FREE SMART energy meter

john_howard_fisher

Hello
i am in the midlands. we received a letter from energy company: British Gas saying that we are entitled to a free SMART meter. it says house has old meter but house is only 30 years old.
should i sign up for one or not? what do other mse people think?
thanks
bye

indelacio

Im in the midlands british gas they did that at first with me then a couple of months later said if you dont change you might not be able to top up anymore, then when I did switch I ran up the emergency credit, and the meter was replaced and the installer put me some credit "to start me off" out of generosity so you could benefit from doing it in the mse way.

john_howard_fisher

indelacio wrote: »

you might not be able to top up anymore.

thanks for the reply. we aren't on pay as you go but get a bill every four months. are all new SMART meters where you have to top up?

sunlund2311

Hi
Not all meters are top up.
Did a few searches a few weeks back on the new meters because my dad was supposed to be getting one fitted weeks ago. Didnt turn up, but thats a different story :mad:. Supposed to be coming tomorrow !

From what I remember the EU/ government want them installed in all houses by 2020. They transmit your usage so will do away with estimated bills and meter readers for that matter!
You will also have a remote digital read out so you can monitor you usage.
Still working from memory they will also only work as smart meters while a BG customer, so if you change provider they return to being a normal meter at present.
BG do not own the meter, as in the past. The company who fit them will be responsible for them.

Sure there is a thread somewhere on here with quite a bit info but can only find one with Big Brother theory at the minute

savemoney

I thought must people got billed quarterly

If meter is free then dont see why not we will all have them in next 10 years

john_howard_fisher wrote: »

thanks for the reply. we aren't on pay as you go but get a bill every four months. are all new SMART meters where you have to top up?

lorweld

MOVING THREADS FOR BETTER RESPONSES


Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]

Riceturbo

Never trust anything that British Gas say. I bought a house with a card meter which I didn't want. I phoned BG to get the meter changed, they did al the credit checks while I was on the phone and said that they woud be in touch within a week after 3 weeks I had heard nothing so I pohoned them again and they said that they would have to do a credit check and I would have to wait for that to be completed and they would phone me back (heard that before) so I told them that all the checks had been done so they backed down on that one but I still had to wait another 10 days for the meter to be changed. Luckily I had not moved in so it didn't cost me that much but it was obvious that ll they want to do is to keep customers on the highest tariff that they think they can get away with for as long as possible. Needless to say my supplier was soon changed after that.