Electricity Meters

katangel26

Hi all.

When I moved into my house nearly 4 years ago, there was a pre-pay meter in the property for my electricity.

One of my friends who also has one that lives about five minutes from me, has told me that he used to get some sort of payment back like once every year from his electricity company. He's not really explained what this money was that he got refunded but insisted that I should have had some money returned to me.

Is this right?

I also still get blokes that come round to read my electric meter, when I've asked them why they still need to read it as I pay for what I use and don't billed, they didn't seem to know that answer (none of them! And I ask practically all of them as it seems pointless to me!).

Is this merely their way of making sure nothing dodgy is going on here? I don't have much knowledge with meters like this (although I've used one for almost four years!).

Thanks, Kate x

Cardew

They are checking that 'nothing dodgy' is going on amongst other things.

You need to appreciate that you are not necessarily paying for what you get.

You pay whatever the ‘going rate’ is for your pre-payment tariff. That means when prices increase as they have done a lot over the past 4 years you can find yourself paying less than this ‘going rate’ and can be getting yourself into debt(without you knowing about it of course).

The meter can be adjusted to the new increased rate and they can add a bit to recover what you owe.

To give a simple example, the price of electricity might go up from 9p to 10p a unit. If your meter has not been adjusted you will carry on paying 9p a unit and will build up a debt of 1p for every unit you use. So when it is reset it will go to 11p a unit and you will be, in effect, paying back 1p for every unit you use.

If you read through this forum you will find a lot of people with pre-payment meters have moved house, or changed suppliers and have found themselves having to pay £hundreds because their meter had not been set properly.

If prices fall, as they did earlier this year, the opposite could happen and you be paying too much for your electricty and you could be building up a credit if your meter was set too high

I suppose your friend could have been on some tariff where he got some kind of annual rebate. However I have not heard of this in recent years - my Gran used to get a rebate from the shillings she put in the meter!

katangel26

Thanks Cardew, I'm now in the know lol

taxi97w

Cardew wrote: »

If you read through this forum you will find a lot of people with pre-payment meters have moved house, or changed suppliers and have found themselves having to pay £hundreds because their meter had not been set properly.

And others who have fought this slip-shod approach and haven't had to pay back anything.
It's always good to give the full story.

Cardew

taxi97w wrote: »

And others who have fought this slip-shod approach and haven't had to pay back anything.
It's always good to give the full story.

The OP has not been charged anything; I was merely illustrating the principle that the tariff charged does not always correspond with the setting on the meter.

It is also pertinent to state that some companies(not all) will in future not charge an increased rate until the meter has been correctly set.

There is widespread agreement that the system of charging on prepayment meters is, as you put it, “slip-shod”. Nevertheless it is still allowed by the Regulator.

Many have had to pay off debit balances incurred in this manner. After all not everyone has the same special relationship with Energywatch as you apparently enjoy. A relationship which enables them to threaten to “initiate a prosecution against a company” on your behalf for a practice that Energywatch themselves specifically sanction.

taxi97w

It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered. ~Aeschylus

stewie_griffin

taxi97w wrote: »

And others who have fought this slip-shod approach and haven't had to pay back anything.
It's always good to give the full story.

Which in the long run will mean the respective companies profits are less and therefore everybody's prices are increased to make up for this.

taxi97w

stewie_griffin wrote: »

Which in the long run will mean the respective companies profits are less and therefore everybody's prices are increased to make up for this.

Not necessarily.

I'm with Ebico now, who have no fat cat execs syphoning most of the profits. They are an ethical organisation, not a company.

If you choose to deal with rogues and theives, then yes it most probably will cost you more.

cattie

Back in the olden days of slot meters the utility companies would give a rebate when the meter was emptied. But this is back in the dark ages when I was a child & remember how happy my mother was to receive her pile of rebated coins.

I have a friend who has prepayment meters, but never heard her mention of getting any kind of rebate such as your friend is suggesting you should get.

SPANIEL36

i've recently moved over to power-gen, they were 60 quid cheaper a year compared to n-power and they gave me 500 points at tesco for joinging, also every time i top up my pre-payment card, i earn point on what i spend

Horace

Talking about meters how about this for a right old pigs ear? I moved into my flat in August 06 and made my landlord put in an electricity meter (he had refurbed the flats), he did so and told me that I had to pay Scottish Power. Everything was fine until they put new cabling in and moved the meters to a cupboard in the basement - you might think that this is ok.

I had a shock last Friday when some chap from NPower came to cut off the power to one of the flats (they'd done a flit and not paid), he asked me which meter in the cupboard was mine and I showed him as it clearly marked with a brown luggage tag and showed him part of my bill which shows the meter number. He then explained that I was actually paying someone else's bill because the twit that had fitted the meters had gotten them all mixed up. I was paying Flat 7's bill and mine (although the socket said Flat 5) was marked Flat 3 and he claimed that I then owed NPower wads of cash. It would appear that every tenant is paying the wrong bill and the wrong company (some are NPower, some British Gas and some Scottish Power).

Scottish Power's answer is to pay all the monies paid to them by me to NPower and tell me to re-apply for their power when it is sorted out. NPower are doing their best and it will take time to sort out and Energywatch have registered my complaint which is currently on hold whilst this sorry business is sorted.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?