Switching from paymeter to DD (Scottish Power)

Kimberley

At the moment i'm paying by key/card meter. I phoned Scottish Power up to have my payments paid by DD and they wanted £150 from me as security because i havn't been with them for more then 12 months :eek: They said i'd get it back but are all Energy providers the same?

Terrylw1

Hi,

Yes, they are. There is a regulation about PP meters in that they are supposed to be retained at the site for 12 months. Although it can never be argued when a new customer moves in since they have a new credit record against the property.

Whenever you change PP to Crd they will want to credit check you. The standard way is to look at your history with them. If you are under 12 months then your creditworthness is not fully established hence they ask for deposits.

Deposits are returnable after X months, but makesure you get it back on time.

There is always a way around this. Swap to Crd and pay the deposit, then switch to another Supplier with your new credit meter. You have then left them so once you clear your final bill, you are no longer a credit risk and they have to refund it immediately.

Thats how you can get around it.

Remember, if you are new customer and the PP was put in due to a previous bad payer - they cannot hold you to the previous agreement. They will have no choice but to change it if you speak to a manager since they can't base your credit on the previous tenants. Thats only if you fail the credit check on that basis.

Kimberley

Terrylw1 wrote: »

There is always a way around this. Swap to Crd and pay the deposit, then switch to another Supplier with your new credit meter. You have then left them so once you clear your final bill, you are no longer a credit risk and they have to refund it immediately.

Thanks Terry, but i don't really understand this, can you explain in more detail please?

Terrylw1

No probs.

They want a security deposit fom you now as you have not demonstrated your reliability to them due to being under 12 months with them.

So, what you could do is this:

1 - agree and pay the deposit now. They will then agree to fit the credit meter and take you off PP
2 - switch Suppliers because Suppliers will be happy to take you and as long as you are not in debt, your old Supplier will let you go
3 - after you switch, pay your final bill.
4 - after you have paid the final bill, ring them and ask for the security deposit back since they no longer need it.

There should be no reason why you can't do this. They only ask for a security deposit to protect themselves from any lack of payment. However, if you switch, you are another Suppliers risk but they won't know you used to be PP at all so they will treat you as any normal credit customer.

Does that make sense?

I can't see why they would object to you leaving so there should be no reason why you can't do this.

Kimberley

Ok thank you :beer:

Cardew

A variation on Terry's 'cunning plan' would be to pay the £150 deposit.

Set up a Direct debit, say £50 a month, and cancel your DD with bank for 3 months!

Dick_here

We changed from PP meter to normal immediately upon moving into a property 2 years ago, well as immediately as we were allowed to. Only took a few weeks though.

Keith_Dev

I have been in a new flat for 10 months and was also told I can't get the meters taken out for free until I have been with them for 12 months. Although there's only two months left before i can switch over I noticed if you keep pressing display for a meter reading eventually you come to a display that says "FXD WK/CH £3.90" - obviously I'm paying this which is some kind of admin cost? £3.90 per week for approx 40 weeks is a lot of money is there any way I can claim this back or get the £3.90 weekly charge cancelled between now and the end of March? Thanks for any help.

Kimberley

Cardew wrote: »

A variation on Terry's 'cunning plan' would be to pay the £150 deposit.

Set up a Direct debit, say £50 a month, and cancel your DD with bank for 3 months!

I may just do that then, pay the deposit and cancel the DD after 2 or 3 months once Martin gives us the green light to switch, thats only if Scottish Power doesn't remain the cheapest, if it does then i'll just stick with them and look forward to the money back after the 10 months.

Terrylw1

Keith_Dev wrote: »

I have been in a new flat for 10 months and was also told I can't get the meters taken out for free until I have been with them for 12 months. Although there's only two months left before i can switch over I noticed if you keep pressing display for a meter reading eventually you come to a display that says "FXD WK/CH £3.90" - obviously I'm paying this which is some kind of admin cost? £3.90 per week for approx 40 weeks is a lot of money is there any way I can claim this back or get the £3.90 weekly charge cancelled between now and the end of March? Thanks for any help.

Hi Keith,

You can only claim part of it back if it has been set too high (e.g. someone else in there before you had a debt and it wasn't reset for you)

These are standing charges are are allowed.

Terrylw1

Utilities may (I know some do, but I don't know about the rest) store your deposit in a main account, not on yours. This way it does not add into your DD calculations.

So, if you are with one of these and cancel your DD, they will just contact you fo payment since the security deposit is not there for that. At some point though, they will use it as Cardew is saying. Not sure at what point though since they would need to ask for the security deposit again.

Not sure, but I know how 1 of the big 6 would work on this - they would chase and not use the deposit. Then after they would want you to pay it again until you were out of their risk period.

Worth a think though.