Pre-pay...but not pre-pay

Nigbob

Help me please, I'm rather confused.

Last month I was helping my parents (in their late seventies) get the best deal with various outgoings. They told me that they paid for both their gas and electricity by pre-payment card. Not the cheapest I know, but they like to be able to budget.

I switched their gas supplier without any problem, but when I came to switch their electricity to Scottish Power, they emailed me that the meter was not a pre-payment meter after all, but is a credit meter.

My parents pay for the electricity on a card at the Post Office on a weekly basis, as you would for a pre-payment meter, but it appears that they are effectively paying in arrears. I've never heard of this before. What is this called? Do all energy companies offer this facility?

I know my parents won't want to switch to direct debit payments, so when comparing tariffs I need to find something similar.

For what it's worth, they are with E-on and have a smart meter.

Thanks

CashStrapped

You can get a credit meter but just pay on receipt of bill?

They may still come with the cheque at the bottom to manually pay the bill. I have never actually ever used one of those to pay a bill.

The tariff may be a bit better than prepayment, only when to check is to compare both and see what comes up.

Nigbob

CashStrapped wrote: »

You can get a credit meter but just pay on receipt of bill?

They may still come with the cheque at the bottom to manually pay the bill. I have never actually ever used one of those to pay a bill.

The tariff may be a bit better than prepayment, only when to check is to compare both and see what comes up.

No, they don't actually pay the bill-they just load their card at the Post Office, as you would for a pre-payment card, but t's not a pre-payment meter-it's a credit meter. I don't know this is something that you can get on different tariffs and all different suppliers (if which case we may change supplier) or it is some special provision that is not common and they couldn't get everywhere else.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

sounds like they can go in each week and pay what they like towards their bill, and it is credited to their account, be for folks who don't want a DD, or don't have internet, a payment card.

Nigbob

Investigated it a bit further, and it looks like it's a Smart Meter Pay as you Go option, as opposed to a pre-payment

Anthorn

Perhaps check their Scottish Power tariff again. Scottish Power provides the PowerUp tariff which as far as I know is a credit meter where energy is bought in advance in packages but with no facility to pay in arrears. I considered this and nearly went with it but I went with ebico's nil standing charge which saved me £0.1370p per day.

Perhaps it's a case of when is a prepay meter not a prepay meter? When it's PowerUp.

https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/powerupsale.process?execution=e1s1

As far as I know Utilita provides a similar tariff and there may be others.

SpotlandRules

As far as I know., you can only use your mobile to top up SP PU.

Autumnella

It'll just be a payment card they can use to pay the bill and them making weekly payments on it will be their choice. Their actual payment method will be quarterly cash/cheque.

macman

Effectively they are using it as a savings account to save for their quarterly bill. Using DD makes bugetting much easier, as the bill is the same every month
You might also explain to them that the DD guarantee gives 100% safety, with an instant refund from the bank if an unauthorised amount is taken.
Also explain that by refusing to pay by DD, they are unable to access almost all the competitive fixed tariffs, which require a monthly DD.