British Gas Prepay meter with No standing Charge

gnizamami

Hi,I have a flat that gets very little Electricity use as I spend 99% of my time at my girlfriends house.

I just got a letter from British Gas to say my estimate for next year is £102.69,so you can see how little is used.

I rang British Gas to ask about moving on to the No Standing charge Tariff as I have the Actaris KBD meter,the type you need to go No Standing charge.

British Gas informed me I cannot go to that Tariff as I would have to pay to have the meter altered and also would have to pay if anything ever went wrong with the meter.

When I asked why I would have to pay,I was informed that the standing charge pays the owners of the meter for any repairs or maintenance and that British Gas do not get any of the standing charge payment.

Are they lying to me to try to stop me going over to No standing charge as with how little Electricity I use,I will probably hardly have to pay them anything?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me :-)

ceedee1888

yes a would say they are lieing all new customers get a no standing change tarrif and not aware of many tarrif bg offer with sc

SwanJon

If you have an Actaris KBD meter you should already be on the No Standing Charge tariff (unless you have E7, when you can't have it).
You can check by looking at screen F - it should say zero.

I've no idea why the agent talked about charging to change the meter - I've never heard of it. If you don't already have a KBD, the exchange to one is free.

As to having to pay if anything went wrong, that's absolute nonsense. The fixed charges are recovered by charging you more for the first 720 kWh/year, so if you use more than this you may not make a saving. The meter is never yours to maintain.
Sounds like someone needs feedback - you can pass on the details here: https://www.britishgas.co.uk/Help_Advice/ContactUs/.
If you feel it's needed there's a complaint option there too.

gnizamami

Excellent. Thanks for the advice :-)