Utilita Not Clear About Intention to Fit A Pre-Payment Meter

bonus2010

Utilita Not Clear About Intention to Fit A Pre-Payment Meter

I’m glad to say I’ve switched away from Utilita, so none of this will affect me now, but it is a concern should other suppliers follow a similar practice given that I’m always ready to switch to a cheaper tariff when I can.

I’ve been an ex-failed Our Power customer whose energy supply was taken over by Utilita Energy on 31st January. During my brief spell with them, I’ve had several emails and letters where they’ve wanted to fit a “smart meter”.

I don’t object to smart meters, so I took it they were just wanting to fit their own smart meter due to communication issues they would have with my already fitted Smets1 Scottish Power meter.

However, I managed to read the reverse of one of their letters that I received today (they surely don’t know I’ve left yet) and amongst the usual information of advising to ensure there’s access for the engineer to fit the meter and keeping children safe etc, it is squeezed in between these paragraphs that it is a pre-payment meter they’re fitting.

I’ve always been a credit customer and I would strongly object to a pre-payment meters ever being fitted, in fact when I’ve moved house, I’ve always had pre-payment meters removed where they’ve been installed. Not just that, I understand that many people have had issues when attempting to switch supplier when having pre-payment meters than one would have with a credit meter.

I usually pay by DD, but with Our Power they didn’t charge extra if you decided to pay on receipt of their monthly bill which I preferred but it would seem to me that with Utilita they believe that because I preferred using bill payment method with Our Power, I should have a pre-payment meter.

I don’t object to Utilita wanting to fit pre-payment meters because I know I’ve got the option to leave such suppliers but what I do object to is Utilita’s deceitful tactics by not making it very clear in bold underlined text on their front page of their correspondence that something as important as a pre-payment meter is to be fitted.

Actually, it’s similar to their other deceitful tactic of shouting loudly that they have no standing charge but failing to highlight that they most probably have the most expensive tariff for the first two kilowatts of energy used in the UK, if not the world!


Here's the letter (whether the link will work here, I don't know)
http://i66.tinypic.com/2pozeh5.jpg

(link with spaces)
http: //i66. tinypic. com /2pozeh5. jpg

[Deleted User]

Utilita now only use smart Secure Liberty meters .These can be set in either credit or prepayment meter mode.if you qualify for credit meter status . with a credit history check then you could have a credit meter.
Customers have the right to refuse a smart meter.
Yes, the no standing charge does sound like a bit of a con but any comparison site would reveal the true costs of suppliers offering a no standing charge or the more complex tariffs involving a set number of kwhs used first

PennineAcute

Yes, very sly and underhand tactics. Luckily, Utilita update the national database with credit smart meter. Most others update the national database with prepay smart meter.

Moving, to pay monthly, when your national database reading is prepay smart meter is very difficult. When I moved from OVO (prepay) to Scottish Power, SP said you cannot move as you have prepay meters. I told them that I had just had my meters installed (was not a lie, they were installed 6 months previously). Luckily, SP said that they would override.

So, sometimes, companies doing this, would take pay monthly opportunities away from people.

And for the record, Utilita are very expensive and (if you look at their facebook page) are terrible to be with.