EDF Energy prepayment meter

cognitiveghost

Hi all,

I have a prepayment meter with a key from EDF Energy. A letter arrived last week to say that the units on the meter has not advanced for two years, and they say I owe them £830 and that they will arrange for the balance to be loaded to my meter with a weekly collection rate of £10.00.

I've been calling them for the past 6 months as I realised that the meter wasn't working properly, and it wasn't costing me as much as it usually does, but they just kept sending me new keys. I'm a bit concerned as I have been paying money to update the key over the past two years and I don't know if they've taken that into account. Also a bit annoyed that I've been trying to get this sorted for so long but they ignored it, and now they land me with this, and I can't really afford an extra £40 a month right now. Does anyone know if there is anything I can do, or do I just have to accept it? Luckily I've been saving the money since I realised it wasn't working properly, but I wasn't expecting such a massive sum.

anniecave

Phone them up if you're not sure. Do you think the two years is correct? How much were you paying when it was working properly, and how much were you paying since? It may be that it has still been charging you standing charges, but not for the units. They should have taken account of the payments, but by all means check up whether they have received them. Depending on how much you use, a bill of £800 for two years could be perfectly reasonable....

spiro

When you call them, check that they have your previous contacts logged on their system. If you have been telling them that it was not working correctly and they have failed to rectify it then this may help you.

cognitiveghost

Yes, you're right, I rang them and the money we've been paying has only been the standing charge, so literally we've paid no electricity for 2 years. £830 is definitely reasonable, I'm not disputing that, only that I'm worried that I won't be able to afford the repayments. They were helpful actually, as it's partly their fault they have only charge the lower rate, not the current rate, and the amount I've been putting away will cover the winter period I'm worried about, then I'll just pay extra over the summer when we're using less. Can't believe it took us a year to even notice, we just assumed the other person was charging the key up... will keep a closer eye on it now. Thanks for help.

cognitiveghost

Yes would much prefer that - does it work out cheaper if you do that? If you just ask EDF will they just change you over with no costs? Plan was to when we bought the house get gas central heating installed so I haven't really looked into the options, but circumstances recently means that will have to be postponed for a good while.

cognitiveghost

Yeah it was already there when we bought the house - actually we rented the house before we bought it, so I'm not sure if that's why it was installed or if previous owners had been bad payers.

I'll give them a ring and see what I can find out and let you know.

cognitiveghost

Nope, no difference apparently. They said I'm welcome to change to a normal quarterly meter where you don't need to charge a key and prepay, but the tariffs are the same. Though you do get a 6% discount if you pay by direct debit (and obviously I'd need to pay the outstanding debt off first). If you change supplier there is a termination fee as well.

Premier_2

Use a comparison site on the basis you currently have a credit meter to see what options you have.

(Ignore any suggested savings as you won't be comparing against your current tariff, but you can manually compare the suggested annual costs against what you currently pay)

Once you have a credit meter installed, you could switch to any supplier/any tariff that apply to credit meters, not just those offered by EDF.