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Cheap Prepay Gas & Elec Article

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Comments

  • Mezza1979
    Mezza1979 Posts: 48 Forumite
    Hi there

    I am buying a house that has a prepayment meter installed for both Gas & Electric.

    The house has been let out by the owners for many years and not all tennants have been timely woth thir payments which is qhy it was installed.

    Does anyone know if it costs anything to have this changed to normal monthly direct debit? Can all providers do this?

    Its currently supplied by Southern Electric but having done a comparison in Uswitch it would appear that Southern Electric are the mnost expensive supplier for that Postcode so we would like to change.

    owners have told us as soon as we exchnage cointracts we can instruct the choosen supplied to carry out the change.

    Anyone come across this before or have any advice?

    If this is gonna cost us then i think the cuyrrent owners should pay!!
  • wobbler2008
    wobbler2008 Posts: 828 Forumite
    In the latest mailshot it says you can get £90 cashback for the Huge Switch with British Gas, but you need to have registered by the 25th March, that is 2 days ago.

    Might have been an idea not to include that one in the mail shot. :rolleyes:

    Cashback of £90 on British Gas's Clear & Simple. BG's tariff (also for its existing customers) is only £40 cheaper than average for a typical user, but until Tue 2 Apr, switch via comparison site Energyhelpline's Huge Switch* & you get £90 dual fuel cashback (after c.3 months).

    T&C's on site say 25th march 2013.
  • Wywth
    Wywth Posts: 5,079 Forumite
    In the latest mailshot it says you can get £90 cashback for the Huge Switch with British Gas, but you need to have registered by the 25th March, that is 2 days ago.

    Might have been an idea not to include that one in the mail shot. :rolleyes:

    Cashback of £90 on British Gas's Clear & Simple. BG's tariff (also for its existing customers) is only £40 cheaper than average for a typical user, but until Tue 2 Apr, switch via comparison site Energyhelpline's Huge Switch* & you get £90 dual fuel cashback (after c.3 months).

    T&C's on site say 25th march 2013.

    Have you used the special link in the email? :rolleyes:

    Nothing there about having to register by 25th March
    Until midnight on Tuesday 2nd April only, customers signing up to this tariff through us will receive an extra £50 cashback for applications processed today (in addition to the savings quoted on the results table) from British Gas and £40 from us. We will pay £65 of the cashback when British Gas confirm your supply has gone live, typically 6-8 weeks after the go-live date, and the remaining £25 in 12 months' time when British Gas confirm you have remained on supply with them for this period. Cashback payment will be made by us to you either by BACS transfer or by cheque depending on the payment method signed up to, and within 30 calendar days of you qualifying for the cashback.

    If you opt to hold your switch to avoid any cancellation fees or to stay on a cheaper rate for longer, you will only be entitled to £40 cashback from us, and the additional £50 from British Gas will only be paid if your switch is not held until after the Huge Switch 2 closes on April 2nd.
  • 1981trouble
    1981trouble Posts: 145 Forumite
    We have just had our prepay replaced with credit meters through edf.
    No credit check (although we had been with edf for a month or so before asking and regularly top up and never use emergency credit so that probably helped). No charge. Replaced within a month of asking with no hitches.

    Just thought I'd add our experience as not many updated experiences on here at the moment,
  • Hillards
    Hillards Posts: 53 Forumite
    Worried. We've been with npower for many years and ran into debt with them a few years ago when I was out of work, so they put pre-payment meters in. All debt long since cleared and they even offered to replace the meters FOC.

    My illness developed and I'm now disabled on DLA and ESA plus a small pension, although the wife still works. Low income means we dont want to swap from pre-pay meters, we're worried about getting into debt again. We've had problems with npower, particularly the (lack of) customer service. Twice we've had cases resolved by the Ombudsman!

    A guy from Eon caught me in town the other day and I stopped to chat to him. He claimed we would save £170 a year by switching to them, so I decided to use MSE's online checker to verify, and he's about right with that estimate. We are on pre-pay with both utilities and it would save us quite a bit to swap over, plus there are other incentives like cashback and an annual loyalty rewards that could knock another £30+ a year off.

    BUT, through losing my job when I became ill, we got behind with a loan and they've taken us to court for repossession. We have a big mark on our credit history - so how does this affect trying to change supplier?

    It's a pre-pay account, so there's no actual credit being given and we're already aware of our alleged debt, which is strongly disputed in the ongoing court case.

