Npower prepayment Gas Meter

steviepab

Hi all,
I need some advice please.
I visit here a lot for help and information but on this occasion I haven't been able to find what I need.
sorry for the long post.

I moved into a house that has both Npower gas and electric meters which I have never used before.
Last time I used a prepayment meter I was using norweb electric cards.

anyway on a couple of occasions now I have had to use the emergency credit on the gas. On both occasions I feel like I am being ripped off so I I thought I had better check with people in the know.
I did try to call npower to ask but after holding for 30 minutes on Friday from 7 the phone was answered by an arrogant woman who told me I had reached emergencies and had to call back in the morning. I did try pointing out that the website showed them open until 8 but I was responded with a "well they aren't" so I just hung up before getting into a row.

anyway I digress,
The first time I used the emergency I used £4 over 3 days. When I topped it up with £20 it took £4 emergency back and took charges of over £5 putting the rest as credit.
I didn't pay much attention to it apart from having a bit of a moan on Facebook.
Anyway on Tuesday I had to put it on again as I was using more that usual due to my daughter being unwell, I then forgot about it and didn't realise I was in the emergency until it used all the £6 by Friday morning.
I put £10 on my card on Friday expecting it to clear the £6 plus the surcharge but instead it cleared the £6 and charged me £7 leaving me in emergency again with just £3 left exactly.

Is this right or is something wrong?

I have checked the settings and it doesn't show any debt. It shows a surcharge of 0.29....... and no other indication of any other charges that I can see.

I am only home from 7pm to 6.30am 6 days a week, in and out on Sundays. I rarely put the heating on but when it it it is only between 7 & 9pm and my water heater is on a timer only to work between 7pm and 8pm.

Something I also noticed is my heating was off from 9 last night, I checked the meter and it showed I had £1.10 left on emergency, looked at 9 am and it showed 81p left despite me not using anything that required gas.
Is this the surcharge?

Thanks in advance
Stevie.

bengal-stripe

steviepab wrote: »

Something I also noticed is my heating was off from 9 last night, I checked the meter and it showed I had £1.10 left on emergency, looked at 9 am and it showed 81p left despite me not using anything that required gas.
Is this the surcharge?

Check the nPower tariff, you will find a daily standing charge, which might well be 29 pence per day.

If you are in emergency, the standing charge is not taken, but accumulates and gets charged when you go into credit again; so the used emergency and standing charge will get deducted before you can see the available credit.

I never had a pre-paid meter, but I have heard from friends that it works like that.

C_Mababejive

When you moved into your home did you

a) obtain your own personal gas and/or electric smart cards?
b)Ensure that there was no pre-existing debt on the meter(s) from the previous occupier?

[Deleted User]

You re not being ripped off. You are on Npowers standard variable tariff, th e exact same kwhr price as all Npower credit meter customers who havent gone onto a direct debit fixed yearly deal. Get the meters changed asap. They do a credit history check first. Its winter and you re going to pouring money into the gas meter at this time of year like we all are. Check the meters dont have extra debt on the meter. Screen "S " for electric and 26 for gas. Also a build up of standing charge debt , approx £1.80 a week can occur and the meters will whip that back at some time. The standing charges are the same as credit meters

steviepab

C_Mababejive wrote: »

When you moved into your home did you

a) obtain your own personal gas and/or electric smart cards?
b)Ensure that there was no pre-existing debt on the meter(s) from the previous occupier?

yes to both, there is no debt on either of my meters.

sacsquacco wrote: »

You re not being ripped off. You are on Npowers standard variable tariff, th e exact same kwhr price as all Npower credit meter customers who havent gone onto a direct debit fixed yearly deal. Get the meters changed asap. They do a credit history check first. Its winter and you re going to pouring money into the gas meter at this time of year like we all are. Check the meters dont have extra debt on the meter. Screen "S " for electric and 26 for gas. Also a build up of standing charge debt , approx £1.80 a week can occur and the meters will whip that back at some time. The standing charges are the same as credit meters

The meter has done another weird thing today. As I said it was showing as £3 emergency credit left and 0.80p this morning To cover any problems I put £15 on the card and put into the machine expecting it to wipe £5.20 for the emergency used and extra for debt but instead it added the whole lot as credit and the 0.80p emergency I was supposed to have left turned to credit less a 58p charge.

Has to be something wrong with the meter so I will be contacting Npower again tomorrow telling them to fix it.

Cheers

SwanJon

Hi Stevie,

npower should have explained the meter when you moved in.
Having the below information will help get to the bottom of the issue. If you have it when you call the agent is more likley to be able to help.

Start with the card out, and the meter showing your credit for gas.
Pressing and releasing the red button will cycle through three screens:
For gas -> OWED -> Index
The last of these (if present) is the meter reading - this shows how much you use.
Once back on 'for gas', press and hold the red button until the screen changes. You will now see a number in the corner of the screen. Every time you push and release the red button the screen will change again.

You are looking for:
27 - GD remaining - how much is left to pay back (if this is zero the meter doesn't know about it)
25/26 - GD Week MIN/MAX - how much you are paying back each week towards the bill. This will only be taken if there is a value on 27
00 - Last Credit - how much you topped up last time
01 - Las for debt - how much of the last top up was taken for debt payment
02 - Last for EmCr - how much of the last payment was used to pay back the emergecny credit
03 - Last for gas - how much of the last credit went to be used for gas
10 - Tariff Cost 5 - the price per kWh
17 - Standing Charge


If the gas meter is recovering a debt, it will take the weekly payment from your top up, not from the credit on the front of the meter (at least initially). So if you top up £20, you get £10 to use and £10 goes to the debt.
If you don't top up for a few weeks the meter will try to catch up and begin taking money from the credit on the meter (for missed weeks), and from the top up (for the current week)

If you can find the above information and come back we can establsih what has been happening.