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Removal of Pre-payment meters
I would like to have the pre-payment meters removed in order that I can pay monthly. On contacting my supplier they said they will remove the boxes attached to my meters and install smart meters. I don't want a smart meter and cannot understand why they cannot just remove the attached boxes. Does anyone know why I cannot have them removed without having to have smart meters attached.
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Because everyone has to have smart meters. That's the only option. And frankly, why not? It's easier as they submit the readings for you (most of the time) so save you some work. And it's not like they are your meters, they belong to the supplier/infrastructure so you don't get a say in the matter.
The only way you will get stupid meters is if a meter fails completely and needs to be replaced and they don't have any smart ones available. This happened with us 18 months back when our gas meter stopped working. They have just this month put in a smart one when I reminded them it hadn't been done. They updated our electric meter as well which was a smart one but past its best before date.
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Welcome to the forum.
I would like to have the pre-payment meters removed in order that I can pay monthly. On contacting my supplier they said they will remove the boxes attached to my meters and install smart meters. I don't want a smart meter and cannot understand why they cannot just remove the attached boxes. Does anyone know why I cannot have them removed without having to have smart meters attached.
Traditional (pre-smart) prepayment meters don't generally have "attached boxes"; the entire meter is set up for prepayment, as a single unit. As such the only way to change from a prepayment account to a credit account with traditional meters is to have the whole meter replaced.
Replacement meters are almost always smart meters. Smart meters can be switched remotely from prepayment mode to credit mode, and vice-versa.
A traditional British electricity prepayment meter would normally look something like this, with a "key" for prepayment:
Can you share a photo of your current meters? Do they look like that?
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Why can't you just ask to be put on a credit tariff without changing the meter? The thing shows exactly what has been used, just like in millions of homes that are still on non-smart meters yet enjoy credit tariffs.
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Why can't you just ask to be put on a credit tariff without changing the meter
Because when the credit runs out, a prepayment meter will cut off the supply.
@nottsphil you've never had a prepayment meter, have you?
N. Hampshire, he/him. Octopus Intelligent Go elec & Tracker gas / Vodafone BB / iD mobile. Kirk Hill Co-op member.Ofgem cap table, Ofgem cap explainer. Economy 7 cap explainer. Gas vs E7 vs peak elec heating costs, Best kettle!
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What happens when a smart meter set to prepayment mode loses its communication hub so can't contact the supplier?
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Supplier can give customer a code to input to top it up.
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If its a SMETS2 smart meter then it can be switched between prepay and credit modes remotely by the supplier.
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You will be paying a higher kwh rate paying monthly
.Prepayment meter rates are the cheapest kwh rates . You can check on the meter menu what the pence per kwh rate is and compare it to any other tariff you can switch to .Your present meter can only do prepayment but a smart meter can do both prepay and credit meter tariffs and that is the only meter a supplier will now fit
. I have no idea why you object to a smart meter .With a smart meter you can switch to some really good smart tariffs which are the lowest rates overall in the UK , that is Octopus Energy , Tracker and Agile
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With a smart meter how do you input a code if the comms hub is down, gentle chanting?
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But this one isn’t - that much is clear from the OP?
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