Changing prepay Electricity meter.

Kronos · 1 Feb 2015 at 18:21

Now for reasons I will not go into we have a prepay electricity meter. I have finally convinced my partner that we really do need to go on to a credit meter, or whatever the usual one are called. After yet again running out of credit and suddenly being cut off. unfortunately the beep on the meter indicating low credit is so quiet a pin dropping would make more noise.

Getting the meter changed by British Gas is not going to be a problem and is free but right after I do I am going to be looking to change suppliers as I have with the gas side of our energy needs who were also BG.

My question is by changing the meter am I then tied to some contract for an X amount of time? Am I stuck with BG until this contact if it exists ends.

I moved to Daligas and have been really pleased with the service any advice on electricity providers preferably with decent customer service which I would imagine rules out the big 6.

Mynight · 1 Feb 2015 at 18:22

Probably best asking BG.

Doubt it though unless you sign something.

Nutella33 · 1 Feb 2015 at 18:30

It varies depending on which company you are with. most only do it if you have a service from them and usually tie you in or require you being with them for so long (6 months or a year) previous to installing the meter. SSE dont but you pay 50 quid for them to install a credit meter and also have to pass a credit check.

as for good customer service. Ovo seem to be the winners at the moment. based down in bristol.

Kronos · 1 Feb 2015 at 18:33

Nutella33 said:
It varies depending on which company you are with. most only do it if you have a service from them and usually tie you in or require you being with them for so long (6 months or a year) previous to installing the meter. SSE dont but you pay 50 quid for them to install a credit meter and also have to pass a credit check.

as for good customer service. Ovo seem to be the winners at the moment. based down in bristol.

Spooky as I just got a quote from Ovo. Thanks.

ricky · 1 Feb 2015 at 18:41

Kronos said:
My question is by changing the meter am I then tied to some contract for an X amount of time?

No.

MrMoonX · 1 Feb 2015 at 18:53

Moved into a house once that had a prepay meter we ran it for two weeks, it was the most expensive electricity I've ever used. It's an utter disgrace that the poor people that have these meters pay so damn much, we were using £30 a week on electric, my monthly usage on a normal meter works out at about £50, it's disgusting

( |-| |2 ][ $ · 1 Feb 2015 at 18:58

MrMoonX said:
we were using £30 a week on electric, my monthly usage on a normal meter works out at about £50, it's disgusting

There's no way they are that much more expensive. (Without checking I imagine it's around 5-10% more)

Nutella33 · 1 Feb 2015 at 19:00

MrMoonX said:
Moved into a house once that had a prepay meter we ran it for two weeks, it was the most expensive electricity I've ever used. It's an utter disgrace that the poor people that have these meters pay so damn much, we were using £30 a week on electric, my monthly usage on a normal meter works out at about £50, it's disgusting

Agreed, its a huge con. I was on it for a while as I moved to a house which had one fitted, got it replaced by SSE eventually but the discrepancy is a bit sick. I can understand prepay is good for those on a tight budget and need to visualise spending or have uncertain income so monthly doesnt work well but it should be the same price as credit meter.

Kronos · 1 Feb 2015 at 19:02

MrMoonX said:
Moved into a house once that had a prepay meter we ran it for two weeks, it was the most expensive electricity I've ever used. It's an utter disgrace that the poor people that have these meters pay so damn much, we were using £30 a week on electric, my monthly usage on a normal meter works out at about £50, it's disgusting

I totally agree with you, I have been nagging my partner for years but she wouldn't budge. Even though I explained as you have how expensive paying this way was.
As you say they put them in the poorest of households with the absolute support of politicians who have all said what a disgrace it is ETC ETC but do nothing.
I have nothing against prepay meters but I cannot see why they have to be set on a high tariff.

I will start the change process tomorrow,

el_dazza · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:10

I work for a company called Utilita and our prepay meters are actually a cheaper tariff than credit customers. We specialise in prepayment but some people switched to us and won't have anything other than a credit meter, they just wanted our smart meters installed. It's not a massive amount more mind you

wazza300 · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:12

why do we have to pay standing charges for a meter that just sits there? whether you use any gas or not

el_dazza · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:15

wazza300 said:
why do we have to pay standing charges for a meter that just sits there? whether you use any gas or not

Most meters aren't owned by the energy supplier but are rented from someone else.

They then pass that charge onto you. We also don't have a standing charge

Vanquish-Storm · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:24

When we moved into our house it had British Gas prepay meters, British gas refused to change them so we shopped around to see which suppliers would. Ovo said we would have to be with them for 12 months on prepay before they would switch it but EDF said they would switch with no issues, the only problem is that it is taking ages for them to sort it out.

el_dazza · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:25

I don't believe OFGEM are allowing prepay customers to be tied into a contract now. Ours used to be a 12 month contract but now there is no cancellation fee and customers can leave at any time. Probably just cost themselves some custom there.

NexusK · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:36

Funnily enough we just had a letter with a £70 refund for our prepay gas meter from BG. According to the letter a bunch of meters have been set up wrong and they have been over charging customers for years so now there's lots of refunds been sent out.

el_dazza · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:38

Every supplier will be issuing refunds at the moment, a lot of meters (millions in fact) were overcharging customers between 1 and 2% too much.

neil_g · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:43

When we move here it has a payg meter on SSE, the tarrif rates were the same as a credit meter but we wanted the convenience of not having to go down the shop to top it up plus I've got a server that runs 24/7 etc.

As said above they charged 50 quid and required a credit check. They came out within 48 hours and swapped it in about 20 mins.

Werewolf · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:48

wazza300 said:
why do we have to pay standing charges for a meter that just sits there? whether you use any gas or not

Because it costs money to maintain the actual network up to and including the meter.

I'm fairly sure people would be much less happy if they had to pay to have someone come out and disconnect the gas from the mains supply at the road, and reconnect it when needed.

Kronos · 2 Feb 2015 at 09:43

Got it organised for a months time.

Couple of things that stood out in the chat with BG customer service. One was a question why we wanted to change. I said that primarily BG charged a premium, like most if not all the big six do, on supplying electricity via a prepaid metre. There was absolutely no comment.

The other thing was that after the metre is changed I would then have to wait 28 days before setting a tariff other than the standard. And we would not pay till an agreed tariff and payment method was set up. I said that that would immediately put me in debt. To which he replied but that is how it works you get the power then pay. I pointed out that surely by paying by direct debit we can run up a credit situation, we are currently with BT in credit because of direct debit, which is fine.
He agreed then admitted that he really did not know much about that side of things and he really only dealt with metres. BG customer service at it's best though in his favour a very pleasant guy, very chirpy for a Monday morning.

Droolinggimp · 2 Feb 2015 at 11:13

Ok I don't want to derail this thread but I do have a question on PrePay meters and general suppliers..

I am with nPower for both Gas and electric. I am on PP meters for both and my debt is coming off weekly at £10 per week but only for the electric. The gas was coming off and after a few calls they said it wasnt and nothing has been paid and an investigaation would be set up. Not heard anything and still no Gas debt coming off. I have made plenty of calls to them. I hate them so much. Not even bothering to sort it out.

Now as we all know Npower are crap. I want out. I cant change due to the amount of debt on both services. So I had a brain wave. How about getting my missus to call up another supplier and say she wants to move to them whilst I call npower and cancel them. Npower should send me a final bill and we can get on better suppliers and all being well change the meters to normal ones. Would this be ok and would it work?