to think that power companies are wrong to do this?

[Bogeyface]

So, we changed to a pre payment meter when H was made redundant. We kept up the monthly DD as long as we could but when the redundancy ran out and all we had was one NMW 0 hours contract job between us, we changed to pre payment. He got paid weekly, tax credits and CB were paid weekly and his income wasnt guaranteed, so we decided to do it as making sure we had enough at the end of the month was tough.

No charge for it, we are happy for you to change blah blah. Because of where we were in our annual cycle we had a debt several hundred £. We have high use as there are 7 of us here but over 12 months it usually averages out by over paying in the summer (this you know..). We were paying off the debt at £20 a week.

So, he finally got the job he has wanted all this time, set hours, salary, regular (and higher) pay, so I rang them about going back on to DD. We still owe them but no where near as much as we did when we were still on DD.

They will charge us £100 to change both meters and if we fail the credit check then we will have to pay £300 deposit (there is a chance we will as we had signed the finance on a new to us car 10 days before he was made redundant with no notice and had to juggle payments to everything for a while to avoid having to hand the car back and still owe ££ thanks to depreciation). If you are not sure that you will pass the credit check (as we are not) then you risk it affecting your rating by them performing the check and you failing, or you think "better not risk it" and stay on prepayment.

Now whilst I can see that they dont want people coming off prepay and then not paying their DD, it seems that they make it very very easy to go from DD to prepayment but v v hard to go back the other way. You pay a higher rate for your energy based purely on the fact that it is prepayment, they charge 50p each time you use the emergency on the electric (not sure on the gas, probably the same) and it seems to me that they dont want us to pay by DD as they will make less money from us.

And I was not warned of any of this when we switched, if I had then I would have begged borrowed or stolen to keep the DD, it just seemed an easier way to do it and we were prepared to take the hit temporarily until we were settled again.

I deplore how the 'power' companies are able to maximise profits from those least able to afford adequate utilities.

I could rant, & rant, & rant...

Can't you put what you would pay in DD a month on the pre-payment monthly?

Who are you with BF?

Check out the Consumer Action Group and their forum specifically. They are really great at throwing up the most public way to call out these energy companies on the breach of their licence agreements and I'm certain you'll find a few friendly folk on there who will be happy to help.

It is wrong to have to pay more when you're in at your most vulnerable and I do hope you manage to get it sorted.

Yes Sick and we probably will, but that money will not go as far on the prepayment as it would DD because we are paying a higher rate. If we paid say £200 a month gas and electric on DD then we would be on a lower rate so our debt would be cleared faster, on prepayment our gas and electric costs more so it takes longer to pay off the debt.

Any chance that whichever of you currently is on the bill, you could tell them you are moving out and need to settle the bill, perhaps set up a standing order to pay off the rest of the debt at £20 per month or whatever. Then the other one of you tells them that you have just moved in and want to get rid of the meters that came with the house, and will be deciding which companies you use based on who will remove the meters most cheaply.

Does anyone think this might work?

Oh and sick I cant just go in and say "I want £100 on each please" as they have a limit of £49 (presumably because they take the debt payments each time you top up), so I would have to top up by £49, £49 and £2 on the gas and then the same on the electric, hardly user friendly!

I should also add that we were with Scottish Power for 3 years previously, having changed from NPower due to better rates, on DD with no issues at all. That doesnt count apparently

Oh I didn't know that lol only ever had DD and with Scottish power so have never changed why etc hope you get it sorted

When we moved to where we are now, there were prepayment meters in. After a while, I got fed up with them so I called N Power to change to DD. They told us that they would charge £50 per meter. So I rang around, and EDF offered to change the meters for free so we changed over to them. They did say they would do a credit check, but explained it would be an internal check so it would only be to see if we had any outstanding debt with them.

So definitely ring around. I know British Gas charge to change the meters too, or did a few years ago anyway. We save about £50 a month since switching from those bloody prepayment meters!