Electric key meter-is it worth it

dgwebster

my partner and i moved into this flat to a token meter/key meter (just changed) and I was appalled to find that I can save £280 a year on electric through a normal meter... so it is getting changed in january. I am having to pay Npower £50 to change it, but for the saving its worth it imo.

I have simply set up a savings account into which a standing order for £60 a month will go (£20 less than current spending). As the price per unit is almost half, the bill should be less than this for each month but the extra is there to cover "oopsies" as I speak, I have less than £2 in the emergency, better take a trip up to the shops

nr077961

Ok, for those that are bad mouthing Prepayment Key meters and saying they're more expensive, you're wrong!

Electricity suppliers would far prefer us to be on Prepayment meters as it is gaurenteed cash coming in. For most suppliers it is actually now cheaper to be on a PP meter than it is to pay by regular quarterly bill. Of course the cheapest method of payment will always be direct debit however PP is a viable option for those that cannot, or will not, pay by DD. I would recommend PP over quarterly credit any day!

As for those who say "I want my PP meter taking out becuse I think I'm putting too much in it" all I can say to that is the difference in price nowadays is so Negligible. Taking out the PP meter and going on quarterly credit will not solve your issues! If you're putting a lot of money into a PP meter it's because you're using a lot of electricity or gas and changing to a method payment that lets you run up three months worth of debt is only going to make the matter worse. If you talk to your supplier they have to give you energy efficiency advice meaning you can cut down your consumption and therefore put less money into the meter.

I say prepayment all the way and what with all the new functions of the new style of PP Key meter i.e. remote tariff updating, friendly non disconnect periods (where the meter will not cut you off during certain core times set by the supplier) it's a true pay as you system meaning you'll never have to pay another bill again. Sounds perfect to me!

jlwhite

We were on a pre-payment card meter until around July this year when it was switched to a new keymeter. We have a couple of issues. When they changed the meter we had £29 credit left. The fitter left us with only £10 credit and said I would need to ring powergen to get the rest put back on. When i called them they said that this would be put on within the next three ''fill ups''. I put in £50-£65 every month so we called them again 3 months later as we hadn't seen any extra credit go onto the meter, and they said it had been credited in August. This didn't show on the statement we had recieved but as we couldn't prove it was there before they changed the meter we chalked it down to my mistake for not getting the fitter to give us a record of what was on the meter.
Today we got a letter from Eon (the new powergen) saying that we owe £109.36 because the old meter was set wrong. The have adjusted the meter to collect an extra £5 a week for 22 weeks (no dates though). Does anyone have any advice on this situation? We feel that it is very wrong that people have been allowed to get into debt with these pre-payment meters with no warning from powergen that this could be happening. Fortunately we can afford to pay this but I'm sure there are lots of other people in the same situation who may not be able to.
We have also recently had a gas supply connected and central heating fitted and are trying to find out how much we are paying per unit of gas but we couldn't find out. Does anyone know how we can find this out, also do you think we'd be better off on pre-payment for gas too?

Nony_2

nr077961 wrote: »

Ok, for those that are bad mouthing Prepayment Key meters and saying they're more expensive, you're wrong!

As for those who say "I want my PP meter taking out becuse I think I'm putting too much in it" all I can say to that is the difference in price nowadays is so Negligible. Taking out the PP meter and going on quarterly credit will not solve your issues! If you're putting a lot of money into a PP meter it's because you're using a lot of electricity or gas and changing to a method payment that lets you run up three months worth of debt is only going to make the matter worse. If you talk to your supplier they have to give you energy efficiency advice meaning you can cut down your consumption and therefore put less money into the meter.

I have to disagree with these sentiments; my rented property has a card prepayment meter and the cost of every unit is 13.5 pence. There is no reduction in cost after using a certain number of units. During the winter months I was putting £5 a DAY and that was just to heat the place in the evening. This is a huge chunk out of my pension.
I am soon moving to another rented property where a KeyMeter is installed, but I can't find out how much the charges are. I would much prefer to set up a Direct Debit but the landlord won't let me change (she has been left with unpaid bills in the past!

