Pre-payment

MCBIRNIE25

Hi all,
after some advice.
I have been wandering why my mum uses so much per week in electricity cosrs, roughly 20-25 quid a week for a 3 bed house with her and my sister in. This seems a lot. The only major thing they have on a lot is a PC used by my sister, which she has on roughly 4 hours a day. Still, shouldn't eat it the way it does.
Anyway, she uses a prepay token meter with British Gas. I have no idea how to read one of these to find out usage or anything.
Anyone got any experience of pre-paymeters? I'm thinking it may be better changing suppliers.

Any advice welcome,
MCBIRNIE25

EasilyAggravated

ring the thieving toerags up to make sure shes on the correct tarriff. if shes got this so called price freeze until 2010 then its no good for token meters. i found out to my expense. my best advice would be to swap to a cheaper one. use the links on this site to find a cheaper one. i no longer trust british gas and vow never to use them ever again

smartie1976

A less angry and more useful answer may follow here....

Firstly you say pre-payment token meter - can you clarify if you meter prepayment CARD (Quantum) meter (where you put money on it at places like the post office)? Or if you do mean token meter (the two are different).

£20-25 seems quite a lot, but it is difficult for me to comment without knowing some facts.
Is there an outstanding debt which is being recouped through the card meter, which could be accounting for the money going quickly - it may not be down to usage, but paying off a historical debt.

If you do not believe that you owe any debt, why not call BG up and ask them. Query that you seem to get through a rather large amount of money (I wouls say £10-15 per week is more acceptable). If you ahve moved house recently there may be an issue over a previous occupants debt having been incorrectly assigned to your account.

If you have no outstanding debt, and have a reasonable credit history, there is no reason why you cannot ask for a credit meter (if you want one, and are not a credit risk). A credit meter will enable a direct debit to be set up and you will see some savings on your account.

colonel_2

Hi McBERNIE,

You stated in an earlier post that you where 8,000 in debt surely you mean 8,550. Have you forgotten about the 550 quid you borrowed from the guys off the Horse betting systems web site, I say borrowed because i presume your planning on paying them all back. Nice to see your mother back on her feet again even if she is using up a bit of electricity. Hope you get chance to pop in and say hello to all the boys at Horse betting systems i'm sure there will be a warm welcome waiting for you.

Hope to see you soon :rolleyes: