prepayment meters - Gas

[dontknowwhat]

Have a prepayment meter for gas. Have to go to shop, buy eg ten pounds of credit..put card in meter..get ten pounds worth of gas. Should my credit run out I can press emergency then when put next card in with ten pounds on, if i have used two pounds from emergency then only eight pounds avaiable...straightforward?....No..why if I can only use what I pay for, am I being issued a bill if I cant use fuel...please help.

[factor-fiction]

Sorry but I don't understand the question. I don't see the relevance of teh bit about £2 and £8.Are you saying you pay for use through a prepayment meter, but you also get a bill- is that for the standing charge?

[jackles]

totally agree.i have a key which i take to top up.as you say can only use what i have bought but get a bill every quarter to let me know how much that is.

[factor-fiction]

Do you both mean you get a statement (rather than a bill)?

[Andyvon]

It might be if you owe them money Dontknowwhat. That might be why they fitted the meter so that you can pay off your outstanding balance. You are right about the meter deducting any emergency sum from any credit you enter. If you owe money then you'll probably find the meter takes more money than you actually use. For example, if you put in £10 credit and then go away for a day or two, you may come back to find the meter back at zero. That's how the fuel company recover what you owe them as well as make sure you pay for what you use.

A pre-payment meter is also the most expensive way to buy fuel. Despite the laws that came in in 2002, you still pay about 50% more for your fuel than the average person on a standard meter paying by DD. That's because you aren't entitled to any of the discounts people get if they are not in debt and pay by bank account.

[Andyvon]

I forget to mention. The paperwork you recieve may well be a statement of the amount you've paid and the amount still outstanding.

[dontknowwhat]

Sorry folks...maybe not a bill as such but says a Prepayment gas statementwith the following:
total gas charges......334.35
sub totalbefore vat....334.35
vat............................. 16.72
Total inc vat.............. 351.07
total payments ......... 250.00

ACCOUNT BALANCE ....YOU OWE US...101.07


But how can that be case if paying at shop when loading card and meter cuts out when credit used.????..dont get it!!!

[Postdog]

Blimey it's been explained I think. You OWE them money, you seem to have already owed them money before you started paying back with prepayment. With these meters they can set the cost per unit to what they want so that IF YOU DO OWE money, some is going to the gas you use, and some is going to repay the debt. Eventually you will have cleared the debt, and the cost per unit will change because you owe nothing. If you do not owe money, sort it with the supplier.

[Andyvon]

Sorry Doc. That figure was one I heard a while ago so I can't qualify it but I think I'm right in saying that pre-payment meters are the most expensive way to buy gas and electricity.

[CheekyChops]

It doesn't necessarily mean that you owe money, British Gas tried it with me once! The prepayment meter was already installed when I moved into my house and I decided to keep it thinking it would help with my budgeting (not realising it was more expensive!).

The meter was cleared when I moved in and then just over 12 months later I got a bill for £250!! After MANY phone calls to BG with me arguing that the whole point of a pre-payment meter was to stop me running up bills and them offering no explanation as to how I could possibly have accrued a bill that big in 12 months bearing in mind I must also have put a similar amount onto my gas card, they admitted thatI didn't owe it and I've heard nothing since (5 years).

[kevo2k7]

Eddie does the low income tarriff just apply to BG or are other companies such as E.on doing the same deal? cheers m8