Pay as you go gas issues, daily £1.40 charge?

Johnmcl7

I'm on my phone and having trouble finding any useful information on this issue so I'd be glad of any advice as it's not something I'm at all familiar with.

My younger has moved into a rented flat which has both prepay gas and electricity, I believe both are supplied by British Gas. When he topped up the gas meter with ten pounds it said £6.47 was going to the debt and £3.53 was going for the gas. Where can this debt come from if it's a prepay meter, I assume this should have been cleared before he moved in?

The second issue is that £1.40 appears to disappear at some point overnight or early morning despite both the hot water and heating being turned off. The cooker and shower are both electric so they can't be the culprits, there doesn't appear to be any other gas powered devices. Any thoughts what this could be? It apparently is too high for a standing charge but I don't how much that should be.

He's going to phone British Gas tomorrow but I'd appreciate any advice from more knowledgeable people here.

Thanks,
John

HappyMJ

He needs a new key from the supplier urgently then switch to a better tariff. Ebico is a good prepayment meter tariff with no standing charges and only 1 rate for all gas/electric used. If he uses a lot of gas/electric it is not suitable.

eurmalian

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

Where can this debt come from if it's a prepay meter, I assume this should have been cleared before he moved in?

He's going to phone British Gas tomorrow but I'd appreciate any advice from more knowledgeable people here.

That's definitely a debt on the meter, which he has no responsibility to pay. As you say, BG should clear that and leave the meter clear for him to use. However, had he actually contacted BG and told them he'd moved in? As otherwise there's no way they can know that they have to clear it...

Johnmcl7

Thanks for the replies, the letting agency were supposed to have sorted it out so I don't know if they've not done something they should have.

John

HappyMJ

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, the letting agency were supposed to have sorted it out so I don't know if they've not done something they should have.

John

Normally you would sort it. The letting agent only has to find out the previous suppliers name so you can get a new key for it. They may have also got the old key and given it to you but they shouldn't have. The supplier should be sending you a key with your name on it.

macman

Don't ever rely on an agency to sort anything relating to utility bills-they won't. Do it yourself, it's not their responsiblity.
Clearly he's using an old key and paying someone else's debt.

Johnmcl7

Thnks again for the replies, I've had a look at the meter and the p.ayment card which I assume is the key? It's Scottish Gas rather than British Gas, there's no name for a tenant on it but just a chip which I assume has this information on the debt?

eurmalian

Scottish Gas and British Gas are the same company, they just have a couple of different names that they trade under. The key itself doesn't hold the debt details, that's all stored on the meter. However, if Scottish Gas post out a new key (or give you a code to pick up a new one from a local Paypoint store) then they can put a piece of code onto it that will tell the meter to reset itself when the key is first entered. That clears all of the debt from it, but also (just in case you've topped a lot up) wipes any credit that you've got left on the meter at that point. Then you just start from scratch.

Johnmcl7

There's no credit there at the moment as they didn't want to top-up until they had it sorted so getting a new card and wiping the meter is clearly the way to go.