Gas prepayment

TwickersChick

If I put £500 on my gas prepayment meter today, will I pay today’s prices or will the cost still rise in April?

Astria

Your £500 will be used as credit, the price you pay for your energy will still rise in April. You can't purchase energy in advance.

Adviceuk3

But it won't know the correct rate until a new top is done after April?

My understanding is it would stay the same as the rate on the meter but next time you topped up after the change the meter will adjust. However your actual bill which there is one will appear to have a large debit on it and they ask you to pay the difference down the line taking more money off future top ups. That's my understanding. I maybe wrong

wild666

As far as I am aware if the prices increase then you pay the increased price from the date of the increase no matter how much credit you have on the meter.

PennineAcute

If you have a smart meter, the unit price and standing charge change in April will be taken care of automatically.

If you have a key or card prepayment meter, then these changes will only take effect after you top up and put the key/card in the meter.

And there is also usually around a £250/300 limit on the amount of credit you can have on a prepayment meter.

MWT

There is very little definitive information out there, but if you have a smart prepayment meter the prices will be remotely updated as soon as the tariff changes so nothing to be gained from a large top-up with those meters.

Where you have an older key based meter the price changes are loaded onto the key only when you add money to the key after the price change. The price changes are then loaded to the meter when it is used to transfer the payment to the meter, and in some cases it can take more than one top-up cycle to actually update the prices.

I have never seen a documented example of a mechanism to back-date the prices to earlier consumption on the meter, they simply apply to future consumption after the price change has been loaded to the meter.

If anyone plans to do this I would certainly ask your supplier about the price change mechanism before causing yourself any hardship by loading a large amount of money to the meter, just in case. 

minorman

I asked this question a little while ago about non smart key prepayment electricity meters and was shot down by the commentators. .  I now see that Martin has checked on this and in general, providing you are on some form of key prepayment meter which is not a smart one then any electricity purchased before April 2022 at the old rate will not have its rate changed until you recharge your key after 1st April. The rate changes are loaded on to the key to update the meter on this type of meter. There is currently only one supplier (Scottish Power) that thinks this is not OK but they are leaning on them.  SO  Think about doing as much on your key as you can afford or are allowed.  See   https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/02/prepay-for-your-energy--you-could-keep-today-s-cheaper-rates-for/

PaulHun

Very helpful. What would happen if I had significant credit on my non-smart prepayment meter (paid for before a price increase) and the supply company wanted to fit a smart meter. Would I be able to insist that the smart meter was not installed until my credit had been used up?

wild666

PaulHun said:

Very helpful. What would happen if I had significant credit on my non-smart prepayment meter (paid for before a price increase) and the supply company wanted to fit a smart meter. Would I be able to insist that the smart meter was not installed until my credit had been used up?

I would plain refuse to have the meter replaced until the credit was almost used up. IMHO if you top up a smart meter before the first of April you are, IMO, buying the electric, gas, at the cheaper rate so the increase shouldn't happen until that credit is used up.

MWT

wild666 said:

I would plain refuse to have the meter replaced until the credit was almost used up. IMHO if you top up a smart meter before the first of April you are, IMO, buying the electric, gas, at the cheaper rate so the increase shouldn't happen until that credit is used up.

It is an interesting opinion, but with very limited exceptions it is not the case.

I'm not even sure if they are still around, but there was once a gas meter pre-pay system that recorded credits in kWh, but if the meter is showing credit in £ then you have not pre-purchased the energy, you have just put money into a pot to be used for the energy when consumed.

If the supplier has a valid reason for replacing a dumb pre-pay with a smart version then their only obligation is to transfer the credit in £

Marvel1

PaulHun said:

Very helpful. What would happen if I had significant credit on my non-smart prepayment meter (paid for before a price increase) and the supply company wanted to fit a smart meter. Would I be able to insist that the smart meter was not installed until my credit had been used up?

Refuse, I plan too.