Money saving tip or strictly fraudulent? Opinions please

anniecave

I would agree it would be unlikely they would prosecute you, but I would agree that the long call on the 75p per min phone number would reduce any potential "moneysaving".....

Gal

The reading would be rejected and an estimate used. Suppliers have built in systems that prevent nil usage.

If your reading come through as that - Chances are your supplier would send someone out to read your meter. If you refused access then potentially they could go to court and get a warrant to enter and take a reading off your meter.

This is the worst case scenario but a nil reading would be rejected.

Cardew

Gal wrote:

but a nil reading would be rejected.

I am not sure this is so in every case.

As said above, I have a little used annex that sometimes has a zero reading accepted.

Another account had a series of quarterly bills based on over-estimated readings and they accepted a reading(sent in on a card) which gave a lower reading than 3 months previously.

Also with Gas some people switch off their gas supply during the summer and use E7 to heat water.

Anyway the 'scam' would still work if you entered a reading of, say, 50 units in a quarter.

Not suggesting you do this though as it is fraud.

Xbigman

This used to happen to me with gas every summer when I was with Powergen. My summer quarter gas usage was 10 or 11 units, so I was effectively not paying the extra on 89 or 90 of the higher tier units in the summer. This was not carried over in the winter. This is perfectly acceptable as it is actual usage rather than a fiddle, but only with gas.

With electricity it is near impossible to have a quarter with zero usage and then a quarter with double usage and then back to a zero quarter. If you report that then they come and read your meter as a priority. If they catch you out it can get nasty, typically they kick you onto a dearer tarif rather than prosecute. And they backdate the higher tarif.

Likewise, lots of people had the idea of giving an over reading just before prices rose and then giving the correct reading afterwards. Thus paying for extra units at the lower price. The energy companies made sure there were a lot of extra meter readings prior to the price rises, and (as pointed out in this forum) when readings were estimated they usually erred on the side of paying for too many higher units rather than too few. The energy companies did not lose out on those rises, believe me!
Regards



X

TimBuckTeeth

Xbigman wrote:

Likewise, lots of people had the idea of giving an over reading just before prices rose and then giving the correct reading afterwards. Thus paying for extra units at the lower price. The energy companies made sure there were a lot of extra meter readings prior to the price rises, and (as pointed out in this forum) when readings were estimated they usually erred on the side of paying for too many higher units rather than too few. The energy companies did not lose out on those rises, believe me!

I must admit I gave a higher reading last time knowing that the prices were going up, as they estimate the reading on the price change date. Maybe I shouldn't have, but the estimate they had given showed less gas use during the last few months than the summer, should work out about right now. I know this autumn has been quite mild but I felt this was a bit of a con.

amosworks

valiant wrote:

What if you were on an economy drive and wandered around in the dark and the cold for three months and ate out of cans so you could save £22.50 every six months?

Don't we all do that anyway?

Your scam is slightly immoral I guess, maybe even illegal lol But I like it!! :rotfl: