Having to pay to get a standard meter

spear70

My wife and I moved into our house four years ago and when we did we noticed that the house had key meters for both the gas and electricity.

At the time we told our energy provider (npower :mad:) that we were moving. Long story short, they royally messed up everything and after a year of drawn out arguments I told them to sling their hook and never darken my door again.

At the same time we had a salesman from Scottish Power call and we decided to sign-up. Whilst I was taking with the salesman I asked him if there was anyway to get our meters changed to standard meters; that way we could pay by direct debit and potentially take advantage of any offers for saving money on our utility bills. He informed me (verbally) that if we waited 'say' six months to build up a good record with Scottish Power then we could call them and get replacements sorted out in exchange for a deposit, which would be refunded after three months.

I waited a considerably longer time than six months (not intentionally) and when I did call to ask about changing the meters they told me that in addition to the refundable deposit there would also be a non-refundable service charge to pay - £150!!!

Is there any way to get them to change our meters to a standard meters? We always had a standard meter at our previous address and never had problems there. We did have problems with npower for the first 12 months at our current address so that might stand against us if they're able to check (even thought the fault lay with npower).

We feel really handicapped by having a key meter and feel it unfairly penalises us since it was probably installed because of problems with the previous tenants.

irnbru_2

spear70 wrote: »

when I did call to ask about changing the meters they told me that in addition to the refundable deposit there would also be a non-refundable service charge to pay - £150!!!

Is there any way to get them to change our meters to a standard meters?

Pay the £150.

Have you worked out what the cost difference between pre-payment and another tariff would be?

Scozz

Are you able to change supplier on a pre-payment meter? British Gas agreed to change the meter at the flat I've just moved into at no charge following a credit check.

rocket09

When I moved into a rented property 3 years ago Southern Electric where the suppliers and they replaced the electric key meter within the first month free of charge, I then the following month compared online and switched to EDF and they still didnt say anyting about a charge.

chanz4

Companys are not doing the exchanges for free, its due to them costing £65 a time. Why change something thats not faulty, bg are the best for doing it free but subject to credit checks

Scottish_Power

Hi spear70

Our policy for pre-payment ot credit meter exchanges is that all customers are charged for the work to be carried out (cost of engineer etc) around £50.00 for gas and £60.00 for electricity, this si non refundable. We would then look for a security deposit in addition to this. This would be refundable after 12 months as long as payment history on the account was good.

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

bengasman

Ask around to see which companies don't charge and then swap. Not much point in complaining, just leave a supplier if you don't like the way they treat you.

holmesgroove

As someone mentioned above, I too have been with British Gas. I inherited a pre-payment meter in the new flat. The option British Gas gave me was to convert to standard economy 7 meter free of charge because of my history with them from previous property. They also said , that if I did not have account history with them, then they would do a quick credit check.

I would guess that energy providers may be a bit more forgiving nowadays just to get more custom. Give it a try. Perhaps play the wildcard: 'So, what you're saying is you'll charge me for the meter to become your customer, when I can go elsewhere and have it installed free, and remain their customer?' hmmmmm

t0rt0ise

As others say British Gas will do it for free if you pass a credit check. If you don't then they still do it but charge a refundable deposit of a couple of hundred pounds. They messed mine up though sending a guy who said the elec one couldn't be changed and then sending a gas man to do the elec one. Third time lucky though and got it changed for free plus £80 compensation for the other two appointments.