Bills from a pre pay meter

a41

Wonder if anyone can shed some light here.

Ive been on pre pay meter for years now and have changed suppliers a few times, from BG to PG to NP etc.

At no point in 8 years have we ever been on bill electric payments.

I got a letter from BG on saturday morning saying i owed the £87.24:mad:

Will phone them tommorow but was hoping anyone here would have an idea why this has happened.

Cardew

A pre-payment meter does not mean you have paid the correct rate for the electricity you receive. You contract to pay for electricity at the 'going' rate. If prices increase and your meter is not changed to reflect that increase then you can build up a debit balance.

Normally this is recovered by setting the pre-payment rate above the 'going rate.

This happens many times - a search on here will reveal lots of cases of debits built up on pre-payment meters.

caeler

OMG - slight hijack - my pre pay meter hasn't been changed since June 98 so could I be paying the wrong rate?

SwanJon

Depending on your meter, you can check how much it is charging you for eah kWh & standing charge (so many different meters so can't really say how to do it for yours)
If you have the paper token type meter and no one has been round to reprogram it, you may be asked to pay the difference - three of the big companies will ask for it, the other three won't.
If you have a card or key with a chip, it should have ther right prices.

a41 - does the letter say when the balance was from? it is possible that during the switches, the payments kept going to the old company (misdirected payments), leading to the balance on your account. If this is the case they should chase the payments direct. Also may be worth checking your readings for openinig and closing accoutns are realistic.

caeler

SwanJon wrote: »

If you have a card or key with a chip, it should have ther right prices.

Yes I have a card with a chip.

Thanks for the info.