Credit on Prepayment Meters

Mistress_Mabel

Does anyone know how to recoup a credit balance from a pre-payment meter? I'm a prepayment customer for both gas and electricity and I've just switched from NPower to Ovo so I could get smart meters installed sooner rather than later. I checked my NPower accounts online yesterday and today, and they're each stating a credit balance by a substantial amount. They also state "Account Closed" and "Account up to date". Firstly, how can I be in credit when I'm supposed to pay only for what I use? I asked this question a long time ago when I was confused by a credit balance on my bill, and I was told yes it is possible to build up a credit balance and this usually gets taken off what I use going forward. At the time, she blinded me with science and I gave up pondering in the end so really I'm still none the wiser. Secondly, if this is correct, how do I go about getting a refund? I've tried to chat online but as soon as I tell them what I need to chat about and give my account numbers, I'm told I have to be transferred to a member of the prepayment team and I'm then left hanging on for ages and I eventually close the chat window down. I'm prepayment by choice, not because of debt, prepayment suits me, I know where I am and don't get unexpected bills. I should say here that my balances are based on estimates, I never send in a meter reading because I don't know how to read my meter, it doesn't do what NPower's website says it should do, and now my account is closed they won't accept a meter reading online anyway! They told me yesterday that Ovo should send in my meter readings now and that any credit balance will be automatically sent to me, but when I spoke to Ovo today to see how soon they would be doing this, they said that as I'm a prepayment customer they won't be asking for readings and they're not going to be forwarding any readings to NPower on my behalf. Aaaaaaggggh!! There's potentially over £300 in the balance here, what can I do?

nPower

Hello Mistress Mabel

Thank you for your post.

If you would like me to look into this in more detail please email me using the address on our profile page; be sure to mark it for my attention.

Thanks

Neil

Mistress_Mabel wrote: »

Does anyone know how to recoup a credit balance from a pre-payment meter? I'm a prepayment customer for both gas and electricity and I've just switched from NPower to Ovo so I could get smart meters installed sooner rather than later. I checked my NPower accounts online yesterday and today, and they're each stating a credit balance by a substantial amount. They also state "Account Closed" and "Account up to date". Firstly, how can I be in credit when I'm supposed to pay only for what I use? I asked this question a long time ago when I was confused by a credit balance on my bill, and I was told yes it is possible to build up a credit balance and this usually gets taken off what I use going forward. At the time, she blinded me with science and I gave up pondering in the end so really I'm still none the wiser. Secondly, if this is correct, how do I go about getting a refund? I've tried to chat online but as soon as I tell them what I need to chat about and give my account numbers, I'm told I have to be transferred to a member of the prepayment team and I'm then left hanging on for ages and I eventually close the chat window down. I'm prepayment by choice, not because of debt, prepayment suits me, I know where I am and don't get unexpected bills. I should say here that my balances are based on estimates, I never send in a meter reading because I don't know how to read my meter, it doesn't do what NPower's website says it should do, and now my account is closed they won't accept a meter reading online anyway! They told me yesterday that Ovo should send in my meter readings now and that any credit balance will be automatically sent to me, but when I spoke to Ovo today to see how soon they would be doing this, they said that as I'm a prepayment customer they won't be asking for readings and they're not going to be forwarding any readings to NPower on my behalf. Aaaaaaggggh!! There's potentially over £300 in the balance here, what can I do?