Experience thus far of switching from EDF PAYG to British Gas Credit Meter (Electricity)

Tony_McDonald

Good Afternoon All - I thought I'd share with you the experience I have had thus far which now dates from May 2022.  

I kind of 'took the bait' in a sense with EDF Energy after their continued mails and letters regarding switching to a Smart Meter.  The reason why I say take the bait, is because my Smart Meter installation occurred on 08/04/2022 - still on Credit Meter at this stage - payments being made regularly - on 18/05/2022, they switched me to PAYG without informing and purely by e-mail on the day (a subsequent letter sent around a week later).  Having got over the shock of that, my wife and I decided to run with it because as we all know, a switch at that point and only until recently, was impossible.  So, last week literally, I managed to get a switch with my current Gas provider, British Gas, who I have been very pleased with since we had them for Gas - DD is set up and credit account provided.  This switch happened on 17/11/2022 via email (email received welcome to BG and one from EDF to say sorry you're leaving us) - however, I am still having to top up the old EDF Meter with PAYG funding.  So, my first port of call this weekend just gone was to firstly contact EDF Energy and ask them when the actual switch took place - they confirmed 17/11/2022.  I then got in touch with British Gas who concurred and stated 17/11/2022.  I queried this further and BG suggested that I take three steps to convert back from PAYG to Credit Meter - firstly, to disconnect the Meter from the mains, then put closer to the meter itself on battery power whilst unplugging my Broadband for two hours then, reconnect the Smart Display and Broadband and then leave for 7 days and the lack of comms between the meter and the display should change the 'Mode' of the meter from PAYG to Credit.  To me, this all seems a bit strange but I'm not too technical - but may I ask if anyone else has had a similar experience? Essentially, I'm a bit stuck particularly as my first payment to BG for the not quite functioning Credit Meter is due to go out on 01/12/2022 and was trying to make sure I didn't end up paying twice for Electricity.  Appreciate you reading and any advice would be appreciated!

QrizB

I'm a bit confused by this bit:

Tony_McDonald said:

... BG suggested that I take three steps to convert back from PAYG to Credit Meter - firstly, to disconnect the Meter from the mains, then put closer to the meter itself on battery power whilst unplugging my Broadband for two hours then, reconnect the Smart Display and Broadband and then leave for 7 days and the lack of comms between the meter and the display should change the 'Mode' of the meter from PAYG to Credit.

You can't disconnect your smart meter from the mains (well, not without pulling the DNO fuse, which you definitely shouldn't do). And the setting that switches the smart meter from PAYG mode to credit mode is internal software which can only be adjusted by your supplier sending an update to it over-the-air via the wide area network. Your broadband has nothing to do with it.

Could you explain, again, exactly what the problem is?

[Deleted User]

The description appears to be a bad attempt at "how to fix an In-Home Display that isn't connecting to the meter".

Haven't got a clue how that's supposed to update meter settings though.

Tony_McDonald

Thanks for your comments - basically in answer and my apologies, I actually meant to they advised me to disconnect the Smart Monitor as opposed to the meter and then follow the above steps to, I guess, recallibrate the Meter with the Smart monitor to realise my provider has changed.  The problem I have is that I'm still having to top up via PAYG as opposed to the credit account - the reason I know is because we lost electricity after a weekend away and not enough on the smart PAYG when we returned - had to top up to get the power up again.  Thanks again for your comments above.

[Deleted User]

Tony_McDonald said:

Thanks for your comments - basically in answer and my apologies, I actually meant to they advised me to disconnect the Smart Monitor as opposed to the meter and then follow the above steps to, I guess, recallibrate the Meter with the Smart monitor to realise my provider has changed.  The problem I have is that I'm still having to top up via PAYG as opposed to the credit account - the reason I know is because we lost electricity after a weekend away and not enough on the smart PAYG when we returned - had to top up to get the power up again.  Thanks again for your comments above.

Don't worry - we weren't saying that you were wrong - just that the instructions that you had been given were completely irrelevant to the problem that you said you have.

Changing settings on your meter is something that only the supplier can do and it doesn't have anything to do with the smart monitor.