Prepayment electric meter and huge bill.

Smiley_Mum

One of my neighbours is on a prepayment meter and has been for years. She told me the other day that she received a bill in excess of £400 from the electric company which requires to be paid ASAP. There have been three increases, Jan and May last year and Jan this year. We are with the same company but she is on a prepayment meter and I'm on a Direct Debit. They have changed the meter to a key meter now as well on my neighbours property. Does anyone know whether this bill would be correct, do they not change the meters rates etc as the prices change or do they just allow a debt to accumulate and then they recover it whenever they please. I'd appreciate any advice on this as she is a pensioner and is very worried about it.

Cardew

There have been a number of threads on this subject.

The official position is that the customer is liable to pay the current rate even if the meter is set to a lower rate. However this defeats the object of a pre-pay meter.

What usually happens is the meter is set to recover the debt as well as paying the new rate.

Worth doing a search on here for advice as there is a good chance she will get some, or all, of her debt written off - depending on her utility company.

Smiley_Mum

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated. Had a look around the site and I came across quite a few relevant threads. I called her and told her what they may do, they haven't phoned her back yet as she called them last week about it. When I said they could set the meter to deduct a £1 a week etc off then she seemed a bit more calm. Still annoyed about it though because the electricity company should have sorted the meter out beforehand.

broxis11

From the energywatch site;


BG makes the right move for prepayment meter customers (30 November 2006)

energywatch and Citizens Advice today welcomed the decision by British Gas to stop backdating price rises for token prepayment meter users – a practice that has blighted customers and left them with huge energy debts through no fault of their own.

Around a million electricity consumers use token energy meters which need to be individually reset every time the price goes up. Households on low incomes often use prepayment meters to budget.

But energy companies are known to be slow to reset (recalibrate) these meters. Some companies then try to recover the debt that has grown in the meantime – a situation made worse by the deluge of price rises since 2003. So consumers who have budgeted carefully using prepayment meters, not only have to deal with a huge increase in the amount they pay but also with debts of hundreds of pounds that they were not expecting.

British Gas has now joined EDF Energy and Scottish and Southern Energy in saying it will not apply a debt when it recalibrates a meter. British Gas is also replacing token meters with new electronic pre-payment meters.

Teresa Perchard, Citizens Advice said: “I am delighted that British Gas has recognised that backdating price rises has a devastating effect on poor households and this is very welcome news in the run-up to Christmas. Prepayment meter customers already get a raw deal, and our evidence shows that some of the most vulnerable customers are ending up owing hundreds of pounds, exacerbating the hardship they face.

“This move will benefit customers in the future, but we are appealing to British Gas to treat those who already have large bills because of this sympathetically, and allow them to pay the amount at a rate they can afford. A helpline for these customers would be very helpful.

“It’s time that Powergen, Npower and Scottish Power stopped being scrooges and followed suit.”

Syman

wasn't there something about this on watchdog last week?

Syman

Clicky

this was it, is it powergen?

computerwoman

get in touch with watchdog, from what was said on the program powergen can use there discregtion (sorry for the spelling) to disallow the bill.

Smiley_Mum

Thanks for all your replies. She's with SSE as far as I know. I haven't spoken with her since I called the other day but hopefully she'll get it sorted out. The SSE weren't in a hurry to call her back about the bill either.