Pre-Payment meters vs Direct Debit

factoryworker

wornoutmumoftwo wrote: »

I love my prepayment meter.

I think it's great for budgeting, and I know I could get a better deal on a credit meter with a different tarif/company but it's peace of mind. I know exactely where I am and no longer dread the prospect of a huge bill.

thats great; your aware it costs you more but you appreciate it. its no different to knowing you can get a loaf of Warburtons for £1.19 at Tesco but thats 2 mile away and paying £1.39 at you local Nisa/Coop 200 metres away; your paying for the convenience and service.

my only concern is you could pay on a card at the same Paypoint/post office £18, at the same time as you topup now, and still be able to budget/control your payments.

MarieMc

Joyful wrote: »

To save you more money you can sign up for PAYG Click on line as you have 2 PP meters. Are you also aware you can now top up your Gas and Electric online with Home top up?

Could you possibly give more detail on these? Your help is very much appreciated, as is everyone who has contributed to this thread.

Joyful

MarieMc wrote: »

Could you possibly give more detail on these? Your help is very much appreciated, as is everyone who has contributed to this thread.

Here is the link to sign up. http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/energy/our-products/pay-as-you-go.html You can save up to £70. The link shows you the tariffs.There is no tie in of any kind either.

The Home top ups plug into the usb port of your computer and you register a debit card ( or a few) with a secure BG website.After registered you can take any amount from your bank to add directly onto the key or card which plug into the top up device.

wornoutmumoftwo

I'm getting the home top up. Had the original one that I had to pay for (got a refund with a £10 lovetoshop voucher for inconvenience).

Cardew

Originally Posted by KimYeovil
No they are not - at least not to the customers who use them. They are somewhat subsidised by the rest of the customer base - who may well feel 'ripped off' at the hundreds and thousands of pounds being given away interest-free.

sequence wrote: »

What do you mean by the bold ? Is there any proof of this ?

The bosses of the Big 6 energy customers gave evidence to Parliamentary Committee of Energy on this subject. You can find the link to their evidence by Google - but it is hours of talk.

This was a year or so ago when pre-pay rates were much higher. They were asked to justify these charges and they were all unanimous that the additional costs to administer pre-pay accounts was even more than the then charges.

However the Committee were still concerned that the additional cost of gas and energy on pre-pay accounts hit the poorer sections of society(who are the main customers for pre-pay meters)

In response to these concerns the Companies agreed to reduce these prices with Ofgem taking the lead.

There is masses of information on Ofgem or other sites about the cross-subsidy from credit customers to pre-pay.

This is from a Nov 2006 ofgem document, and since then the cross-subsidy has been increased as pre-pay prices have been brought into line with other tariffs.

The current arrangements in gas, and those proposed for electricity in this consultation, mean that the cost of serving customers with prepayment meters is being borne in part by credit customers (some of whom are vulnerable). This cross subsidy exists for all ppm customers, irrespective of whether they are vulnerable or not.

It should be stressed however that, given there are far more credit customers than pre-pay customers, the extra the credit customers pay is not high - I read a figure of £7 a year but can't vouch for that figure.

markharding557

MarieMc can you clarify whether you put £50 weekly or monthly on your meters because if it is weekly then somthing is wrong.
the reason i expect the shop staff query your request to pay £50 is because most people put much smaller amounts on.
me--about the most i have ever done is £20 for eq

markharding557

viv0147 wrote: »

Pre-Payment meters are a total rip-off

i don't agree in general however i think prepayment meters are better suited to flat rate tariffs whereas the dual rate ones where so many units are at a higher price seem to cause problems.

MarieMc

markharding557 wrote: »

MarieMc can you clarify whether you put £50 weekly or monthly on your meters because if it is weekly then somthing is wrong.
the reason i expect the shop staff query your request to pay £50 is because most people put much smaller amounts on.
me--about the most i have ever done is £20 for eq

Oh goodness no, i have a one-bedroom flat lol, it's, at most £50 a month which I thought was quite good considering it's the dead of winder here in Scotland atm

markharding557

don't think you have much to worry about then

kippen_noedel

MarieMc wrote: »

Whenever I mention to anyone that I have a British Gas Pre-Payment meter for my gas and electricity, they look at me like I'm crazy.
Either that or they assume I'm a complete tramp who struggles to scrape together £10 to put in the meter.:mad:
Even worse when I go to the local shop and ask them to put £50 on each card, and they keep asking "are you sure?!", yet people who pay their direct debit don't get this treatment.

British Gas told me that changing my meters and paying by direct debit would not decrease my bills as both types of meter have the same charges.

A lot of people seem to think that prepayments are more expensive, is this the case for some suppliers?

I love my pre-payment meter, it makes me more aware of my use/costs.

BG electricity payg meters are quite competitive, their gas is not.

If you want to stay at BG swap to their PAYG Click tariff online at their website.

If you want to save an average £100pa swap to standard tariffs & DD with BG,

If you want to save a lot of money, swap to credit meters and use one of the much cheaper options you can find via any of the comparison sites.