Prepaid Gas and Electric - new user

hippotastic

Hi there
I moved into my new home on Wednesday 24th Nov and there is a prepayment meter for the gas and electric.
I've already spent £10 on electric (basic use of lights, one shower a day, etc) and £15 on gas (only central heating for about 6 hours a day, no use of fire, not much hot water and no cooking on the hob)
What am i doing wrong? Surely this isn't right.
I'm sat here with so many layers of clothing on because i'm scared of the bills.
Thanks in advance for any advice

KimYeovil

You can easily spend three or four or more pounds per day on heating in this weather (even on a credit meter). The electricity is more questionable.

Have you your own cards/keys? Have you contacted the suppliers to register as a new tenant? Have you toggled through the display on the meter to ensure you are not paying off previous tenant's debt? Or the standing charges for between tenancies? Press the buttons on the meters and see what more information you can discover. Also monitor the actual kWh meter readings and check how many kWhs or gas units you are getting for your money.

t0rt0ise

The tariff is a high tariff compared with the online saver tariffs that are available so you will be paying a high price. If you are going to keep the prepayment meters then it would be worth looking at the comparison sites to see which supplier is the cheapest.

Rachel_123

Make sure you open your own account with your supplier and that your payments are matching up with your account. I paid around £40 a month for electricity with a prepayment meter, not being particularly careful about our usage.

hippotastic

Thanks for all your advice. I received my own card and key in the post today, so need to run the meter down and then register the new key/card.
I want to change to DD as soon as possible - don't like the meters at all.
Thanks again