OT: Prepaid/Card type gas & elec meters

bails87

Are they an absolute rip off?

Me and Mrs Bails are looking at a flat, everything's good, except the gas and electric meters are prepaid (gas central heating + water, electric oven).

Are we going to be screwed on the costs, or is it not that different from a normal meter?

UndercoverElephant

MoneySupermarket wrote:

There are disadvantages with prepayment meters, however, such as access to charging facilities. In addition, many suppliers add on additional charges that they claim are necessary to finance and maintain the meters themselves. According to Consumer Focus estimates, prepayment meters can cost on average an additional £195/year for gas and electricity.

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and ... nt-meters/

SimonAH

Yup. Just another instance of being poor being far more expensive than being rich.

davis

Yup. They're more expensive, and a pain in the botty.

Most people wouldn't mind if you arrange to switch to a normal meter...

Koncordski

Total rip off, it's free for the supplier to change you to a pay monthly standard meter. Assuming your credit checks out ok which of course it will.

bails87

Thanks guys. There's a shop at the end of the road that does the top-ups, and there is the emergency credit thing.

£195/year isn't great (why would you want ot pay extra) but it's 'only' £4 a week.

Koncordski wrote:

Total rip off, it's free for the supplier to change you to a pay monthly standard meter. Assuming your credit checks out ok which of course it will.

We'll make sure there's no debt being cleared off by previous tenants (shouldn't be, as it's been refurbed and the landlord is currently living there) which can 'steal' credits as soon as you put them on.

I'll find out who the current supplier is and see if they'll change it to a normal meter, assuming the landlord is happy with it. No reason why we'd have any credit problems. I think my name was on the electricity and gas bills when I was at uni, and they were always paid off on time.

Thanks again hivemind!

PBo

I'm probably being over cautious, but they often get installed because the residents had payment problems......once you've moved in, might be worth checking your credit records to make sure nothing turns up on yours due to a mistake because of the address.

bails87

It's purpose built (but not new) flats, apparently a lot of them have the card meters because it's easier than messing around with changing the bill payer every time there's a new tenant. I guess it also means there's less chance of a landlord being stuck with a vanished tenant's bill.

Mr Sworld

As I recall the Landlord can't stop you from changing the meters (after all, they belong to the supplier not the landlord).

reformedfatty

The biggest nuisance when I had one in a rented property was the shop stuff when you wander in to put some money on. The staff all have a special 'are you too poor to have real electricity' face they put on for the occasion, and being munting at the best of times its downright horrific.

Now I have my own place with real electricity and instead have a supplier that sends forth their disdain in angry letters demanding money, followed by phone calls, followed by them sending me money.

Electricity suppliers are useless.

Drysuitdiver

or talk to the supplier and say you are happy to be on prepaid but you want the meter reprogrammed to the same tariff as a credit account . have done this before as it was a good way to make sure i didn't run a huge bill up, but got a better deal on the electricity. if they won't play ball just tell them you will be switching supplier, that chivvies them up fairly quickly

bails87

Thanks guys, very good point about it not belonging to the landlord. If they'll do it for free then we can get them to put it back in when we move out anyway!

Mr Sworld

They will change the meters for free and you have no obligation to change them back at the end of the tenancy.

Koncordski

Make sure when they come to do the changeover that you have the keys/access to the main fuse board for the building. The engineer will want to pop out the fuse for your flat before he touches the meter and if you've taken a day off to be there and he can't get to the locked utilities riser you're stuffed and have to do it all again. guess how I know that..