I've put this here as there doesn't seem to be a board for household bills or utilities.
I'm hoping this may help the ever increasing numbers of us who are being pressured to accept smart meters, particularly if you struggle paying your bills. Companies are increasingly changing these to prepayment remotely, so if you cannot pay you are effectively disconnecting yourself.
For anyone interested, it turns out you can actually purchase your own gas or electricity credit meter, and have it installed yourself if your energy company refuse! Some companies charge hundreds of sounds to install a standard credit never instead of a smart meter. However, more and more companies are saying you can't have one because they don't have any, or are no longer available, but this is an outright lie.
This company give advice, and can also provide meters and perform installations.
www.crownenergy.co.uk/faq/electricity-meter-faqs/#:~:text=You%20can%20legally%20install%20your,a%20dangerous%20procedure%20to%20undertake
This company sell standalone meters, both gas and electricity. Electricity under £50, gas from as little as £20. Obviously, you would need to obtain the relevant advice as to what would be appropriate for your property.
www.electricmetersales.co.uk/
I really hope this helps someone.
Use our Cost of Living forum to discuss budgeting and energy saving with other users.
Cost of living
Supply your OWN energy meters!
OnlyOpenMouthToChangeFeet · 02/02/2023 11:55
ThisGirlNever · 02/02/2023 21:21
It says you need your supplier's permission. I presume they would just refuse you permission to fit your own?
Kitkatandcoffee · 05/02/2023 10:45
Can I ask why don’t you want smart meters? Genuine question we have one and we love it as we can see exactly what we are using.
It let us keep an eye on what we were spending.
CrazyCorgi · 06/02/2023 08:39
I genuinely don’t see what all the fuss is about smart meters. I think it’s just been over hyped in the media and people have been whipped up into a frenzy. People are saying that they don’t want to be changed over to one because they can afford to pay their bills by direct debit anyway so there’s no need to. Well, if they can afford to pay by direct debit then why aren’t they? Use the money that they say they’ve got to put credit on the meter if it’s changed over. I know it sounds harsh but there’s a reason that people are put onto a smart meter and it’s because they’re not paying, why should a company give their product away for free?
Yes the prices are over inflated. I don’t want to pay them either. However, I do and I don’t want my bill to be increased to cover the debts of people who don’t pay.
Aroundthetwist · 05/02/2023 20:21
People who pay for the energy they use are better off with a smart meter in my view.
People who don’t pay, and don’t let their energy company know they are vulnerable or speak to them to ask for help are in trouble whether or not they have a smart meter.
The main issue with people who have prepayment meters ‘force fitted’ are they are people who don’t engage at all with their energy supplier - they ignore all attempts at communication. Energy suppliers only know you are vulnerable if you let them know - if you use energy and don’t pay, as with anything else in life, enforcement activity will follow. Ofgem are consulting on allowing a larger bad debt allowance in the price cap - so paying customers will be charged higher tariffs to pick up the costs of people who don’t pay. It’s in everybody’s interests for those who won’t pay to be forced to, and for those who can’t pay to be helped.
I completely agree that the tactics used by third parties contracted by energy companies recently (BG) look questionable, but if you are in debt then actually a prepayment meter is often a good idea - the very large majority of prepayment meters are installed for customers who actually prefer them.
We actually like our smart meter as it tells us exactly how much we’ve used !
PerkingFaintly · 05/02/2023 21:05
The main issue with people who have prepayment meters ‘force fitted’ are they are people who don’t engage at all with their energy supplier - they ignore all attempts at communication.
<hollow laugh>
Is that some kind of weird joke?
I currently have three (3) neighbours in dispute with utility companies.
One had an unexplained DD of £600 taken from her bank months ago, and has spent hours of her life on the phone to the utility company since. Each call, the new person she talks to agrees with her that she is right, the utility company is wrong, they owe her £600 and will pay it to her just now... and the month goes round, rinse and repeat. She's a disabled pensioner and is waiting for this money back to pay for an adaptation she needs in her house. Her Ofgem complaint is now in progress.
Another is a landlady. She came round to use my laptop just to check it wasn't her phone being odd, because when her last tenant left and she took over the account, her utility company managed to merge her new account with that from the last vacancy. She is now receiving emails telling her DDs are being taken from her bank and that the govt payments have gone into her electricity account... but the links from those emails lead to a webpage saying "this account is closed". I watched it happen. She has not even had a reply from the utility company.
Another neighbour also has a dispute involving a mysterious £600 DD (that figure again).
In each case, the body "not engaging" is the utility company.
So if you like sweeping generalisations, try this one:
People who have not yet experienced the chaos that utility company fuck-ups can bring to their lives, indulge in magical thinking that they only happen to Other People who must have done something wrong. That way they can kid themselves it'll never happen to them.
Aroundthetwist · 06/02/2023 14:29
@OnlyOpenMouthToChangeFeet genuine question, have you told your energy company that you are vulnerable ? I think they can tag your account and it might be easier to receive support too.
Smart meters aside, energy is not a free product and because energy suppliers only make 2% on energy supply (really), it’s likely that Ofgem will allow the bad debt charge arising from the restriction on fitting prepayments to be passed through to end consumers. Both government and energy suppliers offer support through targeted measures and benefits as a whole - using energy and not paying leads to higher costs to paying customers.
@GPTec1 , not sure if you are implying that non-paying customers should simply be taken to court and and disconnected - I don’t think that’s a great solution, Ofgem doesn’t allow disconnection for residential customers, other European countries do.
Smart meters have issues but they are more reliable than manual meter reads, or manual switching etc. As long as people let their supplier know if they are vulnerable, the risk of being forced onto a prepayment meter (non-smart of smart) is low - don’t just wait for enforcers to show up at your door with court mandated warrants.
Aroundthetwist · 06/02/2023 15:46
The Priority Service Register is for network operators - the companies that bring power to your house, so national grid, sgn, northern power grid/gas networks etc. I don’t think a supplier would see your name on there.
I can recommend giving your supplier a call to let them know your situation as I agree, that does sound terrifying.
sorcerersapprentice · 06/02/2023 16:49
I thought was illegal for anyone who is not appointed by the Energy company to touch the meter. There are a lot of conmen out there offering to install meters for illegal purposes so I would be very cautious on anything like this that looks too good to be true. It probably is
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postwarbulge · 06/02/2023 16:17
If energy suppliers are encouraging people to have a smart meter installed, supposedly to save them money, why do they impose such eye-watering charges to install them?
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