How do pre-pay electricity meters change their rates?

[SUNRAY]

Any arrears are loaded onto the key and then a percentage deducted each time the key is charged.
Prepayment is fine if it helps to manage your budget but always get a new key when a tenant/property is changed. If the previous tenant had debt then you are paying it off for them.
I suspect it is currently cheaper as the rates wont reflect new charges coming in. But it depends on your supplier as well.

Any debt is tranferred to the new key, it happens everytime we have a change of tenant unless we argue with the supplier enough.

 

[Old Salt]

Any debt is tranferred to the new key, it happens everytime we have a change of tenant unless we argue with the supplier enough.

And that‘s the whole point. You need to make sure the supplier knows you are not the previous tennant. It is a new supply contract and should not be associated with the previous debt.

 

[Mottie]

If you are using a key meter it is the generally the most expensive way to obtain energy.

To be honest, a previous tenant has it put in but I’m hardly there these days. £20 a month was more than enough. Probably £30 a month from now on but as it was originally a domestic address, it is a domestic and not a commercial meter so I will be getting the £400 grant and that will last me fecking ages!

 

[SUNRAY]

And that‘s the whole point. You need to make sure the supplier knows you are not the previous tennant. It is a new supply contract and should not be associated with the previous debt.

Yeah right... It is a f****** hell of a mess as the tenant never inform suppliers they are moving out and not being the account holder I can't, a credit meter is so much easier, one simply reads the meter and informs supplier you are taking over.

The one time I did get sense out of them was after a week of emails and phone calls where they said there was nothing they could do. I removed the meter and took it to their office, told them I'd be at the property for the rest of the day and the following 2 days. I invited them to attend during any of that time and they wouldn't require a warrant but requested they also brought my agent with them...

They arrived shortly after, mob handed refitted the meter and a replacement key with enough credit to cover the £multi-hundred of debt.

Sometimes agressive action seems to be the only this that works
but for safety sake I am certainly not recommending anyone tampers with a meter or company fuse.

 

[ericmark]

And I thought you still put coins in the meter? I thought whole idea of pre-paid meters was for people who could not manage their money? And if that the case, paying for it on line is a non starter.

Didn't realise you have some sort of memory stick with money on it.

I have thought if I add some numbers on the meter reading it will save some money, however when I went to look after my mother the money was taken out of my bank account at same rate as when we were at home, so I ended up pre-paying for electric, in the end I got a refund, but for ages they tried reducing and reducing my standing order.

Had it been a month or two I could have understood, but it was over about 2 years, and the meter was outside in a box in the wall. So they could read it without my being home. I know when they had been, as it seems they have not worked out how to close the door after reading the meter.

But what I wonder is how it works when the supply company goes bust? It happened here, and we had no option it seems but go with the supplier who took over, we could not select ourselves who we wanted to take over.

However we pay after we have used the power, so we had no money held by our supplier, what happened with pre-pay meters? In the days of coins the coins paid the bill, and if the bill was less than the coins in the box you got some back.

 

[Old Salt]

However we pay after we have used the power, so we had no money held by our supplier, what happened with pre-pay meters? In the days of coins the coins paid the bill, and if the bill was less than the coins in the box you got some back.

Paying after using the energy is a credit meter.

PAYG or a key meter is pre pay either online using various codes to either top up your key or paying over the counter at local outlets, paypoint etc.

If a supplier goes bust Ofgem divvies up the customers across various suppliers willing to take them on. The new supplier should sort out any issues with your account and you can then change supplier once the legal bits have been resolved, refund, up to date billing, etc.