    We are worried about failing a simple credit check and the change of supplier being refused. Are we being silly ? Would we be refused for this ?
  • Hillards
    Hillards Posts: 53 Forumite
    Don't know if eon did a credit check or not but we've since had the welcome letters and the electricity key arrived today, so we're shortly going to be their customer.
  • Rohe
    Rohe Posts: 1 Newbie
    Typically suppliers wont credit check Prepayment customers since they are seen as a safe payment option as customers need to topup first so you shouldn't have a problem switching on PP unless you owe a balance to the old supplier.

    Where there maybe issues are if in future you wish to have the PPMs removed to credit meters. but even then depending on the supplier many will allow this with a poor credit history but may insist on provisions such as a security deposit or paying by direct debit.
  • I recently purchased a house which came with the prepay meters. I did the shop around and it worked out that British Gas would be the best people to move to for getting the meters fitted. I was made aware that a credit check is required but after checking with the sales person that the chances of a knock back were slim considering I'd recently been offered a mortgage, had not one missed payment for anything for 3+ years and had a credit score some way into the 900's. The day came when they took over supply and when I tried to get the credit meters put in I was flatly refused.

    BG blame Experian so upon checking with Experian it got even more confusing as the Experian person said there was very little I could do to increase my score short of paying out my new mortgage or taking out another loan and paying it off as I had no record of "Settled Credit". I buy everything on Amex/Visa for points and clear it in full at the end of every month. I've never had credit for anything but phone/utilities and the mortgage. There was not a single late payment on my report for years and Experian suggested I go back to BG and find out if the property itself is on some sort of watch list with BG. BG say I scored in the low 800's so there must be something that they do with the Experian data that causes you to have a different score to what Experian say you do. BG refuse to budge and the manager said the only option left was for me to move to another supplier. So after being a BG customer for 10 days I've taken their manager's advice and found a cheaper tariff and EDF say they will change my meters for free after 28 days assuming I have no debt with any other energy supplier. I ring BG back to tell them I've started the ball rolling and they need to get off their backsides but the manager at BG said he is sorry but his hands are tied.

    So much for being in "my world"..... They seem to be in a world of their own at BG.
  • Wywth
    Wywth Posts: 5,079 Forumite
    n00dles71 wrote: »
    I recently purchased a house which came with the prepay meters. I did the shop around and it worked out that British Gas would be the best people to move to for getting the meters fitted. I was made aware that a credit check is required but after checking with the sales person that the chances of a knock back were slim considering I'd recently been offered a mortgage, had not one missed payment for anything for 3+ years and had a credit score some way into the 900's. The day came when they took over supply and when I tried to get the credit meters put in I was flatly refused.

    BG blame Experian so upon checking with Experian it got even more confusing as the Experian person said there was very little I could do to increase my score short of paying out my new mortgage or taking out another loan and paying it off as I had no record of "Settled Credit". I buy everything on Amex/Visa for points and clear it in full at the end of every month. I've never had credit for anything but phone/utilities and the mortgage. There was not a single late payment on my report for years and Experian suggested I go back to BG and find out if the property itself is on some sort of watch list with BG. BG say I scored in the low 800's so there must be something that they do with the Experian data that causes you to have a different score to what Experian say you do. BG refuse to budge and the manager said the only option left was for me to move to another supplier. So after being a BG customer for 10 days I've taken their manager's advice and found a cheaper tariff and EDF say they will change my meters for free after 28 days assuming I have no debt with any other energy supplier. I ring BG back to tell them I've started the ball rolling and they need to get off their backsides but the manager at BG said he is sorry but his hands are tied.

    So much for being in "my world"..... They seem to be in a world of their own at BG.

    You say you shopped around and decided BG would be the best option for you to get your PPM replaced free?
    So presumably you were aware before you started that BG would conduct a credit check?

    You say you can see nothing wrong with your credit history, but your previous post says you were declined for 2 credit card applications, despite not knowing why. Surely that should have raised suspicions your credit history is not all it could be, even if you don't understand why.

    If you don't understand why, you've very little chance of improving matters.
  • Hillards
    Hillards Posts: 53 Forumite
    Wywth wrote: »
    You say you can see nothing wrong with your credit history, but your previous post says you were declined for 2 credit card applications, despite not knowing why. Surely that should have raised suspicions your credit history is not all it could be, even if you don't understand why.

    If you don't understand why, you've very little chance of improving matters.
    I understand why, and it's bad for people like this poster who have no credit history - as Experian explained 'no record of "Settled Credit"' - so if you've never had credit they will turn you down for credit, sad but true, that's how they work.
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