HELP! Gas Pre-Payment Meter

nicjane113

I have just bought my first home and moved in on 31st January. It has a pre-payment meter for both gas and electric and I topped them up with £50 each on the day I moved in.
The electricity has been fine but the gas seems to be costing a fortune! I have so far gone through £100 in 2 weeks.
I added another £50 on Sunday (16th) and when I checked last night (17th) I had £43 remaining!
It is a 3 bedroom end terraced house and I live by myself. I work Mon-Fri so the heating is on for 2 hours in the morning, 1 hour at lunchtime and around 5 hours on an evening. Is this normal?

I am currently with Utility Warehouse as that is who previously supplied the house. They charge to change the meter to a credit meter so I have applied to switch provider to British Gas as they will swap the meters for free. However, this probably won't be until the end of March so any advice would be appreciated as I can't afford another month at those prices! I called Utility Warehouse this morning and they confirmed that there is no debt on the meter from previous occupants and that it will just be down to my consumption!?

SwanJon

Did you tell UW when you moved in? They should have made sure that you were only paying for what you are using (i.e. no debt from the previous tenant).

You can check this by looking at the screens on the meter.
You should be able to flick between two or three screens (depending on model) just by pressing the red button:
Credit for gas -> OWED -> (Index ->) Credit for gas.

Fromt he credit for gas screen, with the card out, press and hold the red A button until the screen changes.
This will have a number in the corner - either 00 or 27 (again depending on the model).
The different models have the screens in a different order, but the number always matches the same screen. If you start on screen 00, you will be asked to put your card in before screen 24.

00 - Last Credit
01 - Last for debt
02 - Last for Emergency Credit
03 - Last for Gas
(This means that 01+02+03 usually equal 00)

27 - GD remaining - this will be the balance of any bill loaded onto the meter to be paid back
26 - GD Week Min - this is how much the meter will recover to a balance (Scr27). It will only recover if there is a value in Scr27

10 - Tariff Cost - (p/kWH)
16 - CV - Calorific value - used to convert cubic meters to kWh, along with other fixed figures
17 - Standing Charge (p/day)

Check 00-03 to see if any of the £50 went to debt or emergency credit - although at this time of year it is possible to use that much it's not as cold as in other years.

You can check the readings on the meter (if you have a second window on the meter this will be the reading, if not it will be the Index screen).
Take a reading at the same time each day.
Multiply by 11 to convert to kWh (or 31 if you have an older meter that measures in 100s of cubic feet).
Then multiply by the p/kWh to see the cost of gas used.
You can compare this (+ the standing charge) with how much the credit has gone down (allow a bit for the vague maths).

If you need help, come back with the details from those screens.