How do prepaid meters work?

cslogg

I will not go into the whole story as its long and convulted but earlier this week i was informed that i have an outstanding electric bill for £400 for my flat that has been empty since November.
It has a prepaid meter and last month it read -£70 so i topped it up so it was in credit.The readings have been estimated for some time si i understand they will not be that accurate.My question is how can I owe so much ion what is a pay as you go meter?What am i being charged for?

[Deleted User]

Standing charges. That minus £70 is all daily standing charges, approx £1.80 a week. If the meter is nt credited fairly often then the , say, 28p a day starts to add up..hence the shock when you start paying again.
We all pay standing charges, one or two suppliers do charge a zero rate but have very high unit prices. I don t think any PAYG supplier now offers zero standing charges, a couple offer it on credit meters
Not sure why any supplier would need to estimate PAYG meters. The reading for electric key meter is on screen "G ".All the info is on the other screens including debts on S and T. Tariff price is shown clearly