Removing Prepayment Meters

ChucknJoany

Hi,
Thanks for the welcome.
I had occassion to call them today to give them a meter reading and found out that I had misheard the call centre girl the other day and it was £52.00 to change the meter and not £32.00.
Woe is me.
I would leave the meter if I thought that the future tenant would prefer it, does anyone have strong thoughts one way or the other, I had a look online and couldn't see anything?

Cardew

ChucknJoany wrote: »

Hi,
Thanks for the welcome.
I had occassion to call them today to give them a meter reading and found out that I had misheard the call centre girl the other day and it was £52.00 to change the meter and not £32.00.
Woe is me.
I would leave the meter if I thought that the future tenant would prefer it, does anyone have strong thoughts one way or the other, I had a look online and couldn't see anything?

I doubt if many people would prefer a pre-pay meter and it might put off some people from renting the flat.

The problem is that generally properties with pre-pay meters are 'down market'(as the Americans would say). A tenant in such a property would need a good credit record before most utility firms would change the meter(even for payment) and allow the tenant credit that could be £hundreds.

arla

Scottish Power just quoted me £400 to remove gas and electric pre-payment meters (put on due to my tenants). They will refund £300 after 12 months.

Seriously! is that not ridiculous.

spiro

arla wrote: »

Scottish Power just quoted me £400 to remove gas and electric pre-payment meters (put on due to my tenants). They will refund £300 after 12 months.

Seriously! is that not ridiculous.

£50 per meter to change - not expensive, think how much it costs to call out say a plumber.
£150 per fuel security deposit - not a lot given the current average annual cost of fuel. Note that lots of suppliers will also expect you to be on a DD tariff to allow you to swap meters, this reduces their exposure to any potential new debt.

Scottish_Power

Hi arla,

Our policy for removing Prepayment metes is to charge a security deposit along with a fee for the work being done. If you wish to discuss your case with me you can drop me an e-mail at [EMAIL="onlinecompaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecompaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL]

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

imastressedlady

HI all.

I have been having problems with Npower due to my arrears which is my fault. I have racked up £1000 in arrears. Npower passed this over to Richburns who charged me for a visit to my house but they never rang my doorbell. They left a letter stating I need to contact Npower or they will install a prepayment meter. I emailed Npower and Richburns and gave them as much information as possible. Npower replied 2 days ago discussing my options but at no point did they say they were installing a meter. They asked me to call collections. Richburns never replied to my email.

Today they have installed a prepayment meter and it doesn't work as they need to get into my property to purge it and check it. My gas meter is outside so they've put the new meter in. I dont want to let them in to my property.

I have children and am left with no gas supply. I started paying Npower last month and again this month although there was no official payment plan as I simply emailed them to confirm id be paying £40 per month.

They never informed me of the date of visit. Richburns letter just stated they could come after 7 days of their visit last week to install it if i didnt get in touch. What do i do now?

I notified Npower I would be moving out next month and as im staying with family I could increase my payments. Im now worried my landlord may refuse to give me deposit back.

spiro

You now have a PPM so you are going to have to let them in to purge the pipes and put your gas back on. They will not remove it unless you pay the outstanding debt now they have it in.

The LL can not use your deposit to pay off your gas debt but he may be able to use it to pay for the meter to be swapped and this will cost him about £60-100 pounds.

By moving out and having no gas account there will chase you even harder for the money. Have you prepared a statement of finances (in & outs) bearing in mind they would NOT allow you to count things like mobile phone as an outgoings?

boogiemaster

I paid my debts to British gas over sixteen years ago and they still say I fail their credit check. I just think they want to keep you on a token metre so the can screw as much money out of you as possible.

They want to install a token metre to all low paid families so they know they get paid and we pay for our electric and gas up front but you never see our payments on our credit file?

imastressedlady

Spiro, Thank you for your response. I haven't filled out an income and expenditure yet and I haven't been asked to by Npower. What frustrates me is Richburns ignored my email and still continued with installing the meter. That goes against what they've instructed me to do....ive complied by trying to sort this out and responded within the time frame set by them. I told Npower that im leaving my rented accommodation as I simply cannot afford it and will temporarily stay with family. This will help me to increase my payments but they want £105 instead of £40 which is what i have been paying and cannot afford any more until i have moved. It certainly wont be £105 as I have other debts to pay too.

I have children too and I don't even know what payments they are intending to take through the prepayment meter if I get them to connect the gas because if they want £105 at the moment, I can only afford £40 which i've already paid this month.

I really don't know whether to get the gas reconnected as I can't afford to pay for it. I will have to move to my families house sooner than expected. I officially move out in 2 weeks time anyway.

Boogiemaster - I notice many people saying prepayment meters cost more than credit meters. How on earth is that supposed to help people already struggling. Gas is not a luxury, its a necessity. There's not much hope for me if you cant get credit after soo long!!

spiro

PPM charges are typically the same a Pay on Bill Standard Credit Tariff.

Having a PPM helps you in that it limits what a supplier can get you to pay off per week that is why you need the I&O statement. Repayment could be a low as £3.50 per week.