Is there a problem changing to a smart prepayment meter

saveusfromuniqueusernames

I'm coming to the end of a fixed term contract with my dual fuel provider. I'm a low energy user and the standing charge has escalated so much in the past year that the cheapest option I can now find is Utilita's no standing charge variable tariff. In spite of the higher unit rates it still works out cheaper for me over the year. However, they require you to have a smart prepayment meter fitted. Does anyone know if this is different to the regular smart meters you'd have fitted, and if so would it cause a problem if I then wanted to change back to a regular fixed deal if (in the pie-in-the-sky world) standing charges ever came down again. I'd appreciate any advice if anyone has experience of doing this.

Netexporter

Smart meters can work in both credit and pre-payment mode. You don't need keys or cards, you just top-up by online payment. Once you have a smarty meter you may find TOU (time of use) tariffs that are cheaper. Octopus Agile is at least 25% cheaper than the SVT, if you can minimise your usage in the evening peak (16:00 to 19:00). You can get £50 credit if you get a referral code to join Octopus.

wrf12345

If you switch to smart prepayment meter I guess the potential problem is if the energy supplier loses contact with the meter and is unable to top it up despite the customer topping up online, emergency credit unlikely to last long - what happens then? And if you are in credit with one supplier on prepayment and switch to another does the credit stay on the meter, at least that way you would be covered until the new supplier gets its act together - Utilita does seem to have this problem some times. I would probably be slightly better off on Utilita than Octopus Agile but am a bit put off by the consequences of everything not working smoothly. If I get around to having a small off-grid solar system on its own circuit then I may give it a go, 400W solar panels are down to sixty quid at the moment, only the batteries are a pain (already picked up charge-controller and inverter suitable for up to 1000W from last big aliexpress sale).

TheElectricCow

I’ll admit I struggled navigating Utilita’s website on mobile to find the tariffs (they’re under the “help” page for some reason), but it doesn’t look like a prepayment meter is required - they just seem to heavily push that as the first suggested option. On further investigation they do seem to offer no standing charge standard credit tariffs.

In terms of smart meters, yes they theoretically can be switched between prepayment and credit modes without issue, although the supplier may want to carry out a credit check before allowing a prepayment meter to be put into credit mode.

wrf12345 said:

If you switch to smart prepayment meter I guess the potential problem is if the energy supplier loses contact with the meter and is unable to top it up despite the customer topping up online, emergency credit unlikely to last long - what happens then? 

You would simply input the top up code on the meter itself, a connection is not required for this. The smart meter specifications may not be perfect, but they are more than robust enough to have taken such eventualities into consideration.

Tiexen

TheElectricCow said:

I’ll admit I struggled navigating Utilita’s website on mobile to find the tariffs (they’re under the “help” page for some reason), but it doesn’t look like a prepayment meter is required - they just seem to heavily push that as the first suggested option. On further investigation they do seem to offer no standing charge standard credit tariffs.

In terms of smart meters, yes they theoretically can be switched between prepayment and credit modes without issue, although the supplier may want to carry out a credit check before allowing a prepayment meter to be put into credit mode.

wrf12345 said:

If you switch to smart prepayment meter I guess the potential problem is if the energy supplier loses contact with the meter and is unable to top it up despite the customer topping up online, emergency credit unlikely to last long - what happens then? 

You would simply input the top up code on the meter itself, a connection is not required for this. The smart meter specifications may not be perfect, but they are more than robust enough to have taken such eventualities into consideration.

this is my tarrif:

Gas Tariff Smart Energy

First 2 kWh each Day at 20.479p per kWh, thereafter at 5.519p. Standing Charge is £0.

( I don't use any gas so my bill is £0)

Electricity Tariff Smart Energy

First 2 kWh each Day at 53.581p per kWh, thereafter at 21.495p. Standing Charge is £0.

You can pay with the app, online or you can set up a Direct Debit

saveusfromuniqueusernames

Tiexen said:

TheElectricCow said:

I’ll admit I struggled navigating Utilita’s website on mobile to find the tariffs (they’re under the “help” page for some reason), but it doesn’t look like a prepayment meter is required - they just seem to heavily push that as the first suggested option. On further investigation they do seem to offer no standing charge standard credit tariffs.

In terms of smart meters, yes they theoretically can be switched between prepayment and credit modes without issue, although the supplier may want to carry out a credit check before allowing a prepayment meter to be put into credit mode.

wrf12345 said:

If you switch to smart prepayment meter I guess the potential problem is if the energy supplier loses contact with the meter and is unable to top it up despite the customer topping up online, emergency credit unlikely to last long - what happens then? 

You would simply input the top up code on the meter itself, a connection is not required for this. The smart meter specifications may not be perfect, but they are more than robust enough to have taken such eventualities into consideration.

this is my tarrif:

Gas Tariff Smart Energy

First 2 kWh each Day at 20.479p per kWh, thereafter at 5.519p. Standing Charge is £0.

( I don't use any gas so my bill is £0)

Electricity Tariff Smart Energy

First 2 kWh each Day at 53.581p per kWh, thereafter at 21.495p. Standing Charge is £0.

You can pay with the app, online or you can set up a Direct Debit

Thanks Tiexen, I'm assuming your tariff is not fixed, I'd be interested to know if it has varied a lot since you've been with them.

