Quantum Gas Meter Hell

vespasean

Hello,

We have just had a Quantum Gas Card meter fitted. I think it's taking about 20p on the pound for the repayment of debt. Even considering this, we seem to be putting a lot of money on the card.

It was installed on wednesday lunchtime with £10 emergency credit and by friday evening it was used up. In addition to this, the meter appears to have been made so unfathomable that it may as well be in Chinese.

I have added a picture of the offending meter in the hope that somebody here will be able to give me a clue. The meter has three displays when you press the black button - EmCr used / Budget / and Owed

Any help with reading this meter would be very well appreciated.

thankyou, vespasean

Garz

The providers will set up a standing charge which will begin to pay back the debt you owe, of course this is set to recoup the money all depending of the amount owed. EmCr tells you how much you have of the emergency credit to use, if you delve into this your paying at a higher rate so try never to go into this.

Im guessing budget will be your amount you top up, and the Owed should be either the rate of the debt your paying or the total amount left to pay.

SwanJon

Firstly, don't ever press the black button. It was set up to help you budget, but what it actually does is stop the gas when you still have credit. (help you budget see?)
If you press and hold the red button until it beeps, the screen will change.
You should be looking at screen 00 - Last purchase*. Press the red button again and it will change to 01 - Last for debt.
Press the red button again to go to 02, etc
Get the information from these screens, and it may be able to help you work out what is going on
00 - Last Purchase
01 - Last for debt
02 - Last for EC
03 - Last for Gas (03+02+01 should add up to 00)
24 (you will need to put your card in when you get this far)
25 - Min weekly payment for debt
26 - Max weekly payment for debt
27 - outstanding balance

* I've not seen one exactly like this, so there is a chance the first screen will be 27. The screens show the same thing, just a different order.

vespasean

thankyou for the help, will try it.

I did ring Scottish Power and apparently this particular meter asks for £16 a week in repayments from 2am every wednesday. It will only take this from the card, NOT the money already on the meter, and it will only take 70% of the money on the card for repayment.

eg. If you put 20 odd quid on the card on wednesday thats the debt sorted out for the week. Any other money you chuck in there is for gas.

Like I said, not the most user friendly piece of kit, but maybe that's the point.

vespasean

Kimberley

I have that meter. I put in £10 on saturday and yesterday i had no gas and the meter was saying that the emergency money had been used Now i topped it up this morning by £10 and the meter reads £5.34 credit I didn't use my emergnecy money at all so i don't know what happened there. I'm waiting to get a spare £125 to go Direct debit

I was wondering if someone knows if paying by DD with Scottish Power is cheaper then Quantum Card because they reckon that a pre payment meter is still cheaper then those who have quaterly bills?

kriskin

Kimberley wrote: »

I have that meter. I put in £10 on saturday and yesterday i had no gas and the meter was saying that the emergency money had been used Now i topped it up this morning by £10 and the meter reads £5.34 credit I didn't use my emergnecy money at all so i don't know what happened there. I'm waiting to get a spare £125 to go Direct debit

I was wondering if someone knows if paying by DD with Scottish Power is cheaper then Quantum Card because they reckon that a pre payment meter is still cheaper then those who have quaterly bills?

its much cheaper not to have a quantrum meter ive just changed mine to buget plan where you pay weekly amount on swip card at post office with a quantrum meter i was using £20 a week with a swip card on buget plan im using £10 per week so it is cheaper not to have a quantrum meter im with ebico :beer:

Pssst

Didnt you get an instruction leaflet with it ? It should have come with the card that was sent by your supplier?

Quantum customers usually find that initially,its a bit of a shock as to how much they have to put into it. After a few months,you learn to adjust and beleive it or not,many PP customers actually grow to prefer their PP meters and retain them once debt has been repaid!

The era of cheap fuel is over.

SwanJon

kriskin wrote: »

it is cheaper not to have a quantrum meter im with ebico :beer:

Kriskin, be careful that you are not building up a debt balance,
Ebico charge you the same rate whether you pay by PP or by swipe card, so changing your meter shouldn't make a difference over the yyear.

Give them regular reads so you can see if you are on track.

Pssst

Of course if you belong to a certain group,you will be lucky enough to have a person who visits you with a gascard and puts money on the meter for you! You need never worry about bills.

dn852k4

Pssst wrote: »

Of course if you belong to a certain group,you will be lucky enough to have a person who visits you with a gascard and puts money on the meter for you! You need never worry about bills.

Which group is that then?

Pssst

dn852k4 wrote: »

Which group is that then?

I wish i could say but if i did, I;d be publicly berated by the proletariat. Anyway, I'm fairly certain that you couldnt join this elite group.