Gas Prepayment Meter Charges

MoneyAdvice

Can anyone tell me if gas prepayment meters charge a ridiculous amount? I ask because I've 'apparently' used around £15 in 3 days, which seems a very excessive considering I've had the heating on low for about 7 hours a day.

Nada666

£2 standing charge, £4.33 for seven hours - that's sixty pence an hour. 14 kWh each hour. So boiler running on full about fifty percent of the time.

But that's discounting any arrears or debt repayment.

You have to read the meter units to find out how much you are using in meter units and kWhs - lots of other factors complicate the money-in.

Anyway £4 a day is not a ridiculous amount for seven hours a day heat. It is more expensive than a credit meter - up to twenty or thirty percent more.

What you want to find out is, after a few days of running seven hours a day, is how much you are using to maintain that heat after six or seven hours - how much is used per hour then?

Where I am it has been significantly colder the last couple of days -another complicating factor.

One other important consideration - if you do have the heating on you may as well have it on a bit higher (obvious warnings about this advice!). That is, if you are spending £5 a day to keep things at 17 degrees you may as well spend £6 to keep it at 19 or just leave it off.

stewie_griffin

Nada666 wrote: »

£2 standing charge, £4.33 for seven hours - that's sixty pence an hour. 14 kWh each hour. So boiler running on full about fifty percent of the time.

But that's discounting any arrears or debt repayment.

You have to read the meter units to find out how much you are using in meter units and kWhs - lots of other factors complicate the money-in.

Anyway £4 a day is not a ridiculous amount for seven hours a day heat. It is more expensive than a credit meter - up to twenty or thirty percent more.

What you want to find out is, after a few days of running seven hours a day, is how much you are using to maintain that heat after six or seven hours - how much is used per hour then?

Where I am it has been significantly colder the last couple of days -another complicating factor.

One other important consideration - if you do have the heating on you may as well have it on a bit higher (obvious warnings about this advice!). That is, if you are spending £5 a day to keep things at 17 degrees you may as well spend £6 to keep it at 19 or just leave it off.

Is standing charge on gas prepayment meters collected daily or weekly as I assume £2 would be the weekly amount. I would have thought 3 days of standing charge would be around 80p-£1.

I agree however that using £15 in 3 days isn't excessive certainly at the moment.

OP do you ever use the emergency credit and/or have a debt you're repaying?

Can you post settings 00-04 from your meter?

duck_egg_2

We received a £44 pound cash refund yesterday because the meter was over charging us and yes, I am constantly topping up the bloody card!