prepayment debt help

smileon

hi im due to have a prepayment meter put in on tuesday they tell me i have to pay 15 pounds a week bk my house is all electric im a single mum to 4 children on benefits ive lived here 14 mths and have a bill of 2299 pounds yes i was stupid and fell well behind in my payments due to family trouble but i really cant afford to pay the electric i use let alone the debt i owe. the house has storage heaters and its still cold im fighting with the council to get proper heating in im so worried about having the meter fitted is there anyway i can get help with the debt southern energy told me 15 pounds is the lowest any help on offer as im soo worried thanks in advance

charliepink_2

Hello, i got into a bit of bother with my Elec company like yourself, i was paying £10 a week back as i had 2 meters at the time which meant i was putting in between £50-£70 a week in winter. I have all elec like you!

My company eventually said i could pay back £5 a week! I would go to consumer direct and also your local CAB to see if you can reduce what you pay weekly. Perhaps you could pay £5 a week plus have a payment card to put a few extra £'s on a week or month if you have any spare but £15 is a lot to ask considering your circumstances. They could do an income sheet to see what you can pay back. I hope you can get it sorted good luck x

Premier_2

You do realise that even at £15 per week, it's going to take almost 3 years to pay back the amount owed.
Add to that the 14 months some of it has already been owed, means they are already giving you a 4 year interest free loan.
Or put another way they are offering you almost 2.5x as long to pay back as the period the debt originally accrued.
You may want to consider approaching the CAB who could ensure you are receiving all the benefits you are entitled to, and if you are, advise on how to manage your budget better within the income you receive.

Best of luck with any negotiations to reduce the amount per week that you have to pay back ... but any reduction will increase the payback period and prevent you from moving to a possibly cheaper supplier (at least whilst you owe in excess of £200)

I'm not sure what you mean by 'proper heating'? Economy 7 storage heating is an acceptable form of heating for many residential properties.

PNPSUKNET

if on benefits npower let you payback 3.25, towards debt

paulofessex

Also on the pre-pay meter you will be paying more per unit used and standing charge than you were before

markharding557

I believe the companies now have to charge their standard rates on prepayment which should be the same as those who pay cash quarterly.
It is very important to make sure the meters are set to the correct tariff for your supplier.
As someone else said you may be able to get them to lower the repayment.

spiro

When a supplier requires you to have a ppm installed to pay off a debt, they can only set the debt recovery rate to a rate that you can afford to pay. To do this you will have need to put together an income and outgoings sheet to allow you and the supplier to set this figure.

smileon

thanks for advise im going to ring them again 1st thing monday see if begging helps if not see if cab can help my weekely amount would be 70+ pounds from the pass reading they have done no way i can afford that and what i mean my proper heating is anything but storage heater that were fitted in the 1970's that dont even heat a very small box room my children are going to bed with 2 quilts a thick pjs and we still get cold this is with the heaters on full blast my stupid council are dragging there feet as the ppl that lived here before me refused gas central heating so they say they dont have funds so we are left to freze im hoping my local mp can help just waiting to hear back

markharding557

sounds like your house must be poorly insulated

markharding557

Reading your last post again you surely don't run your e7 heating after bed time this could explain why you are paying so much.
Also if you allow them to release too much heat in the day then they will go cool by evening,what you need to do is turn the input on maximum and the output on minimum and then turn the output up as needed in the evening.
You should turn the output to minimum when you go to bed because this is when they need to charge up.
Don't be tempted to boost the heaters on day rate or use other heaters because that will be on the expensive day rate.
Make sure your immersion only heats during e7 hours as well.

smileon

Reading your last post again you surely don't run your e7 heating after bed time this could explain why you are paying so much.
Also if you allow them to release too much heat in the day then they will go cool by evening,what you need to do is turn the input on maximum and the output on minimum and then turn the output up as needed in the evening.
You should turn the output to minimum when you go to bed because this is when they need to charge up.
Don't be tempted to boost the heaters on day rate or use other heaters because that will be on the expensive day rate.
Make sure your immersion only heats during e7 hours as well.



thank you mark ive just changed all dials noone explained how these things work so all dials was to maximum i thou thats what you did to get best heat hopfully now i can get my bills down and be warmer thanks so much