moving from pre-payment Gas...

jules260599

...apologies if it's a common question from a newbie...but has anyone any advice for someone wanting to move off pre-payment Gas?

The reasons for being on it (small arrears, restricted budget) are thankfully less of an issue now and therefore want to move onto monthly (or whatever) billing as putting at least £20 a WEEK in it at the mo.

Went on the recommended site, Energyhelpline, but would only provide alternative pre-payment options.

Is it best just to dip the toe into any of the major providers and then look to switch later on, or is there an obvious cheapest option for a 'first-timer'.

Don't want to get locked into a lengthy contract and find we're no better off than on pre-payment.

It's all a bit of a mindfield.

tripled

Best bet is to ask your current supplier to change it, most will do it free of charge, then compare companies to decide where you want to go. You should do it before you move supplier simply because some companies won't let you change the meter until you've been with them for x months, or run a credit check, and you don't want to find that out after you've switched! There's no companiy I know of that locks you in for a set period after you've changed your meter.

It is highly unlikely you will be worse off with any company if you switch to a quarterly bill. Most charge a premium for prepay customers (either higher standing charge or higher unit rates). The main exceptions are Ebico, who's fair pricing policy means all customers pay the same, or BG's essentials tariff, but you can only get that if you are in receipt of benefit and it's unlikely that will be the cheapest tariff available anyway once the round of price cuts has filtered through.

Chihiro_2

Pre-payment is a pain. When I moved into my new property in August last year, it had a pre-payment meter and was told that I couldn't change it until I had been resident for 6 months. I've just arranged to have that done, having spent the last 6 months feeding a fiver a week into this thing, which is a lot considering it's just me, the house is tiny, I've got draught excluders and diligently switch things OFF, not to standby, and turn off all unecessary lights. I was particularly digusted to learn that my monthly spend on utilities was more than that of 2 people living in a flat who are less diligent about saving engery!

Switching was relatively easy - I just rang up my provider and asked for it to be done, one credit check later and the engineer was booked. Once I know what my monthly usage works out to be I will be looking for the cheapest provider and switch!

One thing I don't understand - it's usually people on low incomes that have pre-payment meters. Fair enough if they are refusing to pay, but if it's a case of them being willing but struggling to do so, how is it fair to make them pay more???

jessc_2001

Chihiro wrote:

One thing I don't understand - it's usually people on low incomes that have pre-payment meters. Fair enough if they are refusing to pay, but if it's a case of them being willing but struggling to do so, how is it fair to make them pay more???

I used to work in a supplier call centre specifically the electric pre-payment dept, and I cannot tell you how many times I received calls from people who didn't owe the company any money but WANTED to go onto PPM so that they could "budget better"! The same was true in the Gas PPM dept.

8 times out of 10 I convinced them that a PPM was NOT the way to go but that they could use a weekly/fortnightly/monthly budget card which they could take to the same place that they would go to buy the tokens etc... but get more for their money!

Suppliers will not FORCE people onto PPMs unless :
1) that person has a history (which can be difficult to track) of non-payment
2) the existing meter has been tampered with
3) there is an outstanding debt and numerous payment agreements have been broken

Also, bear in mind, that landlords of rental properties, who include electric/gas in the rental can also have PPMs fitted and the tenant has no say..

So you see, it can be 6 of one and half a dozen of the other...