Potential discount for prepayment meter customers

masonic

"Households face paying extra on energy bills to cover customers' bad debts under plans by the industry regulator... Under the proposals, households using prepayment meters would not be charged the extra sum, which works out at £1.33 per month. These consumers pay as they go, meaning they cannot build up debt in the same way as households that are billed monthly."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67725424

I'd be happy to pay for my energy in advance to avoid such a levy.

mmmmikey

Some of the suppliers, such as EDF, already offer cheaper smart pre-payment tariffs than credit tariffs. Or they did at least, not sure if that has changed or what the situation is for other suppliers.

MikeJXE

masonic said:

"Households face paying extra on energy bills to cover customers' bad debts under plans by the industry regulator... Under the proposals, households using prepayment meters would not be charged the extra sum, which works out at £1.33 per month. These consumers pay as they go, meaning they cannot build up debt in the same way as households that are billed monthly."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67725424

I'd be happy to pay for my energy in advance to avoid such a levy.

I do pay for my energy in advance, my account is always in credit with direct debits 

NorfolkCanary

Not sorry for this, but once again why are (predominantly) tax payers picking up the tab and effectively being punished for paying bills on time and in full each month, whilst others continually racking up debt, once again get away with discounts?? Perhaps we should all stop paying bills to get money off?

dealyboy

@NorfolkCanary said:

Not sorry for this, but once again why are (predominantly) tax payers picking up the tab and effectively being punished for paying bills on time and in full each month, whilst others continually racking up debt, once again get away with discounts?? Perhaps we should all stop paying bills to get money off?

Shall we all go on strike? they won't cut us off, instead just send us a couple of letters.

masonic

MikeJXE said:

masonic said:

"Households face paying extra on energy bills to cover customers' bad debts under plans by the industry regulator... Under the proposals, households using prepayment meters would not be charged the extra sum, which works out at £1.33 per month. These consumers pay as they go, meaning they cannot build up debt in the same way as households that are billed monthly."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67725424

I'd be happy to pay for my energy in advance to avoid such a levy.

I do pay for my energy in advance, my account is always in credit with direct debits 

I imagine the majority of customers are in this boat, with direct debits set such that they never go into a debit balance.

MikeJXE

masonic said:

MikeJXE said:

masonic said:

"Households face paying extra on energy bills to cover customers' bad debts under plans by the industry regulator... Under the proposals, households using prepayment meters would not be charged the extra sum, which works out at £1.33 per month. These consumers pay as they go, meaning they cannot build up debt in the same way as households that are billed monthly."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67725424

I'd be happy to pay for my energy in advance to avoid such a levy.

I do pay for my energy in advance, my account is always in credit with direct debits 

I imagine the majority of customers are in this boat, with direct debits set such that they never go into a debit balance.

Yes and that credit balance must be worth something to someone 

mmmmikey

Pesumably the £1.33 a month will go on standing charges. If that is the case it's a fair bet that not everyone is going to be happy about this :-:-1: 

Whatever the rights and wrongs of standing charges, I wonder if it will be politically acceptable to increase them in an election year. The cynic in me expects that standing charges will be reduced and unit rates increased accordingly, with the £1.33 hidden in unit rates by smoke and mirrors with the government making the claim that they have bought energy costs down.

But maybe I'm being unfair - surely we can trust our politicians not to do anything that underhand :-)

superkoopauk

It's a charge for non PPM customers rather than a discount for PPM

TheElectricCow

Now this I just can’t get behind. Sure, the people with prepayment meters aren’t the ones racking up bad debt on their accounts, but neither is the typical direct debit or pay on receipt of bill customer. 

The whole point is that it’s the people with these unrecoverable debts in the first place are the ones who, for whatever reason, aren’t paying them off. Distinctly not the people who are staying out of debt, regardless of what their payment method is. 

If we’re now setting up this communal “pay other people’s utility bill” fund I don’t see the theoretical ability to get into that debt being all that relevant to who should contribute. Surely it would be better for everyone to pay in and lower the amount for all.

Or better yet, just let the suppliers stop supplying once other debt recovery options have been exhausted and don’t charge the paying households for the ones that aren’t. If households genuinely need additional support that needs to be handled through actual state welfare systems and not by an energy regulator slapping extra charges on utility bills for most people after allowing the debts to build to start with. 

JSHarris

TheElectricCow said:

Or better yet, just let the suppliers stop supplying once other debt recovery options have been exhausted and don’t charge the paying households for the ones that aren’t. If households genuinely need additional support that needs to be handled through actual state welfare systems and not by an energy regulator slapping extra charges on utility bills for most people after allowing the debts to build to start with. 

This is a good point.  The pendulum has swung too far in the direction of allowing people to deliberately stop paying their bills.  There's a need to protect the vulnerable, and those that end up in debt through no fault of their own, but this needs to be balanced with a system that allows suppliers to cut off the supply to those that abuse the system.

Not sure how best to do this, but for much of my life suppliers could, and would, disconnect supplies for non-payment.  There were some vulnerable people that got caught up in this process when they shouldn't have been, but the fair thing to do should be to properly protect those that need it whilst not providing any excuse to those that are just choosing not to pay.