Pre-Payment Hell

Mankysteve

There not that much of a significant price increase with Pre payment nowadays in fact with Scottish power there only cheaper options where advanced payment and direct debt(when i last checked). I think many others companies are the same. As other poster have said you've most likely got a meter a problem unless your paying back a debt of course.

Your also able to shop around still with a pre payment I've just switched mine.

curly04

Hi we are with eon
they told us if we wanted DD to pay £125 per month for gas & electric - (3 bed house, some one in all the time)
But we had pre paid meters we use about £50 a month on electric but in summer only used about £10 a month on gas - for water and cooking - Now we are putting about £100 per month on to keep us warm. I wish I;d just stuck extra on the gas during the summer.

Mark2004uk how much gas are you using in summer - if this is £60 this is to much and you should ask them to check you meter.

[Deleted User]

Hi...we are moving into a new rented house in a couple of weeks and they are pre payment meters with eon, I had been thinking this was going to be good for us but after doing a little research I am now dreading it, we are currently on benefits (although hopefully not for long) and with all our outgoings I am stretched to budgeting £15 a week for gas and £15 a week for electric but have read some horror stories. I was thinking of asking them to switch to DD but apparantly you have to be a customer for 12mths first? Does anybody know the best prepayment to be with and rough idea to monthly spends?

markharding557

hi noodle84 get on ebico for gas there is no one cheaper on prepay for gas and there is no sculpting,for electric do a comparrison because this depends on the area you live in.
your budget of £15 for each ought to be enough we use less.
anothe tip is credit more than you need to your gas meter in the warmer months,this makes winter so much easier.

[Deleted User]

Thanks Mark, will get on to ebico today to see if they can change for when we move in, anyone know the best comparison site to use for this when you dont have any usage details to put in?

inspace

you may be on a false econemy drive -weve been in this house two years and very rarely put the heating on because when we did it ate our credit from the meters - we relied on a gas fire mostly and small electric heaters when needed - but because its been so cold we put the heating on all day and although its a draughty house the heating bill has gone down slighty and all rooms are warm for the first time - £6 per day heats at 18 degrees at night and 20 degress during the day - no more electric heaters or wasted heat going up the chimney. Never been so warm - it gets cheaper after a few days when house is warmed through.

If you can afford to experiment try it.

Of course ours is on all day yours will work out cheaper for evening hours

donna1888

hi am in a 1 bedroom small flat with only blow heaters i cant put these on as it charges me £20 every 2nd day and theres not really any heat coming from them my house is -17 today its colder inside than out i have had ppl in and told the meter is far to high and southern is not doing anything about it is there anything that can be done about this i cant handle this cold as i am disabled

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

curly04 wrote: »

Hi we are with eon
they told us if we wanted DD to pay £125 per month for gas & electric - (3 bed house, some one in all the time)
But we had pre paid meters we use about £50 a month on electric but in summer only used about £10 a month on gas - for water and cooking - Now we are putting about £100 per month on to keep us warm. I wish I;d just stuck extra on the gas during the summer.

Hi curly

Our Direct Debit arrangements are geared up to try and achieve a zero balance by the annual review in the spring.

We'll base the amount on the most accurate info we have about your usage. This is then divided into 12 equal monthly payments (or the number of payments between when the arrangement is set up and the review date).

Usually, credit is built up during the summer to offset higher winter bills.

Customers paying with a Monthly Direct Debit receive additional discount.

Prepayment unit prices are now virtually the same as our credit tariffs. However, the additional discount for paying by Direct Debit is not available.

Hope this helps clarify why we asked for £125/month for a Direct Debit arrangement curly. Give me a shout if you need any further details.

Malc

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

noodle84 wrote: »

Hi...we are moving into a new rented house in a couple of weeks and they are pre payment meters with eon, I had been thinking this was going to be good for us but after doing a little research I am now dreading it, we are currently on benefits (although hopefully not for long) and with all our outgoings I am stretched to budgeting £15 a week for gas and £15 a week for electric but have read some horror stories. I was thinking of asking them to switch to DD but apparantly you have to be a customer for 12mths first? Does anybody know the best prepayment to be with and rough idea to monthly spends?

Hi noodle

Our prepayment unit prices are now virtually the same as our standard credit tariffs. What you miss out on are the discounts for paying by Monthly Direct Debit and for managing your account online.

I can confirm, for rented properties, you do need to have been with us for at least 12 months before we will consider removing a prepayment meter. We will also need to do a credit check.

If the credit check is ok and we agree to remove the prepayment meter, we will charge for this work. This is currently £50.

Would be a good idea to pop your details on to one of the comparison sites to see how we stack up.

Just a heads up noodle; let us know when you are taking over responsibility. We can then make sure you are sent the necessary devices to enable you to put credit on to the meters. If you use the existing devices, all energy purchased will be credited to the previous occupiers account.

Also, check there is no debt on the meters. Again, let us know if there is as this will need clearing.

You can check this by looking at the settings on the meter. Press the button on the front of the meter and the display changes. For gas, it will be button A; for electric key meters, it will be a blue button.

Keep pressing the buttons until the debt settings are displayed. These are S for electric key meters and 27 for gas. In both cases, the device will need to be in the meter.

Hope this is useful noodle? Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

Halfcat

Look up eon caring energy.
Not familiar with their scheme, but options could be to reduce teh weekly repaymment (my friend got hers reduced fomr £7 per week to 3 per week). This was not Eon, but NPowers First Step programme. But Eon may allow you to do the same if you explain your circumstances change. You may need to prove this with proof of income etc.