N-power and Prepayment Meters

rachelnx

Hi. Looking for some advice.

We got into some trouble with our energy bills after I lost my job last year. They installed prepayment meters in October and told me that the debt would come off of them. I got a bill last week for Electricity, so I phoned and queried it. The next day I got a letter saying that the debt had switched over to the meters. We borrowed the money to pay off the debt owing and I phoned to pay it off so that we could change back to credit meters. Both myself and my husband are physically disabled and for some reason the shops locally will only let us put on £20 at a time. This was one of the main reasons for wanting the credit meters back. I also worked out how much we were overpaying to keep the credit meters. The woman that i spoke to at Npower said that only the gas meter had the debt on it but that the debt hadn't transferred over yet, so I could have my electric meter changed but not my gas one. She then told me that we had to have the gas prepayment meter for 12 months after the debt was paid off. She said it was policy. I then spent a very long time on their website looking for said policy document and couldn't find anything that confirmed this, nor any kind of policy document.
Can someone tell me if this is right? I thought that once the debt is paid then getting a credit meter back wouldn't be a problem. At least this was what I was told at the time!
Any help would be much appreciated

[Deleted User]

Just switch both supplies from Npower to EDF if that is Npowers "policy " sounds a bit dubious tho.. EDF have a better record at changing meters for free with a less stringent credit check, you are allowed to change supplier with up to £500 on each prepayment meter. You dont want to be lumbered too long with any prepays when you can go 33% cheaper on credit meters. Robin Hood Energy seem to have the best prepayment meter rates.
British Gas and Eon will also credit check for prepay removal.
The debt screens on gas prepay are 26/27, electric is screen "S" .These screens have to have card/key inserted to view them

SwanJon

As above, it does seem odd - especially as they seem to be treating electricity differently to gas.
Ultimately though no company has to give you credit if they don't want to.

Look through the MSE article:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/switch-prepaid-gas-electricity

rachelnx

Thank you both for your advice. I'll wait until they've changed the electric over and move company. It just makes me cross that the debt is paid off but they continue to keep me tied into a prepayment meter with the extra costs it brings.