Bulb denied my £250 top up.

Christoffelofalus

So I pulled together what I could into a pot in order to buffer against the energy price hikes.  I topped up my prepay key with £250 but it wouldn't transfer to my meter. 
I contacted bulb, they asked for photos of receipts and meter readings and then went silent via email.  I don't hear anything from them via email time and again after getting through via webchat but today I got this;   Confirming Prepay will not carry over.     

Not exactly eloquent here but I'm so angry.  

Christoffelofalus

I should say this has been over a period of 4 days.  Only now have they confirmed they're not willing to transfer money to my meter OR honour pre-hike prices

LindsayT

Below, I have copied and pasted this from Bulb's website on their help pages but it does sound like they are not honouring pre-hike prices from your conversation with them.

Your electricity meter can hold up to a total of £255, as can your electricity key. This means at any one time you can have a maximum of £510 on your meter and key.

Gas meters have no limit, so you can top up as much as you like.

For electricity meters, you can top up from £5, and with gas from as little as £1.

When topping up either a key or card, make sure the receipt says the credit was accepted and keep a hold of it, just in case you need it for future reference.

GingerTim

Martin said this loophole exploit was 'most likely to work' with suppliers including Bulb, not that it definitely would.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/03/martin-lewis--warning-the--top-up-prepay-meters-before-april--tr/

Christoffelofalus

LindsayT said:

Below, I have copied and pasted this from Bulb's website on their help pages but it does sound like they are not honouring pre-hike prices from your conversation with them.

Your electricity meter can hold up to a total of £255, as can your electricity key. This means at any one time you can have a maximum of £510 on your meter and key.

Gas meters have no limit, so you can top up as much as you like.

For electricity meters, you can top up from £5, and with gas from as little as £1.

When topping up either a key or card, make sure the receipt says the credit was accepted and keep a hold of it, just in case you need it for future reference.

They can easily transfer digits to my meter. I've seen it done.  That would be pointless given they're not honouring a carry-over though.

newlywed

So glad I always top up the meter in £50 batches. If the meter has a maximum amount it can deal with, then your key credit transferring over would exceed the maximum amount.  So it won’t take the money on your key until the total wont exceed the maximum. On another thread someone said the meter can’t take part of the amount on the key.

Nothing to do with rate changes.

and if it does work with Bulb (nothing is certain), then you putting the key in after you have used existing credit on the meter shouldn’t trigger a price rise (if it’s electricity not gas). 

According to Martins first article on this, It’s when you buy new credit on your key that the rates are likely to be updated in the meter, not when you put your key in.

jimjames

Christoffelofalus said:

I should say this has been over a period of 4 days.  Only now have they confirmed they're not willing to transfer money to my meter OR honour pre-hike prices

If the maximum meter value is £250 then it's not surprising that trying to add more than £250 doesn't work.

MattMattMattUK

Christoffelofalus said:

I should say this has been over a period of 4 days.  Only now have they confirmed they're not willing to transfer money to my meter OR honour pre-hike prices

You cannot top up over the maximum amount (£255) and there is nothing to do with "honouring" pre-hike prices, those prices were never legitimately allowed to be carried over past 1st April, it just so happens that in some cases there may have been a loophole. You tried to game the system, you failed, that is life. 

facade

The meter can't hold more than £255, so wait until it goes to below £5 and try again. You may get the rate when you bought the credit.

If you'd put £200 on the key, it would have gone straight in, then you could have put the remaining £50 on the key, but too late for that now

Marvel1

It is true, wait until meter goes zero then use the key, the key holds today's rate, not tomorrow's.  It will update rates when the key is used at the shop from tomorrow.

MattMattMattUK

Marvel1 said:

It is true, wait until meter goes zero then use the key, the key holds today's rate, not tomorrow's.  It will update rates when the key is used at the shop from tomorrow.

However some suppliers have said that when the key is next used after a top up it will retrospectively apply the new rates (back dated to 01/04), a few will get away with it, but the majority of people trying to game the system will fail.