New Home, Prepayment Meter in Place, What to do?

ItsOnlyMe_2

Hi there,

Hope someone can help, can't use phone at present to contact anyone. We have just moved into a new house and it has a prepayment electricity meter (Scottish and Southern), with about £6.00 on it. We have a bit of work to do and don't want this to run out on us!

Now how do we go about adding more credit? I was told that we need some kind of card to buy tokens.
Where can we get this card from?
Do we need any information on the meter itself (meter number or something) before we can get this card?

Also is it free to request that the supply is changed to credit supply with monthly bills?

Thanks for reading,

Badger_Lady

Hia - I just moved into a new home with a pre-pay gas meter, same situation :-)

I called the company, and they arranged to come and change the meter for free.

Because it was a couple of weeks to wait, I had to charge up the card in the meantime.

If yours is a key / car meter (as opposed to coins), you can order a new one from your provider to be posted out to you (check there isn't already something there). Then take it to your local newsagents and ask to charge it up. If they look at you blankly, you'll have to try asking a neighbour (unless anyone knows of an easy way to find out where you can charge meters???).

ItsOnlyMe_2

thanks badger lady.

I've just had a thought after reading some other posts here. How do I tell if it is a card prepayment meter or if it is a token prepayment meter, or do these two things not exist, is it just one type but me reading posts wrong? Sorry as you can guess I am a bit confused.

newlywed

Badger_Lady wrote: »

If yours is a key / car meter (as opposed to coins), you can order a new one from your provider to be posted out to you (check there isn't already something there). Then take it to your local newsagents and ask to charge it up. If they look at you blankly, you'll have to try asking a neighbour (unless anyone knows of an easy way to find out where you can charge meters???).

It's usually a newsagents etc with some sort of Paypoint sign outside that can charge them up - although different places do different cards/keys.

Our local place is the video shop (not the newsagents in the same parade of shops), local to my work it's the small corner shop with post office

Badger_Lady

ItsOnlyMe wrote: »

thanks badger lady.

I've just had a thought after reading some other posts here. How do I tell if it is a card prepayment meter or if it is a token prepayment meter, or do these two things not exist, is it just one type but me reading posts wrong? Sorry as you can guess I am a bit confused.

Your supplier should be able to tell you - they'll have a record of which meter is installed. If you've had one before, you can tell from looking at the "slot", but it's all a bit alien the first time!

Give them a call and explain - they'll sort you out :cool:

newlywed

Our electricity meter has a little blue key the same as shown here:-
http://www.edfenergy.com/edf-energy/showPage.do?name=homeenergy.prepayment.needtoknow.til

Our gas meter has a credit card size slot with an arrow pointing to where you slide it in.

Not sure if that helps any

ItsOnlyMe_2

thanks for replies. eventually got access to the phone and phoned teh company. They gave me a long number that allows me to buy tokens until my card arrives.

LuciferTDark

Almost any shop that has a Paypoint machine can sort you out. I'm lucky enough to have 3 within walking distance. Your local paper shop or nearest petrol station should have it.

Joyful

Most important- Take a meter reading and keep it in a safe place! Also if you get the meter exchanged take a note of all exchange details in case of problems.

Terrylw1

Yeah, they have given you a PAN number. This identifies your payments that go to your account. You can get the cards from the paypoint shops by asking them for a new card. Then get some cash on it.

Make sure you have started your account with the Supplier with readings that you have taken or you will have to live with estimates.

If it's a Smartpower card meter, they could easily take a Snapshot. On the Smartpower meters they also get a reading off your meter each time to buy credit which makes them easy enough to manage.

If it's a standard TK meter, you can use the payment card. Again, you can get these at the paypoints.

If you ask for a meter change to credit, it is usually free (but a Supplier can do what they want on that) and it takes 20mins to do. Make sure you have taken the removal readings & installed readings. Don't rely on the meter man at all, they can write them on wrong or lose them leaving you with big problems later.