Best way to get rid of prepayment meter?

clairewop

we have just phoned eon and have been told we have to have a credit check and pay £50 each meter

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

LilacPixie wrote: »

Interesting thread. I am possibly buying a new home as a private sale. It has pre payment meters which I hate with a passion. I called my current supplier (been with for 23 months monthly DD, in credit) to ask if it is possibly to sycronise moving in date with change over of meters and was told I would have to stay prepayment for 12+months before they would do it despite perfect credit score and an exemplary payment history with them. Helena can you confirm that this is your companies policy?

It's good to know other suppliers will switch over meter with no minimum period,looks like Eon will be losing me as a customer which is ashameas they are the cheapest in my area based on current usage

Hi LilacPixie,

As you are buying the property and not renting, I would ask E.ON again about removing the pre-payment meters.

You would still need to set up a monthly Direct Debit for the new house and they may want to do an external credit check, you will also need to pay £50 per meter if they are removed.

E.ON only normally require you to live in the property for 12 months before removal, if you are renting.

I would check this again.

Helena

markharding557

clairewop wrote: »

we have just phoned eon and have been told we have to have a credit check and pay £50 each meter

you can avoid the £50 charges by moving to a supplier that does not charge you may have to wait a while though.
i think edf and bg are in this category someone will correct if i'm wrong.

before_hollywood

how much do scottish power charge to ditch the prepayment meters?

Bryando

Does anybody know the credit ref agent British Gas use?

neilgardner

This thread was very helpful to me as someone who made the mistake of moving into a rented accommodation that had prepayment meters for both gas and electricity. Our supplier is Utility Warehouse who took 2 weeks to get a new gas card to us, leaving us without gas over Christmas.

We've contacted Ebico (Equigas/Equipower) to transfer our supply for both electricity and gas over to them after they have told me if we pass a credit check they will change to meters without charge.

This is in contrast to Utility Warehouse who do not do credit checks they charge £50+ to remove an electricity meter and £60+ for a gas meter. On top of this they require a £100 deposit for each meter for 12 months = £310+. There is no way that I would pay that (even though I am on an average income and could probably afford it). It makes me really angry at the way prepayment meters are such poverty traps.

I have trawled through all the power companies websites and they are not transparent about this at all. Even on calling some are evasive, one kept repeating that each case is dealt with "individually" after a credit check and refused to give me a costing on a worst/best case scenario. Credit scoring is not individual treatment. I wanted to know details/levels of risk before I transferred supply.

My advice is that you need to find out what creadit checking agency they are using, what score is considered a pass and then go and get your score checked yourself to see if you pass before you move supply over.