Trying to get rid of a prepayment meter

Johnwilson

I’m completely at the end of my tether and don’t know what else to do.

I moved into a new property supplied by Scottish Power in September. After I arrived I discovered it had an electricity prepayment meter which is hugely inconvenient and costs far more than I’ve ever paid for electricity before.

I asked for them to change it, there were weeks of delaying tactics then several days where they promised to do it came and went, with me taking time off work and nobody turning up. They then told me they were overwhelmed and wouldn’t be changing any more meters for at least 6 months and there’s nothing I could do.

I tried to change supplier. British Gas set a date for me to change and I had an appointment for someone to change the meter on the same day. The day came and went and nobody turned up. I’ve been through various layers of their customer service/complaint team, they wanted to take over my supply first and only then would they organise a date to change meters. 2 dates when they’ve told me they’re going to take over the supply have come and gone, and only today have they told me that they can’t take over the supply as they don’t deal with supplies that have 2 MPAN numbers. (They’ve known about this since before Christmas).

I don’t know why I have 2 MPANs, I understand this is for storage heaters but I have gas heating.

Every time I ring Scottish Power or British Gas about this I have to start my story again from the beginning and spend hours on the phone getting nowhere.

I just want rid of the damned prepayment meter and I have no idea what else I can do. Does anybody have any suggestions?

sevenhills

Johnwilson wrote: »

I just want rid of the damned prepayment meter and I have no idea what else I can do. Does anybody have any suggestions?

I had pre-payment metres about 10 years ago, I had to pay £100 to get standard metres.

PennineAcute

I was on prepay. Got smart meters installed and then moved over to pay monthly. Best move I made.

[Deleted User]

We are all paying more for electricity now except those who got really good yearly or two yearly fixes up to last July.
Prepayment meter tariffs are now lower than suppliers standard variable rates..Due to rise in April.
Try switching to EDF. They have a reputation for being completely bonkers and accepting people with poor credit history to switch to credit meters.

Thomas_Edison

Oof, 2 MPAN's and prepayment meters, most suppliers wouldn't touch you with a barge pole I'm afraid.

You can however 'lawyer up', 2 MPAN's normally means restricted meters and suppliers have to accept you on an accomodation tariff, normally just a standard single rate tariff. Do you also have 2 meters?

https /www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-market-investigation-restricted-meters-order-2016