Fuel bill credit - would this work?

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

Not us, but a friend of DH's is thinking of doing this. Can't work out if he's genius or foolish?

He doesn't have a smart meter, and says that the power company have never read the meter (had been there about 4 years, meter is inside, he's never arranged for them to read it). He just inputs meter readings every so often. Quarterly?

His genius/foolish plan - send in false higher meter readings than he has actually used now. So say he's used 50 units, he sends in a reading for 90 units. Save again next month. By the next price increase in October, he's paid for 80 units he hasn't actually yet used, at current rate. Then he uses the power to catch up with his readings as the unit price goes up in Oct..

Would probably work for a few units. I suspect if the difference was great there would be a meter reader out there pretty sharpish.

Meter readers have some right of access - not sure how that works but I do know that meters are supposed to be physically read at least once every 12 months. If he refused access, the company can stop his supply and insist on prepayment should they so wish.

My feeling was that if he appeared to be using more than usual the he'd be suspected of having a cannabis farm!

I always pay more over the summer than I do in the winter to build up a balance anyway, he can opt to pay higher than his usage to create a buffer no matter what readings he gives.

But I wouldn’t bank on them never coming to take official readings in the long term.

It's not the overpaying of actual financial credit he's after - a lot of people do this during the summer -

it's paying for units "in advance"at a lower cost than they'll cost when he actually uses them.

I think I read on MSE that it's illegal. Fraud maybe?

He is not a genius as he hasn’t thought of it- it’s on MSE and most likely other websites and it’s definitely fraud.

Its a risk- they may ask for a photo of the meter if the reading seems unusually high.

Energy companies will be on the look out for this. You could probably get away with it in small amounts but to do it on a big enough scale to make any major savings would be risky.

My energy company recently started asking for a photo alongside a reading... perhaps this sort of thing is the reason why??

Faking the reading at almost double what he is using is just idiotic. Especially at this time of year. When they see his account, they'll investigate it and it is fraud. He isnt a genius, energy companies are looking out for this and being more careful. He'll end up in a bit of trouble.

I might have done that at the end of March and I might have saved myself around £60 on my quarterly bill. A drop in the ocean come October and not really worth the effort.

I did this in March. Overestimated and Paid for a grand of fuel I'd not yet used. I'm about to give the next reading and still nowhere near. I'm a bit stuck 🙈

I suspect the people we’ve just bought a house from might have done this. When I gave the meter readings the day we moved in, it asked for a photo as they were lower than the ones given in April!

@Chohlin654 just don't send a meter reading and they will estimate it, you can send a reading once you go past the number and catch up. I've gone months without sending in a reading before now, just done it once a year as couldn't be bothered moving very heavy sofa to get at the meter. They seem to send a meter reader only every couple of years.👍 I don't see why anybody should feel guilty about this (and I'm normally a very honest person) the energy companies are charging more with the direct debits than we have used a lot of the time so they have our money in advance of us using it, why isn't that fraud? It's pennies in comparison to the massive profits they are making!!

Company did this to us with an overestimate.

Was a tricky one because I was like arghh I do not want to correct them because this is great, but equally they are asking me for a grand. God dammit!!

Its not fraud because thats how a DD for energy works. You are supposed to pay for more than you use during the summer so you can build a credit to go against use in the winter. If you dont like it just pay on receipt of bill instead of by DD.

@Hellocatshome I think what they are saying is that they give false high meter readings now so charged on summer 2022 unit rates then when the rates go up massively in October they will have already paid for, potentially, a couple of months of usage but they've paid for them on cheaper rates. So when they input meter reads over the winter they will be lower than usual / expected so invoices will be lesser.

Different to DD because that's just a fixed amt you pay into your energy account to create a balance which is then invoiced from.

@sittingonacornflake I know thats what OP is saying I was responding to the post I quoted who said why wasn't the energy company having their money in advance fraud.

@Hellocatshome oh sorry. Been up all night with a feverish little one and clearly lost all capacity to read.

But you won’t log credit at the lower rate, you’ll just log money with your provider and then pay against the rate that’s in place when you use it.

It’s no different to paying an average direct debit over the year that’s more over the summer than you use that then covers your winter usage.

I'm with EON and every time I submit a reading they check it's in line with my expected usage before re-calculating my bill. And they do send meter readers to do spot checks.