Pre-Payment Meter Bill???

SarahLewis

Hi there!

I was wondering if anyone could help me with some advice. I have a pre-payment meter for both my gas and electricity with Npower and have done for the past 5 years. I recently decided to move, and have now done so, to another supplier who do not have standing charges and have cheaper prices (Utilita). However once I moved I received a letter from Npower saying I owe £80 for electricity! I first thought this was a mistake because I pay for my gas and electric as I go, but when I rang them up to notify them of they're mistake I was told that there was no mistake and I do owe £80. It was explained to me in as simple terms as possible (which still didn't make sense) that even though I have a pre-payment meter I have not been topping up enough to pay for the electric I am using. But how can this be? When my meter shows me that I am running low on electric I go to the shop and buy more electric on my card and then put it in my meter. So how can I owe them anything?? So my understanding of this is that when I buy for example £20 electric and then put it in my meter, I am actually getting more than £20? I really do not understand this at all! I have never had a letter before saying I owe them money or that I am not buying enough so it seems strange that now I am moving to another supplier I suddenly owe money?
So...Can anyone tell me if this is right? Can you owe money when you have a pre-payment meter?
Any comments would be much appreciated.

macman

Did you have debt on the account that was being recovered?

StuC75

quite possible -

If emergency credit has been used, Have all payments been correctly credited through..

If the meter wasn't correctly set for Daily Standing Charge, or if it was charging you a unit rate lower than what it should have been - so essentially giving you more Electric than it should..

Were the Start and End Meter readings correct?

SarahLewis

I was in no contract with them or anything like that, I had no debt that was being recovered and I had not used my emergency credit when the transfer happened. I gave them the meter reading again from around the date the switch over happened and they said they will look into it
I just wanted to check that receiving a bill when leaving a pre-payment meter wasn't completely bizarre when you had no clue that you had supposedly been doing something wrong. I guess I'll have to just wait and see what happens.
Thanks for the reply's anyways

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Write to npower (don't call) heading your letter complaint. State your case, saying that you haven't been informed how the £80 debt has been accrued. It may well be that the standing charge hasn't been removed correctly, but at the very least you should get that in writing.

Utilita may not have a standing charge, but they charge you more for the first x units a day - effectively the standing charge has been sculpted into the price.

macman

SarahLewis wrote: »

I was in no contract with them or anything like that, I had no debt that was being recovered and I had not used my emergency credit when the transfer happened. I gave them the meter reading again from around the date the switch over happened and they said they will look into it
I just wanted to check that receiving a bill when leaving a pre-payment meter wasn't completely bizarre when you had no clue that you had supposedly been doing something wrong. I guess I'll have to just wait and see what happens.
Thanks for the reply's anyways

Yes you were. You opened an account when you took over the meter and registered with them.

[Deleted User]

Prepays pay a weekly standing charge, you could have a build up if you ve not been topping up lately, as macman says, you re in a contract from day one with with BG when you moved in and you should inform them when you move out, meter readings and forwarding address, same for gas prepay. Double check that Utilita are any cheaper, last time I checked Eon were the cheapest prepay electric