Changing supplier and meter reads

dave_dph

My moms electricity switches from Ebico to British Gas Click 3 today but we are somewhat confused by how BG are going to obtain a meter read. Their welcome letter states "We will not contact you for a meter read when you join BG as we will obtain this from your current supplier. We will only contact you for a reading if your current supplier is unable to do so."

Is this standard procedure now? In the past we have always provided meter readings to the new supplier who in turn have passed them to the old supplier.

Ken68

Don't suppose it matters, as long as both companies have the same reading. Anyway the final final readings might well be estimated to match in with the exact date of switch over.
Powergen did this when I moved to Ebico. Done me out of a fiver.

stewie_griffin

It's normally the responsibility of the new supplier to obtain the opening meter readings. These are then passed to the meter readers for validation before being sent to both suppliers to ensure the readings follow on from each other and to make sure you are not double billed. If BG don't get actual readings then the meter readers will estimate a reading for them. This will also delay the final bill being sent from her old supplier.

Terrylw1

Hi,

There is no need for them to obtain a reading, but suppliers alsways ask you to provide a handover reading because it's going to be much more accurate for you on both sides.

If no reading is provided (and you have a short timeframe to provide it) the appointed Data Collector responsible for readings taken from your meter will obtain your energy history based on the meter (not you so if there has been 2 customers living there in the last 12 months, it won't take into account any fluctuaction between 2 customers), then they will create an estimate.

The estimate is then sent to your new supplier, also it is sent to the old appointed Data Collector, who will pass it onto your old supplier.

Hope that helps.

Try and get your reading to them, it will speed your bill up and prevent future problems. Remember that estimates are always a bad thing.

Whenever you move home or change suppliers you should always take gas/electric readings to cut down on later hassle if you are disputing your bills.

dave_dph

Thanks for the replies! I can't understand why British Gas have told her not to provide a meter reading, maybe it will be best to phone one through just in case.

SwanJon

Stewie's right - it used to be that the incoming supplier would get the reading, either from the customer or ,as Terry says, from the DC. As this relied heavily on the customer there were many more DC estimates.
Sometime at the start of this year there seems to have been an agreement for outgoing supplier to provide a read to incoming supplier.
Think the theory is that they have a recent history and can get a better estimate.
By asking you not to call it reduces the calls in the queue.
I'd take a reading just in case and compare it to the one they use.
So long as they both use the same reading, it shouldn't make a big difference, but if it is big enough to bother you, ask them to change it.

Terrylw1

If a reading isn't provided after a certain period of time, the Suppliers can insert one under the new NOSI process. I can't remember if this is just over failed disputes though. It wil be on the Ofgem site somewhere though.

Interesting in the DC case, the new DC gets the last 12 months energy history to produce the estimate. the odl DC is not allowed to, even in a dispute.

You should always take a reading when changing suppliers or property, even if you don't send it in as it will help you tackle disputes over incorrect bills later.

You can always submit a redaing when you get your first bill to get it to level up. If you notice the closing reading to be higher than the current reading on your meter, be careful as your redaings may keep advancign ahead of your meter and you will end up overpaying until you submit a reading.

If it's a little bit ahead, it won't matter much but if it's a lot you should get your new supplier to look into correcting the change of supply reading.

Always take your reads and you won't go wrong. The reason suppliers & DC's (and the DC tends to be more accurate than the supplier since they always see the energy values, not the supplier poor estimates) get them wrong is due to lack of reading data, so try to submit your own readings when you get your bill and things will be much smoother even when they estimate you since they will take your submitted reads into consideration