Paparika

I ran up a bill with my electric company and they made the suggestion for me to go to key meter, I felt that it would be better as i couldn't survive with the debt and paying further electric bills.

Yes i had to pay a certain amount back each week, it could of been £5, but do check with the company you are with, make sure they know you have children, if mine ran out then you would go on to emergency, this was £5 after that if you used all the emergency the the power was cut off, but you will have to pay the emergency bit back the next time you put money on, it also wouldn't cut off in the middle of the night, 8.30 in the morning it would cut off, giving you a better chance to get to a shop that did key meter top ups, luckily lots of shops do them now a days, and your electric company can give you a list of shops in your area that do it.

If you struggle paying bills it is a better way to manage them, even though we do pay a higher rate, It's not all doom and gloom, but will help you pay back what you owe, and help you and your family learn about switching off what is not needed. which will reduce the amount of electric you do use. I'm a single mum too, and with no financial support from the ex hubby i had no choice but to look at what i was spending.

wornoutmumoftwo

I was forced to have a payment meter but I have come to love it, I no longer have to worry about huge bills, it ensures that you do not waste electric and if you recieve either working or child tax credit (+others) you can go onto a social tariff (for low paid income customers) so you are paying a lower amount per unit.

Once my debt is paid off I am keeping mine.

I'm in a 2 bed flat and spend £4 a day including my debt of £10 a week.

Mr-Ebeneezer

I started pre paying back in the 70's with a 10p slot meter.
I now have Southern Electric's key meter even though I am not in debt.

Firstly, PP is not a dearer tarrif, the charge per unit is the same, you just get discounts for paying by Direct Debit (6%) or quarterly billing (3% if paid within 14 days)

My problem is my nearest top up store is the Co-oP 3 miles away and no buses.

One option with Southern is to use their top up card...you still get a quarterly bill, but whatever you have put on the swipe card is deducted, so if you use less, you are in credit, use more and you pay the balance.
The advantage of this method is more places to use it and you don't get a power cut when credit runs out. The disadvantage is it's easy to put off topping it up and end up with a bill.

It can be a pain to top it up at times. but weighing up the pro's and con's, switching to a different method takes overall control of my finances away from me. I'll stick with the key.

Lyndsay_21

before i moved i was paying by DD the same amount each month winter and summer however when i then went to move i had a bill of £87 for gas and £130 for electric as my final bill, now i am on pre-payment meter and i prefer it, it was more expensive in gas in the winter about £50 a month but now £20 lasts me a whole month now i've only using gas for the hot water.
i use about £10 per week electric depending and we are very electric heavy with pc's and the tumble drier and dishwasher and electric oven.
All in all i budget £100pcm for gas and electric which is lesss than i was paying before in a 2 bed flat and i'm now in a 3bed maisonette

shelly1965

As Gas and Electric are rising i am contemplating a key meter for both fuel sources. Some of my work colleagues have these and as you only pay for what you use.

If you do not owe any money, but want one, is this advantageous? Are tariffs set to normal?

Any views on this would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

*Scottish*Lass*

You may get a better response if you start a new thread instead of resurecting an old one from 4 years ago

I have a PP meter for both my gas and electricity and it does cost a wee bit more to use than a normal meter but at least I can't get into debt with the meters and I am a bit more conscious about how much electricity & gas I use i.e I only fill the kettle with enough for one cup of tea, I don't spend ages in the shower and I have my heating set so it's only on when I'm in the house and never for more than 2 hours at a time. So. for me, it probably works out as much the same as the cheaper prices as I use less units being more conscious of it running out

There are seperate tarriffs for PP meters which are higher than a 'normal' tarriff regardless of whether you request a meter or one is put in due to debt. I feel I notice the cost less with the meters as I do not get big bills.