I've just managed to chat to them on the phone as I was a little confused as to whether they averaged your use or did it on a daily basis, i.e. if you use 4kw one day and 0kw the next do they average it to say you use 2kw per day and therefore it's all at the high rate. Their sales person says not, that once you have the smart meter it's done on a daily basis. But that did raise another problem, if it takes up to 60 days for a smart meter to be installed it could cost a lot as they don't have a way of knowing how much you use each day until you have the meter fitted and therefore do average it out. That's probably made me decide not to go with them as 2 months with pretty much all my usage at the high rate would be very costly. Finally they said the smart meter should be transferable to any other provider if you leave them.

Tiexen

saveusfromuniqueusernames said:

Tiexen said:

TheElectricCow said:

I’ll admit I struggled navigating Utilita’s website on mobile to find the tariffs (they’re under the “help” page for some reason), but it doesn’t look like a prepayment meter is required - they just seem to heavily push that as the first suggested option. On further investigation they do seem to offer no standing charge standard credit tariffs.

In terms of smart meters, yes they theoretically can be switched between prepayment and credit modes without issue, although the supplier may want to carry out a credit check before allowing a prepayment meter to be put into credit mode.

wrf12345 said:

If you switch to smart prepayment meter I guess the potential problem is if the energy supplier loses contact with the meter and is unable to top it up despite the customer topping up online, emergency credit unlikely to last long - what happens then? 

You would simply input the top up code on the meter itself, a connection is not required for this. The smart meter specifications may not be perfect, but they are more than robust enough to have taken such eventualities into consideration.

this is my tarrif:

Gas Tariff Smart Energy

First 2 kWh each Day at 20.479p per kWh, thereafter at 5.519p. Standing Charge is £0.

( I don't use any gas so my bill is £0)

Electricity Tariff Smart Energy

First 2 kWh each Day at 53.581p per kWh, thereafter at 21.495p. Standing Charge is £0.

You can pay with the app, online or you can set up a Direct Debit

Thanks Tiexen, I'm assuming your tariff is not fixed, I'd be interested to know if it has varied a lot since you've been with them.

I've just managed to chat to them on the phone as I was a little confused as to whether they averaged your use or did it on a daily basis, i.e. if you use 4kw one day and 0kw the next do they average it to say you use 2kw per day and therefore it's all at the high rate. Their sales person says not, that once you have the smart meter it's done on a daily basis. But that did raise another problem, if it takes up to 60 days for a smart meter to be installed it could cost a lot as they don't have a way of knowing how much you use each day until you have the meter fitted and therefore do average it out. That's probably made me decide not to go with them as 2 months with pretty much all my usage at the high rate would be very costly. Finally they said the smart meter should be transferable to any other provider if you leave them.

They take a meter reading when they sign you up and when the meters are installed - you pay this on invoice,

charging is daily

charging is actually hourly i have spent so far today £1.25 (3pm) so just changed to the lower daily rate

Rates change when the price cap changes.

bristolleedsfan

TheElectricCow said:

I’ll admit I struggled navigating Utilita’s website on mobile to find the tariffs (they’re under the “help” page for some reason), but it doesn’t look like a prepayment meter is required - they just seem to heavily push that as the first suggested option. On further investigation they do seem to offer no standing charge standard credit tariffs.

Pay As You Go is the only way to sign up online

Utilita   offer £50 Amazon refer a friend as well as have been offering £50 Amazon to switch via Facebook ad using a code, must be done online to avail of those offers I have seen them say. 

Spoonie_Turtle

Can you try getting a smart meter installed ASAP and then switching to Utilita?

saveusfromuniqueusernames

Hi Spoonie, I've actually just re-run the numbers and it still makes sense to switch to them even with the wait for a smart meter, so I've just signed up online and they've set an appointment for installation 30 days after my switch over date. It all happens remarkably quickly once you hit the submit button !!! I actually did have the first generation smart meters, which broke and so my then provider re-fitted dumb meters, but that's a whole other story. Thanks everyone for your advice.

I will just observe that having spent a day trawling the energy providers' websites that as a very low energy user (500kw electric 1600kw gas per annum) pretty much all the other providers are quoting around £540 for the year, while Utilita works out the way I use power to be about £460 (with potentially a £50 gift that I don't fully yet know what that is). That's a fairly significant difference and all down to OFGEM's decisions around the standing charge which meant all the energy saving measures I've taken over the last few years would mean nothing financially if I stayed with a traditional provider, and I'm coming from more of an environmental/climate change perspective than purely economising. The lack of coherent thinking between a government that hosted COP in Glasgow and made all its sanctimonious pronouncements about saving the planet and a regulator who actively disincentives people from reducing their energy demands is quite staggering and is just one more reason to get rid of both.

wrf12345

"If you switch to smart prepayment meter I guess the potential problem is if the energy supplier loses contact with the meter and is unable to top it up despite the customer topping up online, emergency credit unlikely to last long - what happens then? 

You would simply input the top up code on the meter itself, a connection is not required for this. The smart meter specifications may not be perfect, but they are more than robust enough to have taken such eventualities into consideration."

Ah, thanks, as it happens I have reboxed the smart meter so I can actually see it straight on rather than poking my head through the gap and turning sideways and hoping I don't snag my head on something. A bit misleading of them to insist on payasugo online whilst offering other alternatives but that is the joy of this site, real user experiences. Not sure that gas rate would work for me for the three months I turn the gas on, the electric certainly would even against Octopus Agile.