you can get a backlog of daily charges that eat in to your credit you can get massive arrears of Tier 1 units.

If on a prepayment meter it is important to regularly top it up - you should not just top it up when it threatens to hit the emergency. (Especially just now as the cold weather encroaches.)

Thanks for your comments folks. Kim, do you mean that it would benefit me more if I, let’s say, put £2-per-day on the gas meter instead of £14 lump sum at the end of the week. Also, does the same apply if I let the credit build up without using so much gas, or do I have to use gas regularly in order for the meter not to claw as much back?

I agree with other comments about pre payment meters being a damn nuisance. One day I put £13 on the meter and ended up with only £3 credit after the emergency was paid back along with all the amounts of money eon take off the meter. That £3, however, was gone in a few hours so I had to put another £10 on which went as equally as quick. I then put £20 on which is now down to £3 (and this is all within a seven day period) despite the fact that and I live on my own and hardly use the heating because of how much it is costing me.

I’ve worked something out though. As it is costing me a fortune to have the heating on for one hour per day, I might as well not use the gas at all and be freezing for 24 hours a day instead of 23

Premier_2

sequence wrote: »

Surely that penalizes any user who does not use a lot of gas. The tariff will only work out "right" if you use an average amount of gas ? If you use little or conserve, then you will always be paying over the odds ?

Pre-payment meters are awful .

If you don't use much energy, you should seriously consider Ebico as your supplier, especially if you also have a prepayment meter.

Ebico charge every customer on the same basis no matter how they pay, and they have a simple flat unit charge, no silly 2 tier charges or daily standing charges.

Fire_Fox

Consider an electric underblanket on your bed and a spare duvet on your sofa - I've got through two winters without heating with this plus an extra fleece or thin bodywarmer and thick socks when up and about. Also look at your insulation - draw the curtains if they are heavy or put bubble wrap over the windows, make sure the loft is well lagged.

KimYeovil

sequence wrote: »

Surely that penalizes any user who does not use a lot of gas. The tariff will only work out "right" if you use an average amount of gas ? If you use little or conserve, then you will always be paying over the odds ?

Pre-payment meters are awful .

This is the same with all tariffs regardless of meter type - not just prepayment. If this wasn't applied then it would be worse because you would face a daily standing charge. At least with the two-tier system there is a chance of escaping some of the charge over summer.

KimYeovil

fedup100pc wrote: »

Thanks for your comments folks. Kim, do you mean that it would benefit me more if I, let’s say, put £2-per-day on the gas meter instead of £14 lump sum at the end of the week. Also, does the same apply if I let the credit build up without using so much gas, or do I have to use gas regularly in order for the meter not to claw as much back?

I agree with other comments about pre payment meters being a damn nuisance. One day I put £13 on the meter and ended up with only £3 credit after the emergency was paid back along with all the amounts of money eon take off the meter. That £3, however, was gone in a few hours so I had to put another £10 on which went as equally as quick. I then put £20 on which is now down to £3 (and this is all within a seven day period) despite the fact that and I live on my own and hardly use the heating because of how much it is costing me.

I’ve worked something out though. As it is costing me a fortune to have the heating on for one hour per day, I might as well not use the gas at all and be freezing for 24 hours a day instead of 23

I can't promise 100% that this is the cause of your situation - it is just a suggestion.

It does not really matter how often you pay - the irregular payments just make it irritating because at the moment you decide you need the heat that's the time your money gets nabbed for any 'missed' instalments. Many people think emergency is more expensive because the money is claimed back (at up to 70%) off any future deposit. Similarly the Tier 1 price is usually more than twice as expensive.

As Premier suggested, if you are stuck with prepayment meters you should look at clearing any debt and switching to Ebico. If you are a modest user you can easily more than halve your gas bill.

You are right that it does not make much sense to put central heating on for one hour at a time - nothing to do with tariff structures, just that all the money is spent heating from cold. Only really worthwhile using it for two or more hours at a time. And, of course, you should check your meter and see how much you use after the first hour - that's a more reasonable estimate of your heating costs than panicking over how much is used firing up.

becs

Have you checked the unit price has been set correctly? If you put the card into the meter and press the button it will show you the charge pe unit. Then check your suppliers website to see how much it should be, it may be that it has been programmed incorrectly.
If it is correct then really a good option would be to change to someone like Ebico.