MSE News: Prepay for your energy? You could keep today's cheaper rates for a little longer

PennineAcute

Nice to know the criticism I received for saying this was in vain.

I have heard of it being clawed back before - and if one has found a loophole, it is best to keep it to oneself!

doesntnotcompute

CashFunny said:

I managed to get £120.00 on both gas and electricity meters by 31 March.  On 1 April, I checked the gas meter and saw the tariff had been updated to the higher charge (as described in the article).  However the electricity meter remained at the lower tariff. 

I am with SSE for both gas/electricity, and am classified as a low user.  I checked my contract and there seems to be a clause that allows permits them to claim the difference:

13.1 You must top up your meter in advance in order to receive energy from us.  You need to keep your meter topped up to cover your energy charges and any other charges you might owe us (see section 5.2 ‘What other charges might you have to pay?’). If at anytime you pay an amount that’s less than the charges that are due to us, you must pay us the difference. We may collect any difference by adjusting your prepayment meter, unless you agree to make a one-off payment to us. Your meter also needs to be topped up to receive our electronic updates.  Note that you might have to buy a minimum amount of credit each time you top up. 

Source: https://sse.co.uk/asset/pdf/general-terms-conditions-supply-electricity-gas (page 26)

I guess I'll wait to see what happens.

There's this part:

13.13 If we change our pricing in line with section 9 ‘Changing your Contract’, and you have a traditional prepayment meter, you’ll start to be charged at the new rates once you have topped up. If you have a communicating smart meter, you may be charged at the new rates from the time those new prices take effect.

The comparison to a communicating smart meter seems to suggest you'll be fine.

British Gas have similar T&C:

26. If we change our gas or electricity prices, we’ll either read the meter remotely or estimate your meter reading on the date the price changes. If you pay by prepayment, the new price will only be applied to the meter when you next top up and use your card, key or token with the meter.

You can interpret that in different ways I suppose but again there's a distinction made for prepayment meters, any ambiguity should favour the customer in a dispute (I reckon).

Tranboy

Having spoken to a woman at my local co op there was certainly a large amount of money put onto both gas and electricity pre pay keys at the end of march, lets hope it wasn't in vain as many around here also have to visit the foodbanks.