£150 charge to have meter changed

undertaker

My son just bought his first property. The place has a prepayment meter. He doesnt want this in case it goes off when he's in mid download so he called Scottish Power and they said it would be £150 to have the meter changed.

I think this is rediculous... he's a new customer who wants to go on direct debit, a good catch for the company, and first thing they want to do is charge him

I've suggested he calls other suppliers to see if any will change meter for free..... does anyone know if that might be the case ?

SwanJon

A few do, but might credit check first, or ask for a deposit which will be returned. British Gas do this.
There is a thread somewhere that has other companies on it too.

olly300

EDF, this year, and South Energy have in the past changed prepayment meters for me free of charge when I've moved into properties.

I suggest your son changes energy supplier to one of these, which you can do with a prepayment meter, and then after about a month asks them to change the meter. All together this may take 3 months but least the meter will be changed for free.

(After bililng cycle he can then change to someone else.)

Pixie28

Scottish Power do not "charge" to exchange a prepayment meter to a credit meter. However, they do request a deposit of £125.00 which is refunded back to the customer after one year, as long as there is no amount outstanding on the Electric/Gas account for that year.

If the customer has a previous account with Scottish Power for atleast a year, then the meter exchange is done without the request of a deposit.

Terrylw1

It should have been explained to him that this is a security deposit. It doesn't cost anywhere near that anyway to pay for an engineer to do the job (from a Supplier's point of view)

If he's just moved in they have no real payment history to check him so they have to rely on a credit check instead.

Think of it another way. Once the meter has been changed, he can switch to another Supplier with his credit meter getting better rates. After the switch has completed, he gets his £150 straight back. As long as he pays his bills on time, they won't object to his switch and they won't care about losing him as they will transfer the risk of a PP-Crd changed customer to the new Supplier.

Whilst they hold onto it for a year while he's their customer, they cannot hold onto it once he has switched.

Think outside of the box.

undertaker

Thanks very much for info. Very hhelpful. I will pass on to the laddie.