electricity card meter

mark3528

we recently bought a house needing a total refurb, it has a card type meter showing a £40 debt, there is no power to lights or sockets, i would like to get on with some work at night, where would i get a card to get some power from the meter, i probably sound like a right numptie but i have always just had a bill and have no experience of these type of meters

thanks for any advice, mark.

thesaint

You need the account number.

Is their a 'credit' type card anywhere, or a till receipt with the account number?

Call the electric board and order a new one.

mark3528

are they all credit card type pre-pay jobbies or are there some that accept cardboard type pre-pay voucher type things?

thesaint

You use the 'Credit' card card to purchase the paper cards.

Some accept plastic 'keys'.

Doozergirl

Call the electricity board, ask them to reinstate the electric and for a new key/card.

We needed electric straight away so ended up forking out for a call out fee which they took from the meter. I can't remember if they cleared the old debt or not. I think they did.

I believe that once you have kept the meter in credit for four weeks or so, you can have it changed to a normal bill meter

merlinthehappypig

Doozergirl wrote: »

Call the electricity board, ask them to reinstate the electric and for a new key/card.

We needed electric straight away so ended up forking out for a call out fee which they took from the meter. I can't remember if they cleared the old debt or not. I think they did.

I believe that once you have kept the meter in credit for four weeks or so, you can have it changed to a normal bill meter

Good advice, but I'd just add the following, having had a key meter when we moved into the rental we have at present.

Get something in writing about them removing the debt or you are likely to end up paying it back, especially if you decide to change providers early on. If it isn't sorted the first £40 you put on the key could be swallowed up by the debt or you might find yourself being deducted £5 a week until it is paid off.

Make sure that you use a key for the current provider - they are supposed to sort it out between them if you use a different key, but not in our experience!

As Doozergirl says you can change to a normal meter at no charge after a month or so, but we had to agree to pay by direct debit as we were previously customers with someone else (they didn't actually set it up anyway, but we agreed to it)

Sammy85_2

We recently helped our brother move into his new house. The previous occupants had been on a meter and had left it in debt!
We rang the gas board up and they told us to go to the local shop and get a new customer card, which cost a quid. We rang up and registered it and when inserted it cleared the meter. Then we could put in the £10 card we'd bought before and it worked!
The electricity meter was a similar thing. Just had to find the shop the the PP sign in the window!

Perhaps yours is a similar thing?

Evee2000

You need to ask to have the meter 'reset'. They will make an a appointment to come out, update the meter and will send you a new card/plastic key in the post. You do not want to be paying off someone elses debt!