...to ask about prepayment gas meters.

[Autumn82]

We have recently moved into a new (rented) house and have 'inherited' a prepayment gas meter. It's costing us £5 per day which we think is totally bonkers. The heating and hot water are on a timer and only on for a couple of hours in the morning and again in the afternoon.

My question is- if you have a meter, how much do you put on it a week and how often do you use the heating etc. ?

In the winter my 3 bed house uses about £15 a week, that's heating on low level once back from school run, daily bath for dd and cooking. In the extreme winter maybe a touch more. Summer, I put £5 on a week and we never spend it all

I've not had a prepayment gas meter but I moved into a flat a few years ago and got a bill for £2400 for electric. It was because the last tenant had not paid their bill for ages.

It may be that you prepayment meter is set to recover an old debt but you are not responsible for that. Contact the supplier as soo as possible and sort it out.

Not going to directly answer your question BUT

1. Has the meter been transferred to you officially? If the previous tenant had a debt, it may have been added to the meter and you will currently be paying it off for them!

1. Prepayment meters are charged at a far higher rate than regular quarterly meters. If you can budget, you would be better off having the meter changed over.

They are not 'pre-payment' and are set to an estimated rate. Call supplier and get it checked.

I agree that is probably paying back a debt of the previous tenant, give the supplier a call and explain they will reset the meter. In summer we use less than £5 a week, winter probably around £15 a week with hot water and heating on twice a day on a timer plus heating put on throughout the day and at the weekend to.

Have you rang your supplier OP?

thats way to high i have a prepayment gas meter and a not too efficient boiler and i put about ten pounds a week in mine thats heating on for three hours a day and hot water for washing up once a day

If it's really cold for a long stretch we put about £25 a week on ours, but we are paying back some debt too. In the summer we put about £10 a week on, again paying back the debt, but only using it to heat water. Sounds to me like you are paying back the previous occupiers debt aswell as paying for your own gas

it is someone else's debt. Get on to the supplier tomorrow, get it zeroed. Also find out what your tariff is.

prepay is no longer necessarily more expensive, although it is a nuisance.

I contacted them last week and it should've been sorted but we put £15 on it on Monday and by last night it had gone.

We have two bed flat in the summer its less than £10 a week for hot water and cooking, winter is about £15 a week if we have heating on for a few hours a day. You may have a debt on the meter, you can check by calling your supplier.

Thats not normal at all. I use a prepayment meter, and while we do spend more in winter, not £5 a day. Whats the heating set to? I have it set so I can just switch it on when we need it, not at predetermined times.

We have prepayment meters in a 2 bed terrace and, in winter we use about 20-25 a week on the gas (our house is still quite cold as its old and damp and draughty, but is on a thermostat set at 18), but in summer we more or less forget about it!

we dont have gas but we have electric prepayment on our house. in summer its about £10 a week, goes up to around £20 a week in winter. thats with electric heating, electric hot water and normal appliances (ie oven, tv) on.

That doesn't sound right. Depends how much you're home and how much you use the heating, hot water and gas hob if you have one I guess but £15 for four days is crazily steep.

In the colder months we use £20 a week Approx but there's five of us, four of which are at home most of the time and with small children heating goes on a fair amount, a lot of cooking, washing up and baths! In summer maybe £5-£10 a week. One of the only things I prefer summer for tbh.

That's normal for me. Pre pay are always more expensive!!

vanilla if your boiler is coming on 5 times a day for half an hour each time you are probably using more than you would otherwise.Leave it on longer to give a decent temp and then it won't need to go back on so often.It's the constant firing it up from nothing that costs the most

I used to work for a power company in pre payment it will either be your tariff is wrong or you are paying someone else's debt. Sometimes even when they change to your name the meter still takes the debit however this would usually be taken as a lump sum per week if it's running high all the time it could be you are on a higher tariff or the meter is faulty. Call them and ask for them to come check it.

Our pre-pay seems to be the same as others on this thread. Approx £5 per week until winter when normally it's about £15 per week. When it was very cold and icy, it was £20 a week - since then we've double glazed so it's not so cold.

You can get it taken out it is up to you how you pay for your energy not your landlord. Ring your supplier and ask to go onto DD.

when I had prepayment it was about twenty pound a week in a two bed flat in winter and the heating was on a lot.

Spoke to BG this morning, there's no debt on the meter and they seem to think there's nothing wrong and the initial woman I spoke to thought it was quite reasonable to spend a pound an hour on gas when we only have heating and hot water that uses the gas supply. My husband spoke to a man afterwards who said to carry on for a couple of weeks so that he can monitor what's happening and they are sending us a cheque for £20.

well done on getting past the chief fobber-off. (remember they are targeted on closing off calls) Keep nagging,something isn't right.

did you get the meter zeroed?

Our gas meter I have been watching closely as it's new and it seems to be about £1 an hour for us, but I only put the heating on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening if needed so £10-£15 a week is enough, I'm expecting it to go up when it gets really cold.