I may BU - pre payment gas and electric

[KungFuBustle]

Anyone who knows me knows how cross I get about fuel poverty and I think maybe I've got my head too far up my own arse about this.

We were struggling with our utilitiy bills. On our monthly call to our providers collections department pre payment metres were suggested. At the time I was paying back debt at £150 plus the months bills, I couldn't keep up.

We're not sat in an oven but a disabled husband who's in all day and is pained by the cold does push the usage up. We've got draught excluders, hot water bottles, jumpers etc.

I know the pre payment costs more per unit but it would allow them to collect £10 a week debt from electric metre only and I can just call and make overpayments on he debt over the phone. The women who helped was kind, empathetic and helpful. She suggested I could top up in dribs and drabs to build up a huge credit on gas to help keep us warm. 50p change in shop? Whack it on the card and never miss it. I loved this idea.

Metre is fitted and we're given a leaflet. Minimum top up is £5! No dribs and drabs. £5. Plus if you top up £5.50 only whole pounds are applied to the metre. Alright I'll manage it, I'm lucky, I can work. But what about the person with £4.50? Do they just have to freeze once emergency is gone, even if they have £4.50 they would happily put on the metre?

AIBU to think this is a disgrace and could punish the poorest and most vulnerable?

Thank you Puppies. Our debt is £600 and it kept me awake at night. Now it's more manageable I'm hoping that with me working it'll be OK but it's good to know support is there if it all goes tits up again.

The fear of being cut off and being pulled between DH's pain and knowing we couldn't afford the heat was awful for us. We'd have 3 hours on a bad day, 2 on a good.

I just made my first top up. Step one towards learning debt

Clearing not learning! I previewed post too! Such a dafty.

I know it was wrong to use the heat when I couldn't pay. It was debt or pain. I chose debt, but always with the intention of paying it all back.

Then you made the right choice. I don't believe anyone on here would choose to watch someone they love suffer rather than get into debt.

It's really easy to get into debt with energy companies even when you think you're being careful. I managed it despite willingness and ability to pay when I was on estimated bills, which just turned out to have been estimated very badly.

I haven't read the whole thread
But I'm on a pre pay meter for electric and gas, I hate it, but was told I would have to pay a large some of money to go back to bills (bad credit)

It's awful when you only have £3 to your name and no heating and can't top up as they won't accept it, but worse, most shops refuse to let you top up unless you buy something from the shop (and change the rules constantly eg, no payment by card, must be certain groceries only ect) go find myself having to buy things I don't need and can't afford,

Parsing the point I was making was that profit is not a crime. The French didn't storm the Bastille shouting "Monsieur Le Pain is charging too much for his eclairs!" They - correctly - identified the government as the source of their food woes and not the Boulangers.

I take your point that people are complaining - wrongly IMO - about food prices.

Oh OP I don't think you are BU at all, and I think you should complain - even though the woman was 'nice', she told you wrong information. Maybe the next person she talks to won't be able to afford a £5 top-up. I hope things improve for you and am glad that you've got a repayment plan you can afford.

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Weve had no gas/heating for over 5 yrs now.We didnt buy any gas over the warm months ages ago and it built up a debt for just having the metre in.When it came to the winter we needed to pay off the debt before we could get credit on it.We didnt have the money so it got left.
My DP is now disabled too we have bed in living room cos he cant get upstairs and electric heater.It bloody freezing upstairs and we have to boil kettles for hot water, its a PITA but we cant afford to pay it off.

I'm on pre-payment meters, due to the debt my twatting ex left me with.

My electric meter takes £10 per week for the debt, at least its meant to. Twice now it hasn't taken the debt, once for 2months, then it takes it all in one go, meaning I had to top up a minimum of £100 to get the electric back on!

When I phoned the supplier, the lady I spoke to said it was due to a fault on the meter, and therefore their fault, but that they couldn't do anything about it! As a result I owe my dad money I don't have! Bastarding companies!

Sabra you are entitled to help with this. The posters who say about the fund are right. They dont publicise it but its thre. Yhe cab can advise.

Ineed thats what happened with our gas before we get credit need to pay off debt. Its the bloody standing charge the debt, paying for nowt really.
We need to get it sorted,sick of kettle boiling for hot water.Luckily its not too cold, hope we dont get big freeze this yr.
We had a letter from NPower couple weeks ago saying we owed almost £200 for gas, gas has been capped off at mains for over 5yrs god knows where they got that from idiots, weve never even used them for gas, with them previuosly just electric.

Thanks LEM I didnt know about the fund, would it matter if debt was with different company not britsh gas?
Going to go to CAB and get it sorted.

I dont think it matters sabra - it has to be worth a try

Could people (yourself included) have a little pot that they put money in when they have the odd bit of change so you always have a fiver to hand. Back in the day when I had a gas meter, I'm sure you could put on less than a fiver. However, I usually put on £30 pcm when I got paid which saw me through.

Sabra, I don't quite understand your situation with the gas, ie capped off or just not using, but if you're getting demands you think may be wrong from the utility companies, please do enquire/complain to them in writing.

Then follow up with a written complaint to Ofgem if it's not resolved. You have to scrupulously follow the company's complaint's procedure first: it will be on their website, which will also tell you how many days must elapse before you can bring in Ofgem.

It's bad enough that you're having to live that way; if the power company's made a mistake, you shouldn't be having to cope with that as well.

Lots of good luck with that, and with the grant fund.

Sabra, which company are you with?

Stripy that must have been some time ago when £30 pcm saw you through a month, did you cook with gas as well?

I do love the idea of a little pot to put the money in - the only downside to that idea when you have no money is there is never any spare money to put in the bloody pot! I would love a little put that meant i always had a fiver to spare - the trouble comes when you have to use the fiver! So whilst is a brilliant idea in principle and in fact we do have a "rodney box" - a delboy car money box, that we put our spare change in when we are financially ok, we put it towards a holiday or days out, there have been times when we couldn't manage to even get a couple of pounds in there due to being up against it.

Sabra - Parsing is right, you don't need all that extra stress - I would make an appointment to see the CAB, or you may just have to drop in and wait (and wait!) as they can help you with this - they are pretty bloody brilliant and hopefully will get you sorted out. We were told about the fund but we managed without it as we felt we were taking from people with more needs than us, you sound like just the sort of people it was designed to help.

You can't change Energy Suppliers if your debt is a nhs above a certain amount (£200 IIRC). Also I would say 6-7% is a substantial amount when totting up everyone's payments.

Don't know where the nhs came from there .