A £2700 electricity bill for 3 months from Powergen

sutyde

I am really shocked to see my last electricity bill with £2700 in debt from Powergen since the bill for last october showed my account in credit. And the meter as of today still shows the account in credit. So that was 900 pounds per month electricity for a family of 3 people using gas for heating. I contacted powergen and have not heard from them yet.

Before I moved to this house about two years ago, I asked to switch both the electricity and gas suppliers to Powergen so that I can have the cheaper Energy Online rate. What I did not realize was that both meters in the house were prepayment ones; so when we moved in, Powergen told us we can only use prepayment schemes which are more expensive. For the last two years we have been paying like £50/month in the summer and £70/month in the winter depending the usage of the meters. There is no way we can have such a big amount in debt. During the two years time we only received from powergen 3 or 4 statments which are complicated enough so that we could not understand.

My questions is that as a prepayment customer, could it be possible for my account to go deep in debt? My understand is that once the prepayment meter reaches zero, it will shut the electricity down so that you can never be in debt. I would also like to know if it is possible to swith to other cheaper schemes without changing the meters to the normal ones. or how difficult to change meters? If I change supplier, would the new supplier allow me to pay direct debit instead of prepayment?

dazza190574

You should be able to use a normal meter. There is no way they can force you to use a pre-payment meter.

With some pre-payment meters you can have an emergency credit. One of my friends used to have a £5 emergency credit on his, but of course when he put £10 on he would oly be £5 in credit because you are paying off the debt.

I would go back to your supplier and tell them to fit a meter, if they say no then tell them you are going to another supplier.

immoral_angeluk

£2700??? That's got to be a computer error as I don't think it's physically possible to use that much electricity unless you're running a mini chernobyl in your basement!

Cardew

dazza190574 wrote:

You should be able to use a normal meter. There is no way they can force you to use a pre-payment meter.

I don't think that statement is correct.

A 'normal' meter is for a 'credit' account and utility companies are not forced to give you credit.
Some people are incapable of saving enough to pay a quarterly bill in arrears, or have insufficient funds for direct debit payments from their bank. In these cases they are deemed to be non-creditworthy and the utility companies can put them on a pre-payment meter; or they have no supply at all. That often happens with people who have a bad payment record.

It is really no different to someone wanting to buy something on Hire Purchase. If the company are not prepared to offer credit, thats the end of the story.

Note:
I am not in any way implying that all people on a credit meter are not capable of obtaining a credit account. Some chose to have pre-payment meters for their own reasons.

tripled

A utility company is only required to offer a prospective customer terms and conditions of supply. They are not obliged to take on a supply that doesn't meet these conditions. They are also not obliged to change meters if they don't want to.

sutyde

I think the prepayment meter physically has all function of the standard meter plus the function to read the key of adding credit to the meter. This means ther utility company can change your account to a credit one without changing the meter as long as you can maintain the credit payment.

stewie_griffin

sutyde wrote:

I think the prepayment meter physically has all function of the standard meter plus the function to read the key of adding credit to the meter. This means ther utility company can change your account to a credit one without changing the meter as long as you can maintain the credit payment.

Prepayment meters and credit meters are completely different and if you want to switch from one to another they have to be physically changed.

In response to the OP there's no way the bill you've received is correct. What meter readings are on the statement and are they actual or estimated?

Blazeparadox

:eek: Gosh that's far too much

When I changed suppliers, they came out and removed the prepayment meter and put in a credit meter.

I hated using the prepay one, I always panicked in case we all got up late etc. I have a feeling that your prepay meter is set to collect a debt, as it should only be usual bill - no DD discount etc. Should not be any other charge.

See article here

http://www.nea.org.uk/Policy_&_Research/Policy_position_papers/Prepayment_Meters

I would be contacting them as a matter of urgency. Your owed money big time. :j

Get onto DD for elec and gas ASAP:D and take a holiday with the refund from Powergen

jessc_2001

Hi,

Firstly, as you've currently got pre-payment meters for both gas and electricity, what Powergen have sent you will be a Statement, not a bill.

Secondly, at this point no-one owes anyone any money, you to Powergen or Powergen to you.

What you need to do now is :
1. Check both meters for all readings and settings - if you're not sure how to
do this - call Powergen and ask them to talk you through it.

Once you've done this - ask them to confirm that there is not debt being collected on either meter.

2. Check the readings on the statement - sometime the readings get transposed which sends the whole thing out of whack.

3. Once this has been cleared up - ask Powergen again to get the meters changed to normal 'credit' meters - providing you have no history of debt with them, they should be happy to do this.

installspark

It is possible to owe money on a prepayment account, but only under 3 circumstances:

1. Arrears on the account but not set on the meter to be reclaimed.

2. Incorrect meter settings on price per unit - usually occurs following a price rise.

However to be showing a theoretical debit balance of £2700 is not the norm, alyhough not the most I've ever seen on a prepay account :eek:

You need to contact Powergen's prepay dept and get them to justify the balance. It would be useful to write down all the meter displays prior to your call as these will be asked for. These are generally accessed via the blue button depending on the meter, you will also need the meter serial number, and if possible date of installation and installation readings.

welshcakes

I bought out my ex from family home (he had been living there for the 2 yrs leading up to transfer) and I discovered the gas and electric had gone onto prepayment as he hadn't been keeping up payments. Although they were different suppliers, both (EDF and British Gas) automatically attached the arrears to my 'new customer' accounts - they has simply updated the names rather than start my accounts as fresh! I had terrible trouble and big phone bills trying to sort it out and only after a formal letter threatening legal action did I finally get a whopping £510 refunded from EDF months later.

My personal experience has been that the utility companies are on the whole incompetant at managing simple change of occupant matters and that phoning them constatntly brings a barrage of different advise depending on which customer service rep you get through to (after long time on hold).

I have recently started a case against British Gas with the Energy Ombudsman who advised that the supplier website email complaint systems don't tend to be very efficient, so he said it was best not to use them. His advise, always put it in writing in a 3 paragraph letter 1) State the issues 2) Outline the actions you have taken (calls, letters, payments etc) 3) State what you want done to resolve the dispute. You should advise that the company has 10 days from date of receipt of letter to respond. If they haven't, refer it back to the Ombudsman and they will take up you grievance.