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Pre-payment meter
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I currently have a pre-payment meter for both gas and electric and get by on about £10 on each every 1-2 weeks. I had £3.84 there on saturday, put £10 on and the credit balance was £13. Was only 84p missing but over the course of the year it will add up.
Is this a common issue with prepayment of rounding down credit balances. Would rather see if it's a well known issue before i rant at them.
Is this a common issue with prepayment of rounding down credit balances. Would rather see if it's a well known issue before i rant at them.
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Is the meter recovering any debt?
Also, nearly all tariffs now have a standing charge (average about 25p a day but does vary).0 -
I moved into the house in October and the first thing i did was check the debt on the meters , there was none on either. The standing charge i knew about. Seems they like to round down in their favour.
Might have to give them a call later0 -
I moved into the house in October and the first thing i did was check the debt on the meters , there was none on either. The standing charge i knew about. Seems they like to round down in their favour.
Might have to give them a call later
They don't round down, in any case 84 pence isn't rounding, it's just theft.
How often do they recover the standing charge? I've seen no consistent policy (BG recover daily, SP weekly).
My guess is the 84 pence is a couple of days standing charge being recovered at once.0 -
You need to treat your prepayment meter like a standard meter and track your usage using 'normal' meter reads rather than just how much money you put in. Standing charges, emergency credit, arrears - bits can come off seemingly at random to confuse you.
Read your meter for actual reads from week to week and you'll get an idea of how much you use. Look up your tariff and that'll clarify how much is being used for units and how much for standing charges.
A typical standing charge for a prepayment meter is 43p per day (Co-op). Some tariffs will be different, of course.0 -
The tariff and weekly standing charge prices are both on the electric meter , pence per kwhr, probably somewhere around 13.8 p per kwhr and £1.20 a week standing charge, Reading on screen "G "total kwhrs. Not sure which screens the gas price is displayed0
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if you use the emergency then it will not take the standing charge but will take it as soon as you load more money on the meter. So it could take a few standing charges in one go to catch up with the days it wasn't taking them.
You mustn't use much gas if you can get by on £10 for 2 weeks :eek: the standing charges are likely to add up to £3.50-£4 in that time, plus if you have a pilot light on the gas boiler that could be another £2-3, so even before you use any gas your £10 every 2 weeks is down to under £5.0
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