Energy pre payment meters

[RiverCityFan]

My daughter and her boyfriend recently moved into a one bedroom flat. It's on the second floor of a three storey block.
She has just told me they are having to top up both the gas and electricity by £20 each every 3 days!!
I have just been round to check the flat; see if they had left an immersion heater on for example. Nothing obvious that could possibly account for the high usage.
Is this normal for pre payment meters?? I have no experience of prepay meters.
For background, he is just trying to get back on his feet after living in a homeless shelter for several months. They( Dd and boyfriend)are only 19.
This level of expense is not sustainable for them.

Ouch! That is a lot. Is there a debt from the previous tenants on there? What form of heating is in there?

That's a lot OP. We pay around £5 a day all in, with heating on all the time in a 3 bed end of terrace house. There has been another thread around today with average G&E costs on a prepaid meter. Could they possibly be repaying debt on the meter from previous tenants? It's worth phoning the provider to see everything is as it should be.

Its gas central heating and hot water via a combi boiler. They have an electric shower.

No way should it be that high. I’m in a large house although it’s only me and DD here now. But we use around £10 electric per week. Gas varies dependant on the weather. In summer £10 lasts a month, but in winter we do about £25 in an week. They need to contact their supplier and sort it out.

Thanks for the replies. I will pass on this info re possible debt from previous tenants. Although, how can you get into debt with a prepayment meter??

It's more likely that the previous tenants got into debt and that caused the installation of the pre-payment meter, with the debt included on there, if that makes sense?

But it is possible to run up a debt on them. Each company will have their own allowed 'overdraft' before supply stops.

Did they use the same key/card that was already there? They should be able to check if there's debt on the machine by looking at the display. I'd ring the supplier and as for a meter reading check and to see if there was previous debt on it.

That's high! I'm around £4 a day in a 2 bed with heating on full time and I use a lot of hot water due to my ocd.

I agree it's likely debt from previous tenant, I had a similar issue when I moved in and had to prove to suppliers I was a different tenant.

Get them to get onto supplier to sort.