Pre payment elec meter

plarner

Morning eveyone,
Have recently bought a house which the previous owner had a electricity pre payment meter installed, as he unfortunately went bankrupt.
This is a pain as we are not getting the best price for energy, have to go into town to top up, run the risk of the power shutting down.
Eon say that we can have the meter replaced but at a cost of £50.
My questions are:
1- Can Eon legally charge, as we haven't gone bankrupt and are being treated the same as the previous owner who did?
2- Can another energy company come and change the meter and I go with them or will Eon get the hump?

I think our current situation is very unfair, but I suspect Eon have us over a barrel. Any info to the contrary would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers Guys

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi plarner,

E.ON do follow guidelines to remove pre-payment meters to credit meters, each account will be looked at individually but the general rules are as follows.

If you rent a property, you will need to have lived there 12 months before we will review the account to remove the meters, as you say you own the house, this wouldn't apply to you.

There is a £50 charge to remove each meter, this is to cover the cost of the appointment.

E.ON may perform an external credit check.

We would request the customer to pay future bills by Direct Debit.

As I say every account has different circumstances and this would be looked at for the customer.

If you need any more info, just shout up.

Helena

t0rt0ise

Try changing to British Gas. They'll change the meters for free.

Premier_2

plarner wrote: »

...1- Can Eon legally charge, as we haven't gone bankrupt and are being treated the same as the previous owner who did?

Yes they can charge you.
No you are not being treated like a bankrupt. If you were bankrupt, you wouldn't be getting any credit.

plarner wrote: »

2- Can another energy company come and change the meter and I go with them or will Eon get the hump?

You are free to change supplier as you want.
Eon probably will 'get the hump' as you put it, but there's not much they can do about it and I'm sure they'll soon get over it; companies are receiving requests from customers to switch supplier all the time.

Have you considered switching to nPower? I think they'll charge you £60 per meter to change them ... if they even agree