Prepayment meters

MightyBlades

Hi guys! I recently got a house in Sheffield that has gas and electric prepayment meters - which I do not want / rather would not have!

The house was a repossession and the gas supplier is Scottish Power and the electricity supplier is British Gas. So because they were the previous suppliers I have contacted them to change the meters.

Electricity meter
Contacted British Gas and they gave me a key to clear the debt off the meter. They preformed a credit check to see if I was ok for a meter and it came back fine. I now have to wait for 2 weeks for the details of the PAYGO meter to be updated??

So my question is: When they replace the meter do I have to be on a contract (like a mobile phone) tariff with them? Or can I change as soon as they fit the meter (They said they would fit it for free).

Gas meter

As far as I'm aware Scottish Power charge for meter changes, and I asked British Gas if they could change this meter also but they declined.

MY question: Why do I have to stick with this supplier just because the previous owner was with them??

I was thinking of maybe changing PAYGO supplier on the gas meter, to say British Gas and then asking them to change the meter to a credit meter.

Sorry if this is confusing,

Dave
A very inexperienced house buyer!

Tiny_Tiger

Sorry, not replying to your query - just to say I'm hopefully moving to a new house with a prepayment meter, so I'll probably be in a similar boat, wanting to move to a contract meter.

If anyone has any experience in this matter I'd appreciate the help also.

An equally inexperienced house mover!!

NeverAgain_2

One thing you need to be wary of is either company setting the unit cost of the meter artificially high which means you will be repaying the previous owner's debt.

I would be looking to make a fresh start with new suppliers, even if that meant spending a few quid on meter changes.

zappahey

NeverAgain wrote: »

One thing you need to be wary of is either company setting the unit cost of the meter artificially high which means you will be repaying the previous owner's debt.

Having just gone through this, that's not how it works (at least with Southern Energy). The meter has a fixed daily deduction to recover previous debts. In our case the meter was taking £10 per week out of the credit, at £1.42 per day, to recover the previous owner's debt.

One phone call and it was sorted and you can verify for yourself by cycling through the display.

Joyful

As you have passed a credit vet with BG then if you change the other supply to them they will also change that for a credit meter.

NeverAgain_2

zappahey wrote: »

Having just gone through this, that's not how it works (at least with Southern Energy). The meter has a fixed daily deduction to recover previous debts. In our case the meter was taking £10 per week out of the credit, at £1.42 per day, to recover the previous owner's debt.

One phone call and it was sorted and you can verify for yourself by cycling through the display.

Thanks for the clarification, I expect most companies work in the same way.

A friend of mine was involved in a similar situation.

He was overpaying one way or another for some time.

In his opinion he didn't get his overpayment back, but admits he found the situation confusing.

[Deleted User]

I have just been refused a credit meter by British Gas.., I have no outstanding debts on my credit rating (I do check it) altho I am not working. British Gas did say their rating criteria was high. I have been waiting 3 months for Welcome letters from British Gas for these prepayments meters.., in spite of phone calls and promises to call me back (never did).

Then was told to use their online prepayment system (they send u usb card readers that take your keys and u are able to credit your meter online). Then the next problem occurred.., apparently their online prepayment system only works on 32 bit operating systems. My pc has 64 bit Windows 7..., with presumably 64 bit internet explorer (I didn't know there was a difference in browser versions depending on which version of Windows u are using.., but there u go). I'm not exactly a dunce with pc's.., but British Gas had me well confused.

The conversation got more and more gobbledegook.., with probably neither of us understanding what we were trying to clarify so hmm.., not overly impressed with British Gas at all. But stuck with them it seems. And can't even pay online for the dratted prepayment meter I don't want.

So.., British Gas confusing.., yes indeed.

timbo58

May or may not be helpful but:
I was with SSE and had been previously in my rental with PPMs, bought a repo (like yourself) and was then confronted with PPMs again (which I didn't/don't want) so I asked SSE to remove them: £53 a meter apparantly.
I was adamant because: I didn't ask or require them to be fitted (I personally think that the person who has them fitted, or HAS to have them fitted should pay a charge so a subsequent owner can have them removed for free, but thats just MHO.)
However SSE in their infinite wisdom would rather lose a long standing customer in good standing that write off the charges.
So I switched to EDF.
EDF claimed they would need the PPMs used for 28 days then they could arrange the meters to be removed and swapped for free, sounds peachy doesn't it?

I am still waiting 6 months + later for the gas meter to be change and the electric was only changed a month ago.
EDF cannot answer the support line in less than 45 minutes (if ever) and cannot reply to emails in less than a week, ironically their sales line is much much faster!

I have now complained to trading standards (ofgem don't deal with complaints directly apparantly) as I feel EDF have breached their contract and should allow me to cancel and switch.

So the moral of my story: don't bother with EDF unless you are certain you are never going to need to call them and can wait an infinite amount of time for them to reply or carry out any work.
SSE were a superb company and could also pick up the telephone fairly quickly: always a bonus!
Sadly they don't reward long standing customers in credit with them, however part of me wishes I'd just paid the damn £106 and had done with it.
Needless to say, I don't reccomend EDF and will leave them as soon as I can and never return.

HiTo

Windows 7 has both 64 and 32 bit internet explorer browsers

Aquatronixjenny

I had British gas pre payment meters in my old house, they were from the old tenant - so I phoned scottish power and told them I wanted to go on their dual fuel tariff. I passed the credit check and all I had to do was send them a £100 'deposit'. As long as I stayed up to date with my bills for 1 year, I received the £100 back and they even paid me interest on it. I found them very easy to deal with.