Changing my tariff for gascard

Nellie1

I have a pre-paid gas meter card installed with accumulated debt using NPower and when I tried to reduce my tariff to a lower level, (they take £10 off plus 34p every time I put money on and I had requested this be reduced to £5 for a 3 month period) they informed me that in order to do that, I would have to take my gas card to the SAME provider and put £1 on for 3 consecutive days!
When I asked if I could put £3 on at one go, it was basically a case of 'The computer says noooooooo'!

How ridiculous can you get! Can the gas bimbos not just click a little button to change it over instead of insisting on this infantile game first? :mad:

nPower

Nellie1 wrote: »

I have a pre-paid gas meter card installed with accumulated debt using NPower and when I tried to reduce my tariff to a lower level, (they take £10 off plus 34p every time I put money on and I had requested this be reduced to £5 for a 3 month period) they informed me that in order to do that, I would have to take my gas card to the SAME provider and put £1 on for 3 consecutive days!
When I asked if I could put £3 on at one go, it was basically a case of 'The computer says noooooooo'!

How ridiculous can you get! Can the gas bimbos not just click a little button to change it over instead of insisting on this infantile game first? :mad:

Hi Nellie1,

I can see why you would be frustrated - can you pop me over your details to [EMAIL="forumresponse@npower.com"]forumresponse@npower.com[/EMAIL] and I can take a look and see if there's anything we can do?

Many thanks,

Adam

Wywth

Nellie1 wrote: »

I have a pre-paid gas meter card installed with accumulated debt using NPower and when I tried to reduce my tariff to a lower level, (they take £10 off plus 34p every time I put money on and I had requested this be reduced to £5 for a 3 month period) they informed me that in order to do that, I would have to take my gas card to the SAME provider and put £1 on for 3 consecutive days!
When I asked if I could put £3 on at one go, it was basically a case of 'The computer says noooooooo'!

How ridiculous can you get! Can the gas bimbos not just click a little button to change it over instead of insisting on this infantile game first? :mad:

It's not the amount of credit you purchase that matters.
It's not a simple case of pressing a button as the meter in located at your home.
As I understand it, it can take about 3 top ups for a tariff change to successfully get loaded to your keycard, and so then get loaded to your meter.

SwanJon

As Wywth said, the message needs to get to your meter from the supplier. The only way this can be done is on the gascard.
The three tops ups over three days is a safety net - if you top up regularly at the same shop you should get it on the first top up after 2 days after they send it (if that makes sense).

The meter should only be taking the £10 once a week (e.g. top up £20 on Wed, £10 to debt, £10 to use; top up £20 on Sun - £20 to use).
How often does the 34p happen? Is it after you have used the emergency credit? This sounds like the standing charge/two-tier recalibration (which are effectively the same thing).

PS - Prepayment Smart meters (when they are agreed and arrive) should be able to do what you suggest as they will have a SIM to communicate with.