Electric Meters? HELP

boa_girl22

We've been to see a house we like, but its on an electric pre-pay meter.

We've always avoided these like the plague, we know someone with one and its murder on money.

HOWEVER the estate agent said according to new laws they CANNOT be set on a premium, so they can only ever cost exactly what it would cost if you were paying it the regular way through bills.

Is this true or not?

mac.d

Pre-payment meters are usually more expensive because they are paying off a debt on them and if you move into a house when you register that change of tenancy/ownership with the supplier, any debt should be removed from the meter.

However, the bottom line is that because of the way you are paying for your electricity pre-payment meters will always work out to be a bit dearer than standard electricity meters. Just as it's true that paying by monthly direct debit will generally be a bit cheaper than paying quarterly on receipt of your bill.

Do you understand the difference between pay as you go phones and having a mobile contract? It seems fairly simple and easy to understand that calls on a mobile contract are cheaper than the calls on a pay as you go mobile, right?

Think of the electric meters the same way, a standard electric meter paid monthly or quarterly is your contract mobile, and the pre-payment meter is your PAYG phone.

What you do need to watch out for is that there is no debt on the meter. You need to let the supplier know straight away that you are a new tenant, and you will be provided with a new key/card related to your account (don't use the previous tenants if it's there) for the meter.

macman

boa_girl22 wrote: »

We've been to see a house we like, but its on an electric pre-pay meter.

We've always avoided these like the plague, we know someone with one and its murder on money.

HOWEVER the estate agent said according to new laws they CANNOT be set on a premium, so they can only ever cost exactly what it would cost if you were paying it the regular way through bills.

Is this true or not?

A complete urban myth, a PPM costs the same as the supplier's Standard tariff, and has done for some years now-no 'new laws'.
What they do is block you from the online discount tariffs, so the 'extra' is around 6% at most.
If you wish you can have it switched to a credit meter.

Robert2009

If you wish you can have it switched to a credit meter

At a cost and only if you pass a credit check, depending on the supplier.

My daughter bought a house with a PPM and the supplier would not change it to a credit meter without a large deposit and a charge for changing the meter.

She ended up changing supplier because of this, even although the present supplier would have been the cheapest for her on a credit meter.

[Deleted User]

did nt Standard tariff get reduced by 5% by some suppliers, EDF and B.G, I did nt notice if any of the online discounted tariffs get a reduction as you would expect to keep the differential ?

Terrylw1

I think the estate agent may be thinking of private landlord metering where they make you pay based on their meter which is attached to the main meter in the landlords name.

In terms of getting it changed, if you want to, just push the angle of moving in and its not your fault the previous tenant had a debt. Not all PPMs were put in their debt anyway. Suppliers don't charge for their other meter changes, they have just chosen to aim their costs at PPMs on the basis that the tenant has cost them for the debt in the first place. Not everyone is the reason for it so they may backdown.

spiro

Robert2009 wrote: »

My daughter bought a house with a PPM and the supplier would not change it to a credit meter without a large deposit and a charge for changing the meter.

Domestic suppliers can NOT charge a security deposit anymore.

utility_csa

spiro wrote: »

Domestic suppliers can NOT charge a security deposit anymore.

Is that a recent change?

Mrs_Arcanum

We moved in to a place with these and within the week we were on standard meters for both. You just need to find out who the current supplier is. They just do a credit check to OK the DD etc.

spiro

utility_csa wrote: »

Is that a recent change?

Don't know someone told me about it recently when deposits were being dicussed.

Robert2009

Domestic suppliers can NOT charge a security deposit anymore.

Where is your source?

A man down the pub?