new !!! key meters !! , what do you think of them ?

JoJoArmani

Dawniedd wrote: »

jonnyb1978 wrote: »

In my opinion these prepay metres are a rip off.

Lat night we had 46p left in the meter plus the £5.00 emergancy. I reput the key in to activate the emergancy thinking i would have £5.46 left in the meter only for it to completely take up my 46p leaving me with only the £5.00 emergancy.

The idea of the emergancy is to help you in an emergancy when you are low of money not to take money of you. Absolute rubbish.
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yes now this is something I was wondering about, I had 81p left along with the £5 emergency so i put in the key thinking I would give me 5.81, but like you it took my 81p.....the cheek of it.....then to add insult to injury I went out and had my key loaded with £20 credit, by the time i got home i'd used 33p the 5.00 of the emergency so i thought ok when I put in my 20 it should read 19.67 but no it reads as 18.87, so for using 33p of my emergancy I have been charged 1.23............so why has my meter swallowed 2.04 of my credit.
some one please tell.............I have no debt from previous meter as i was in credit b4 they changed me to key.

I know this is really annoying - but all the money you pay on your key/card is credited to you account. Check your statement - if you have been overpaying on your card/key you will be due a rebate.

Another post said these methods are not to help budget - but to recover debt. This is true - but it is also true that they do help people budget. However it is a more expensie method of budgeting.

Usually ppm's are fitted where there is debt to enable the customer to repay the debt. And so the supplier ensures there is repayment towards the debt.

The meter will be set at an agreed rate of £x a week to the debt and x tarrif towards their current usage.

It is very important to check your statements. Check your receipts against the statement - have they all been credited? Is your debt paid - if so get the tarrif changed. Or if you are struggling ask to have the debt repayment decreased if possible.

If you have no debt then I'm sure you can arrange to have the meter exchanged. If you do have debt the company will not be likely to let you change the meter until the debt is paid. Some suppliers will ask you to pay for a meter exchange - not sure of the exact circumstances on this though.

As far as I am aware token meters are being removed in favour of keys and smart cards - dependant on your area. These meters can be reset remotely.

Some people do prefer a ppm meter, even with no debt, as it ensures they will credit their meter regularly. If they don't credit the meter their supply is shut off. Otherwise it can be too easy to start missing payments - as per a budget card.

Does anyone know the legality of supply being shut off? For instance you cannot disconnect a customer with vulnerables in winter - how does this work in terms of ppm shut off? Is it not the same as in water - you cannot allow a customer to self disconnect? :undecided

JoJo

SwanJon

Many (all?) of the electricity PP meters still have a standing charge as they cannot cope with a two tier pricing system (The new key meters can which is one of their benefits).
As such it will recover as small portion of this from the credit on your meter every so often (e.g. 1% every 101 minutes).
When you use Emergency credit it stops taking this so the EC lasts longer. It does remember it though, so when you put money in it takes back the EC and the standing charge bits it missed.
The same is true of your weekly recovery rate if you have a balance.

Self-disconnect is a difficult area. Do you treat the customer who smokes 40 a day but cant afford to top up the same as someone who honestly can't pay?
The new key meter has 'non-disconnect' feature - kind of super-emergency credit. This means that it won't switch off at certain times, even if you have used all your EC. For example it's currently 6pm-9am with BG at the moment, so most shops will be open when it finally shuts off. You still have to pay it back though. BG are looking into changing this to be more flexible.

aka666

just had 1 of these fitted, dont owe them any money, so looked at some of the readings 2.30 standing charge, and 10.24 kwh does that sound right to anyone, i,m with swalec for gas and eletric

zebidee1

Interesting to read this thread. I had one of these electricity key meters installed about a month ago as a replacement for the old card meter I had.

Since then, all I do is feed the thing. There's been a huge jump in the amount I'm having to pay it every week.

I always kept hold of the pre payment meter as I was hopeful we could move and rent this place out but I'm seriously considering getting it removed now.

Edit: Just checked the readings.....£1.19 weekly charge & 9.05p / kw

EPultra

The reason most suppliers are changing from token meters to key meters is due to the old token meters not having been recalibrated after price increases (these updates can be applied automatically with a key meter). As a result, most meters are set at old tariffs (between 5p and 7p per unit) when the actual current electricity prices are closer to between 11p and 12p per unit.

As a result, many customers think they are being ripped off when their token meter is replaced with a key meter but, in reality, they are simply now paying the correct amount for their energy usage after many years of having not paid the correct amount. Whilst a few suppliers will backdate the charges for the period the old meter has not been set correctly, many will either cancel the balance or apply a substantial reduction to the amount owed (although they are entitled to bill you for the full amount of unpaid energy).

Unexpected or annoying as it may be to receive a bill when you have a prepayment meter, you are only being billed for energy you have used but not paid for. If your supplier has either cancelled or reduced such a bill, then this is to your benefit.