MSE News: Call to reform pre-pay energy as 1.4 million cut off

spiro

undaunted wrote: »

Some countries also have civil war, racism, the ku klux clan, greater drugs & gun issues, the burka, less rights & freedom of expression in general, no NHS to name just a few. Should we therefore adopt those practices too?

I am just making the point that we are the only country in europe that allows customers to have ppm to either use as a PAYG payment or for debt recovery. In every other if you dont pay you done get.

Since they have rolled out Smart meters in Italy, if you exceed the maximum useage you sign up to are cut off until you phone the supplier to go onto a higher useage tariff.

Just think when we all have smart meters in this country the supplier will have the ability to cut you off instantly the day you are late paying your bill or even put you on ppm without the need to speak to you or visit your house.

eve13_2

I like my pre-pay metre. I can budget so much better than waiting for a bill or paying inflated amounts where companies get paid the interest on the overpayment (they call it "being in credit"). My electric and gas usage has come right down now I see it in money on the reading instead of (to me) meaningless numbers. It suits me, does'nt suit everyone but that can be said for practically everything in life.

Cardew

undaunted wrote: »

Just how do you expect someone struggling to pay for electricity & food to afford a lock smith then?

Your attempts to be the advocate for the poor, downtrodden and oppressed are as pathetic as they are impractical.

bat-out-of-hell

undaunted wrote: »

They are however getting the money up front and earning interest - therefore must be better off than with quarterly credit customers?

Oh, but your forgeting that pre paymant is SOOOOOO much more expensive to administer.....................


Which may have been true when they took 50p's, or even those bits of card, but the only extra expense now is the cost of the key reader in a metre, a few quids worth of extra componants, and the paypoint fees........

And if the paypoint fee is so much, why have they resisted 'smart metres' for so long to cut out the 'middle man'?

Maybe its for the same reason the wholesale price rises just as we aproach autum/winter but falls in spring summer.......................

gibson1985

When topics like this arise there always seem to be people quick to judge. Most people on the whole dont want handouts and just because we are on pre-payment meters doesnt mean we are on benifits trying to avoid work. ( by the way the majority of people on benifits do want to work, its funny how some people are quick to judge after a one sided documentary they may have seen on the BBC)

anyway.
I myself work and always have done. still it is difficult at the moment and i often cannot top my meter up because we simply have ran out of money.
we went on a meter as this was ''the only way to avoid court action'' according to Scottish Power.
yet if i had gone to court and the judge would have seen they would have analysed my outgoings and told scottish power to accept my offer of payment until i can increase the payments when funds are available. amazing what you learn after the supplier has made you switch to a meter.

it also never surprises me that the people who seem to be anti help anyone are supporters of David Cameron.( just look back at previous posts!) my arnt we in for a fantastic 4 years :rotfl:

C_Mababejive

People perhaps dont realise how cossetted they are in the UK.
For example, in Spain at the moment,the national electricity supplier if enforcing a new regime on consumers.

In Spain,you actually contract for a supply by power band capacity i.e user needs max 5Kw supply or user needs max 10kw supply and you pay a fee dependant on supply capacity. Now then,the flaw in this system is that people would often end up pulling more from the supply grids than they had contracted for. You wouldnt think that this is much of a problem as its metered and paid for anyway.

NO..electric company are now making people pay for a supply limit cutoff device to be fitted in their homes costing £400 plus. The electric company then sets and seals this to allow the lax capacity that user has contracted for. If you exceed this,it shuts off. You then have to turn some appliances off and reset it. If you dont agree to pay for and install the device,then they surcharge you every month. There are no allowances for low income people,you pay or get surcharged,simples. Also there are no lavish benefits. If you find yourself single and pregnant,it is expected that your family will look after you. If they dont/wont,you are all but left as a charity case and have to seek help from the church,charities or the instituto de mujeres

http://www.inmujer.migualdad.es/mujer/

As an added bonus,most officialdom is in spanish and if you dont speak it or bring/pay for a translator..you are stuffed.

Andy_WSM

I'm another in the "if you can't pay for it you shouldn't have it" camp. Sorry, but I work and still struggle with the bills through the Winter. I get NO state help at all, so have to save throughout the year, often going without other things and budget for the more expensive months. That's life. Too many people in this country think they are entitled to a free living. If they are getting handout's then it's at the expense of those that are working - and like I said, I already struggle to pay my own bills, let alone start paying someone else's.

Joyful

In both my work life and personal life I have seen it from both sides. The only people I really feel for are those that become unemployed, are single and get £50-£65 per week. This needs to pay for Food, electric, gas, bus fares, phone calls, water rates and anything else that arises. This can be hard if just unemployed. In my work I find that the Child tax credit pulls a lot of people out of poverty so these usually need to learn to budget better.

I'll probably get shouted down for this but many people on benefits (including DLA) have a large income coming into the house.I have even seen £50,000 and £60,000! These of course are not usual but I often have people on benefits earning double my wage.

As has been said before the help that is needed is to learn to budget, as whether you work or live on benefits you have to prioritise where your money should go. I speak to pensioners on a daily basis who may not have much but they religiously put the same amount into their meters every week whether it's Summer or Winter. Perhaps we should give them jobs to teach the others,


Most suppliers have brought the PP meters in line with the credit standard prices so they are no longer costing more. Also the majority of people on PP meters do not have any debt at all.

Premier_2

ariarnia wrote: »

...I'm with swalec. that's what they charge and I've talked to a couple of companies, but because they own the routing station (or something) they'd have to charge a subsedy and it would cost more. ...

As I asked, have you used a comparison site recently to check you are getting the best deal? I suspect you are not.

That's if you're interested in actually saving money of course

Also, as I suggested, look to see if a single rate tariff would work out cheaper. With just 10% night usage, I strongly suspect you could save by moving from the current E7 tariff you are on.

KimYeovil

...and why are poor people on prepayment meters any different from poor people on credit meters? How many millions of poor people on credit meters cut themselves off through not using their heating as often as they need? So this lobbying group wants an even larger subsidy to be provided to those on PPMs paid for by increasing the prices to poor people who already can not afford to heat their homes.

I fully support a reform of the standard tariffs - the standard tariff should be a best price base tariff. Consumers should then be charged surcharges to reflect the actual varying costs of their payment/laxity in paying choices.

There are cross-subsidies that can be provided that are fair enough - others are not acceptable. One national flat rate for removing a PPM is acceptable. Not charging for removing a PPM is not acceptable. Not paying individually for each and every individual Paypoint transaction is fair enough. But allowing emergency [sic] callouts to be free is completely unacceptable.

And being in receipt of child benefit, pension guarantee or disability benefits should be barriers not gateways.