Electricity prepay meter credit top up

Rodent94

I have a British gas  prepay meter and currently have credit bought pre April

I want to top up before October,

Problem is I don’t know how much credit can be stored on the meter

Or the keyfob

I am a senior so I will getting 6 payments  of £66 per month and a £140 or more warm discount via the keyfob

If I top up £100 credit before October, how will I able to put it all on the meter.

I only use about £270 a year

MWT

Rodent94 said:

I only use about £270 a year

If that is £270 at pre-April prices, the amount you use is going to go up considerably...

You do have a problem though with your plan to top-up again at pre-October prices, especially if your meter is still using the pre-April credit...

With your level of consumption you are not going to be able to use the vouchers you are going to receive before they expire, so you will have to see if you can get them re-issued when that happens... no idea how long you can do that for though...

Rodent94

MWT said:

Rodent94 said:

I only use about £270 a year

If that is £270 at pre-April prices, the amount you use is going to go up considerably...

You do have a problem though with your plan to top-up again at pre-October prices, especially if your meter is still using the pre-April credit...

With your level of consumption you are not going to be able to use the vouchers you are going to receive before they expire, so you will have to see if you can get them re-issued when that happens... no idea how long you can do that for though...

I forgot to say it’s a electricity  meter.

At the moment I am paying £021.64 pence a Kwh

And £001.95 a week standing charge

It seem to be going up to 34p Kwh

And £3.75 standing charge

That’s if I have read the meter correct, could not find anything about the meter via google

Or the British Gas site.

It seems I will be paying 50% extra, which will take it to £400.

Luckily or unluckily I only have £10 credit left. So I have a couple days to decide how much to put on.

If British Gas can somehow credit my meter instead of a fob voucher, it will wipe out the pre October  tariff.

I still don’t know how much credit the meter holds and if is it wise to keep the extra credit on the keyfob.

MWT

The choice is yours of course, but given your very low use, and the size of the vouchers heading your way, it really doesn't seem to make much sense to be trying the game the system by pre-purchasing more than you need in the short term to avoid the next tariff increase and hence complicate your handling of the vouchers...

Rodent94

Gaming the system or not, I still have the problem, that I dont know how much credit the meter holds, or can find out, British Gas don't answer  the phone, and I cant find the meter on google search only photos of it.

and sometime in the future,maybe January 2023, I probaby will not be able to top it up.

This is something British Gas hasnt thought out. mind you there will only be very few people like me in this situation

MWT

As far as I can see, PayZone says that a BG key meter will hold up to £249 on the meter.

Just keep in mind that you need enough room to add an entire voucher or the credit on the key for example, you can't transfer part of the credit on the key, or use part of a voucher.

Rodent94

Thanks for that.

I thought is was a bit lower,but I can see some people getting in a mess, trying to add the monthly £66 and the warm £140 discount payment to the meter if they already had a lot of credit . I think it will need MSE looking into and a solution has to be found.

Who knows we may even get more vouchers come Friday.I suppose  changing vouchers to a bank account or payg smart meters will be the option. Cant see them exchanging for cash

Mobtr

Rodent94 said:

Thanks for that.

I thought is was a bit lower,but I can see some people getting in a mess, trying to add the monthly £66 and the warm £140 discount payment to the meter if they already had a lot of credit . I think it will need MSE looking into and a solution has to be found.

Who knows we may even get more vouchers come Friday.I suppose  changing vouchers to a bank account or payg smart meters will be the option. Cant see them exchanging for cash

I’m a bit confused by this, what are you wanting MSE to look into? If you have an old style prepayment meter, the voucher will have to go onto your key, that’s the only way it will go onto the meter

MWT

Mobtr said:

Rodent94 said:

Thanks for that.

I thought is was a bit lower,but I can see some people getting in a mess, trying to add the monthly £66 and the warm £140 discount payment to the meter if they already had a lot of credit . I think it will need MSE looking into and a solution has to be found.

Who knows we may even get more vouchers come Friday.I suppose  changing vouchers to a bank account or payg smart meters will be the option. Cant see them exchanging for cash

I’m a bit confused by this, what are you wanting MSE to look into? If you have an old style prepayment meter, the voucher will have to go onto your key, that’s the only way it will go onto the meter

Previously MSE, or specifically Martin, has advocated for prepay customers on older key meters to use the ability to put credit onto their meter and the key just before a tariff change, to avoid allowing the meter to update to the new tariff when they next top up after a change...

This has worked in the past, but now with the extra vouchers coming to a total of £400, if people follow Martin's advice again, they may end up stuck because the voucher have an expiry date and low users with a full meter and key could take months to get low enough to use the vouchers, which could expire while they are waiting...

They need some clarity on how long they can extend the expiry dates and how often they can do it, if they are going to use this loophole again....

Mobtr

MWT said:

Mobtr said:

Rodent94 said:

Thanks for that.

I thought is was a bit lower,but I can see some people getting in a mess, trying to add the monthly £66 and the warm £140 discount payment to the meter if they already had a lot of credit . I think it will need MSE looking into and a solution has to be found.

Who knows we may even get more vouchers come Friday.I suppose  changing vouchers to a bank account or payg smart meters will be the option. Cant see them exchanging for cash

I’m a bit confused by this, what are you wanting MSE to look into? If you have an old style prepayment meter, the voucher will have to go onto your key, that’s the only way it will go onto the meter

Previously MSE, or specifically Martin, has advocated for prepay customers on older key meters to use the ability to put credit onto their meter and the key just before a tariff change, to avoid allowing the meter to update to the new tariff when they next top up after a change...

This has worked in the past, but now with the extra vouchers coming to a total of £400, if people follow Martin's advice again, they may end up stuck because the voucher have an expiry date and low users with a full meter and key could take months to get low enough to use the vouchers, which could expire while they are waiting...

They need some clarity on how long they can extend the expiry dates and how often they can do it, if they are going to use this loophole again....

Don’t think many companies will allow this for much longer so possibly won’t allow the vouchers to be extended 

doesntnotcompute

You can use the vouchers for gas prepayment meters aswell, or possibly you will be able get them reissued to a gas DD bank account or issued as a voucher for cash (in the same way as warm discount scheme works).