Pre-pay Thief

gdigweed

My problem is with my prepay meter i use to pay for my Gas. It removes 34p every day. This happens whether i use Gas or Not.
I know no Gas i being used because the meter reading remains the same and there definately is no Gas leak.

A recent change of meter (unconnected with my original problem) still removes 34p per day whether i use gas or not.

Contacting British Gas customer service (my Gas provider) via telephone has revealed that i owe no money to anyone, least of all my provider. We also scrolled through the various screens on the meter to confirm this.
British Gas customer services are both puzzled and bewildered and have no answer. They finally told me to write to British Gas at the address on my last statement.

6 letters later, no answer from British Gas, not even an acknowledgement of receipt of letters.

Has anyone any answers?

ps. my boiler is off and there are no Gas appliances using any Gas.

mute_posting

Don't some prepay meters deduct a standing charge?

just googled and Npower (I know you're BG but NPower was the first to show in list) appear to do this...

Prepayment Gas

Your bill is based on:

• A standing charge
• A unit charge for the units of gas you have used

One unit is 1 kilowatt of electricity or gas used for one hour (kWh).
You can also receive discounts, depending on your payment method.

I wouldn't be surprised if others do and /or it is inherrent to your supply region.

HTH

MP

SwanJon

This is a recognised issue, and it is being looked at.
I'm reasonably sure it didn't use to happen this way, but could be wrong.
The meter has prices on it for the 2 tiers (look at screens 9 & 10).
These should show 7.144 & 2.7229.
You need to use 2680 kWh a year at tier 1 to get the cheap stuff at tier 2, this is roughly 7.34 kWh a day (see screen 15)
The difference between T1 & T2 is 4.415p, multiplied by the daily threshhold gives 32.4p +VAT gives 34p.
So, that's why it's 34p, now to why your meter is taking it from you.
The meter is programmed with a billing period (usually a quarter, see screen 20).
If you had a quarterly bill a read is used at the start and end, and it is assumed that you have used the same amount each day, even if some days you use nothing. So the threshold for a quarter is 670 kWh and this is what is used to calculate the bill.
The PP meter is billing you every day, but recalculating each time back to the start of the billing period. So if you used more than 7.34 each day at the start of the period, but less than 7.34 each day now, when it recalculates it averages your consumption out, and takes the 34p.

I'd rather it didn't do this, but I hope it now makes sense.