gas meter

debrag

'We are currently in the process of finalising your account; this usually takes about three weeks to complete. Once your bill has been finalised, you will receive this by mail.

You can then pay your final bill quickly and easily at www.scottishpower.co.uk/myfinalaccount. You'll also be able to instantly access copies of past bills. All you need is your account number and postcode that appears on the final bill we send to you.'

Does this mean we are no longer going to be with SP?

I wanted to pay the debt of today but can't online and I'm not the account holder so can't phone up.

Mynewt

Prepayment meters operate a pirority system to allocate your payments. You top ups have to pay A. Emergency credit re-pay B. outstanding balance C. standing charge D. ongoing consumption.

After paying back any emergency credit used, your payments will be allocated for consumption first (I beleive 30% of your payment will go towards this - this may vary on supplier however), standing charge will be deducted next followed by outstanding balance. Standing charge and debt collection are desinged to be taken on a weekly basis.

If your top up is sufficient only to clear the emergency credit and leave a small portion for on-going consumption. Your standing charge and debt collection will be rolled over to the following top-up this means that at some point when you top up by a larger amount it seems as if the meter is swallowing your credit.

This is why regular top ups are a must for PPM customer's, it ensures your payments are dufficent for all the deductions, that need to be made.

debrag

Well I know about the repayments now. I wil be topping up again next week. We do plan to top up each week.

I just want to get this debt paid in full. Can I top up the meters in one go to cover the whole debt? would it still be taken weekly?

Screen readings:

00 = 20.00 - last purchase
01 = 12.91 - last for debt
02 = 1.09 - last for EC
03 = 6 - credit
04 = 16.00 (first check was 15.59)
10 = 3.844 - tarrif
16 = 40.300
17 = 10.50
20 = 91
21 = 2
22 = 5
23 = 30
24 = 70
25 = 15 - min weekly debt payment
26 = 15 - max weekly debt payment
27 = 31.58 - outstanding debt
28 = 0

what do these mean?

debrag

this house is just a joke. I live with boyfriend, his sister and her son (though she's only here sunday evening - friday morning and he's moved out but not officially as yet!!)
The son has the internet + untilities in his name the sister has the phone, neither give a !!!! about the bills. Phone bill just arrived and was just left in the kitchen, revised gas/electic bills arrived - electric £169.07, gas £125.42 (£60ish on meter, rest to pay by DD) what is funny is that the son is stupid enough to not cancel the DD so he gets banks charges (I hope) serves him right!!!!! Again bills left in kitchen.

Internet runs out of contract next month. Neither me nore boyfrind can do anything as nothings in our names and they clearly aren't doing anything, I'm paying all these debt off (b/friend will pay back once paid next week) and adding credit!

Oh and the heating problem - it wasn't only on 8pm - midnight, it was programmed for 8am-12pm then 5pm-12am to come on everyday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have now changed it to 7am-8am and 8pm-10:30pm I would removed the morning time but I don't know how. Of course gas had gone this morning so I put £30 on there (£10 from the sister!) and have £9 credit.

Confused abot gas bill -

Letter 1

There is a debt outstanding of £125.42 on your account. This amount is now due for payment in full

Goes on to take about being paid by meter... finishing 15/01/10 or in full on [insert number]

Please not that, if any part of your debt remians outstanding for more than 28 days from the date of this letter, Scottishpower will be entitled to object to you tranferring to another supplier.

So basically it's saying that either the debt is paid in full by 28 days or the payment start coming off the meter within 28 days? Also does this mean that the son has started the ball rolling to move from SP?

SwanJon

Mynewt wrote: »

Prepayment meters operate a pirority system to allocate your payments. You top ups have to pay A. Emergency credit re-pay B. outstanding balance C. standing charge D. ongoing consumption.

This is the second time you have spouted this - can you be a bit more specific of your source as it doesn't tally with what I know about Gas PP meters.

Gas meters have a max percentage set that will go from any top up to pay back a debt*. For most customers this is 70%, but I have seen as high as 90%. This can be seen on screen 24
*The debt consists of any weekly agreed rate, and any emergency credit borrowed. In my experience, the weekly payment is taken first, before EC is paid back - which can make it tricky to get the EC again.
I'll admit to being a bit more hazy with standing charges as I've not worked with them, but as they are part of the tariff, I'd imagine they will be recovered from credit on the meter. If no credit, then it could jump to the front of the queue on the next top up.

Debrag - those screens look right. From memory
01+02+03=00 - what happened to the last £20 you put on
23+24=100%
As 24 & 25 are the same, the meter will always look for that £15, and will remember it if you don't top up one week, although in your case the £31.56'll be paid off in 2 weeks or so.
Most of the other screens don't matter that much e.g. but I think there's a post somewhere with them all on. I'd need to search though.
16 - the calorific value - the energy content of the gas.
20 - the billing cycle - 91 days = quarterly

debrag

£15.44 taken this time for debt and £5.56 for EC. Only £16.14 debt left on. Plus the bill not on meter.

Mynewt

Is it so hard to ask a question civially or is it some inbred instint to be nasty and malcious? to be fair its probably not your fault just some nasty infection as other forumn members demonstrate the same characteristics.

To quote "if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"

As for source -- that'll be the prepayment specialists in the company I work for. They deal with PPM issues for our customer's on a daily basis. In addition the first time I "spouted" another member concurred with the statement.

SwanJon

Sorry if I came across a bit strong Newt, but have to deal with people who think they know how these work every day - including other people who work for British Gas but not in the pre-payment department. Actually it is often these well meaning agents who cause the most problems as you have to delicately explain for 5 mins that Bob was wrong, but they can trust you to be right before you can start dealing with the real issue.

The other time you posted it was on a thread about electricity meters, and the poster who concurred was the one asking for help who 'had a feeling it worked this way'.
Bottom line, if you are unsure - say so. You stated it as if it was fact, but it was second hand information about an area you are not a specialist in. There are far too many incorrect rumours about these kinds of meter as it is.

joncow75

Hi Debrag,

Just to let you know I have been in exactly the same situation as you. i had an outstanding amount on both gas & electric and was told to change to PP meters by SP. Once installed I found it very easy to manage the electric, but impossible on the gas. Everytime I topped up I seemed to have very little left over. Everythiong came to a head when I'd been away for 2 weeks, and put £40 on the gas, only to find my meter has £2 left over then cut off the next day. I rang up playing hell only to be told they were taking £15 per week from me. Not once had I been informed this was happening and even the person on the phone couldn't believe the weekly amount was so high. I had even been ringing up to make payments over the phone, as like you, my internet account had been stopped. I never understood why all the money was set to come off the gas. To make things easier I managed to borrow the money to pay off the outstanding amount, only to find I now had a £48 credit on the gas!!! I was away again for a couple of weeks with work and came back to find that I still had £40.85 on my meter. The next day someone came out to reset the meter and wiped the lot, putting £10 of emergency credit back on. I was never told why this had happened except a letter that turned up after the amend telling me it was changed to a tennancy meter. No idea why. Speaking to SP they have offered to send me £13 they save I have as a credit. Where the hell my £40 has gone I have no idea. Most of the customer services team have been pretty unhelpful tbh. I won't rush to use them as a energy supplier again

debrag

what does the following mean:

'This account is no longer available to manage online as we have been notified of a change relating to the account.

a) moving to new supplier
b) moving to prepay meter
c) something else