Can you be in debt on a pre payment meter?

tommoj

My mum’s energy provider went bust a while ago (peoples energy)

After they went bust they sent her a final bill saying she was £100 in debit at the time. This came as a surprise as she has been on a pre payment meter ever since she moved into the property a few years ago.

Can this bill possibly be correct? I thought it wouldn’t be possible to be in £100 debit on a pre payment meter.

She’s just started receiving letters from a debt collection agency about it. They obviously aren’t bothered about the circumstances they’re just there to collect a debt. People’s energy have been uncontactable since they sent the original letter, presumably because they don’t exist any more.

MWT

It is possible, but if it wasn't a debt that was added to the meter from a time before she was on Pre-Pay then it tends to happen when someone is regularly using the emergency credit and allowing the standing charges to build up, but then not topping up enough to clear the debt in full...

It is also possible that it is a mistake, so I'd be inclined to ask for proof that the amount is owed...

wild666

If your mother topped up regularly and never used any emergency credit it would be hard to see how she could be in debt. As MWT says ask them to prove any debt exists because if she never used any emergency credit and topped up say weekly then the only debt might be about £1 to £1.50 if the meter wasn't topped up for a week after the April increase and the meter hasn't taken the 20p plus per day for the, up to 7 days that the new SC was in force plus any difference in the price per kWh this could also be as little as a couple of pounds.

SAC2334

Its very possible to very much in debt. I ve seen as much as £9000 but £2000 was more common.

 These are from debts added at an earlier date for a few reasons such as none payment of a credit meter bill , theft of gas and electric or failing to pay the daily standing charges .

Only real way is go into the prepay menu and look at the two debt and debt repay screens . " screens S and T on the old prepayment electric meter.
Daily standing charge debt will show on screen A as a negative sign or possibly "owed " on the screen next to the £?
£100 owed would be equivalent of not topping up over approx. 200 days at 48 pence a day standing charge

pochase

SAC2334 said:

Its very possible to very much in debt. I ve seen as much as £9000 but £2000 was more common.

 These are from debts added at an earlier date for a few reasons such as none payment of a credit meter bill , theft of gas and electric or failing to pay the daily standing charges .

Only real way is go into the prepay menu and look at the two debt and debt repay screens . " screens S and T on the old prepayment electric meter.
Daily standing charge debt will show on screen A as a negative sign or possibly "owed " on the screen next to the £?
£100 owed would be equivalent of not topping up over approx. 200 days at 48 pence a day standing charge

Would that still be visible after the supplier change, and the supplier chasing the money direct by debt collector? I would assume you can only have either the debt on the meter and repaying there or with a debt collector.

SAC2334

pochase said:

SAC2334 said:

Its very possible to very much in debt. I ve seen as much as £9000 but £2000 was more common.

 These are from debts added at an earlier date for a few reasons such as none payment of a credit meter bill , theft of gas and electric or failing to pay the daily standing charges .

Only real way is go into the prepay menu and look at the two debt and debt repay screens . " screens S and T on the old prepayment electric meter.
Daily standing charge debt will show on screen A as a negative sign or possibly "owed " on the screen next to the £?
£100 owed would be equivalent of not topping up over approx. 200 days at 48 pence a day standing charge

Would that still be visible after the supplier change, and the supplier chasing the money direct by debt collector? I would assume you can only have either the debt on the meter and repaying there or with a debt collector.

Supplier change will not take the debt off the meter as you re allowed to switch (or I assume to be taken over  by a SOLR )  with I think its a max of £500 debt  on the prepayment meter .

pochase

You are the expert here, so I believe you.

I am just confused that it seems that the debt is in two places now, with the debt collector and on the meter. Wouldn't the new supplier start to collect the debt if it is on the meter? Just trying to understand how this is working.

brewerdave

Never had a prepayment meter ...but I seem to remember that "old" ppms had to have new tariffs entered manually for cost increases - if the meter hadn't been updated could the charges have arisen as a result of the difference owed ??

SAC2334

pochase said:

You are the expert here, so I believe you.

I am just confused that it seems that the debt is in two places now, with the debt collector and on the meter. Wouldn't the new supplier start to collect the debt if it is on the meter? Just trying to understand how this is working.

I m certainly no expert on when suppliers get debt collectors involved.
I ve never met any in my 20 years on the job 

. Eon I know had some of their meter readers going round to visit people who were in debts on credit meters but only as debt advisors to help in future management.
Prepay meters always collected the  debts owed on credit meters and we re going to get hundreds of thousands of these installed this winter I expect 

. The meters  do get fiddled though even more once a big debt is loaded  so that is where a supplier would contract out a debt collector possibly
 .£100 is such a small debt its not enough to even think about selling debts to outside sources 

Sea_Shell

pochase said:

You are the expert here, so I believe you.

I am just confused that it seems that the debt is in two places now, with the debt collector and on the meter. Wouldn't the new supplier start to collect the debt if it is on the meter? Just trying to understand how this is working.

I'm with you....confused!!

If this debt is now in the hands of debt collectors (sold on?) surely the debt should be removed from the meter, and "reset".

If the debt was paid to these people, how does that then get removed from the meter?