Gas prepayment meter - repaying arrears

Tixy

Hi, hope someone can offer some advice.

I have a friend who is on a gas prepayment meter but has a lot of gas arrears.
She tells me that everytime she tops up £5 gas 80% of it goes to arrears leaving her with just £1 of gas.

I've read a couple of threads on here where people seem to be repaying arrears at a set amount each week rather than a percentage of what they top up. So do you get a choice as to which method is used or does it depends on the gas supplier or has she not understood how her arrears are being repaid. Is she likely to be able to negotiate with them?

I think the arrears are a few hundred pounds. If she was able to repay half of them, would they consider changing the amount of arrears she pays each time so she is getting more current usage for her money?

I'm worried as winter is coming and she is struggling with no heating and not oven.

Finally on a separate issue - how cheap is it to run an elec blanket? Would this be a cheap-ish option in her bedroom, to put on for maybe an hour before bed?, as at the moment her choices appear to be no heating or an ancient plug-in elec heater.

Thanks for any advice

Fire_Fox

If your friend has arrears and can afford to pay part of the debt off, why is she putting a fiver on the meter at a time? Electric blankets cost as much as a lightbulb to run, literally pennies, I use mine instead of any room heating in the bedroom.

Mankysteve

Apparently eleci blanket are fairly cheap to run 60w light bulb you only need them per warm the bed just tell her to get some blankets/ high tog duvet.

The meter will take a set amount each week not a percentage, but the the meter will make sure sure it will leave some money for gas, hence the £1 remaining.

The minimum I was told is £5 a week but I suspect hers will be higher it should be listed on the meter but I forget which screen it is. I would tell her to phone her utility supplier get the repayment reduced to a minimum for the colder months.

If she can afford to pay off halve then she should do so anyway, either that or stick that amount onto the meter so she can have gas and repay the debt.

Really need to know how much she paying back a week.

Also get her to do a SOA http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

Any remaining extra going toward paying off this bill utility debts are priority debts

Tixy

She can't afford to pay it off - I was thinking if maybe I could pay some on her behalf. Can't afford to pay it all off for her.

She is on JSA and had stopped using gas altogether and is not putting any on her meter but obviously this is not paying off the debt at all (am I right in thinking she will be being charged a daily charge amount even if she is not using the gas which will actually be adding to her debt?

I'll get some more info from her now I've had your feedback- I didn't know anything about arrears or prepay meters to even know what to ask her.
I'll talk to her about asking them to reduce the arrears payment over winter.

We are in process of completing her SoA but I know she has more non-priority debts & CCJs than she can ever repay so we are considering bankruptcy as an option for her (and speaking to the free advice organisations).

Bought an electric blanket now thanks for the advice.

Cheers

Tixy

Right so her arrears payment is set to £14 per week, but because she hasn't topped up that much for sometime its taking all but 20p of every £1.

I think we'll see if we can get the £14 dropped to something a bit less for winter and then I'll try to find out how far she is behind and if I can afford it we'll put that on the meter to at least bring her up to date with her arrears.

Fire_Fox

Sounds like you have it all sorted, Tixy! :T

loonatic

i am with scottish power and had to ring them up to get them to reduce the minimum arrears repayment i have now refused to put anything else on my meter because in one week i topped up 10quid and they took 7quid off for debt and left me with 3quid which was used overnight even though i only use the water and then 2 days later i topped up 15 and they took 10.50 off for debt and the meter used the 4.50 that was left overnight again i thought they only took a set amount each week but obviously not

jamesb1239

From when I had debt on my Gas & Electricity meters the minimum repayment amount was £3 per week, you just have to tell them that your friend is in receipt of benefits.

Also have a look at http://www.britishgasenergytrust.org.uk/ I dont know if it will be of any use, but its worth a try

Scottish_Power

Hi loonatic

Your gas meter will be set to collect money towards the debt at a rate of 70% for each payment. If you are unable to repay the balance at this rate you can contact us and request that we set a maximum amount per week that can be paid toward the debt, i.e. £20. This way the meter will collect the debt at 70% of your payment until we have taken £20 for the week. You will then receive your full credit if you add further money to your meter that week after £20 has been taken for the debt.

I hope this helps.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower