not sure where to post thid but just want some general advice if possible im a lone parent and have a 3yr old
my gas and electric are currently billed but they are billing me well over £100 a month (this is not estimated) so im not sure if im paying for people before me or god knows how they come up with these figures anyways i was going to get prepaid meters in but im scared incase i cant afford to put in enough money if i am usin this much
HOW much do use use per month in your prepaid meters?
i have a 2 bedroom flat, just me and my son im out 3 times a week 9 till 4, i have gas central heating and gas hobs on cooker everything else is electric including shower, i dont have a tumble dryer and hardly ever use microwave and if i do its for 2 to 3 mins to heat up some beans so hardly ever use that
Use our Single Parent forum to speak to other parents raising a child alone.
Lone parents
gas and electricity?
lilly153 · 03/01/2011 14:01
Ah, you can get ones that plug into the socket too, that you then plug the TV, etc into.
But I think the link is to one which clips round the mains wire near your Consumer Unit or Fusebox or whatever they're called these days and measures total consumption. Then the display communicates by radio so you can clutch it as you walk round the house going, Hmm.
We've had both, and they were useful in different ways. If you want to examine the consumption of an individual device, the plug in one is good. If you're chasing down a immersion heater in the cellar, the total consumption one is good because you can turn off all "known" devices and see if you're still using juice.
Oh the hours of fun that stretch before you. 
smokinaces - what are they?
Oooh i am being ripped off
I gave Scottish Power a call and they said NO!, i am not being ripped off, that is standard rate for my usage??????
I have NO idea which appliance(s) is/are costing so much...?
I have used 7 pounds since Monday morning and it is Thursady now... 
You are defo being ripped off ILovedYou because I have a 4 bedroom chicky!!
thanks angeree and littlebeaut i phoned and spoke to both electric and gas company theyve assured me i wont get charged any extra for having meters put in and that i dont get charged anymore for gas or electric than somebody on bills
i tried to work out better repayment plans but my gas min payment they would accept was £99 per month so ive opted to get both gas and electric meters put in my gas comp are going to take £3.30 a week off me but i owe them more than £600 bareing in mind ive been paying them £70 a month since i moved in 
not sure how they work that out but hey ho and my electric ive manage to make a payment to them so only owe the £150 and they are going to take £5 a week so wont take that long to clear that hopefully
any yes i think once ive paid them both off i will shop around for a cheaper option if theirs one availible
thanks ladies for all your help and advice
I agree with Anngree... I love my prepay meters. I love not getting bills EVER, and I have never used anywhere near the amount of gas or electric that I ever did before I had a prepayment meter, which I dont get if there suppose to cost more money 
When I had a debt on mine I paid £5 a week gas and £7 a week on electric... didnt really miss it and soon the dept was paid off. Funny I just got statement from EDF today so say I use about 93p a day gas and £1.48 electric a day on average.
Hi lilly
I'm on prepayment meters, the electric meter was prepayment when I moved into my house and I opted to change to gas prepayment meter as company I was with (EON) had been undercharging me for a year after I moved in then decided to send me a £300 bill at a christmastime! Being a single parent on benefits I couldn't afford this so asked for prepayment meter to be put in. They took £5wk off me but it comes of so-many-pence per day the bill was paid off in 10mths and meter tells you how much you have outstanding left to pay. As soon as i'd paid debt off I changed companies (now with EDF) find there customer service skills a lot better. EON tried to tell me I had a debt outstanding on my account before I changed but had paid off debt, prepayment meter had stopped collecting debt and when I worked out how much i'd paid back it definately covered debt so couldn't understand where outstanding debt had come from until I checked there bills and found they were adding VAT to my account instead of taking it of payments I was making at PP point I pointed this out to them and of course it was a computer error
I have gas central heating, cooker etc and my bills are around £20wk in winter and around £7wk in summer for gas. My electric is the same all year round has just increased from £5wk -£7.50wk.
I find prepayment meters cheaper than bills or direct debit but reason they are classed as more expensive is because you might only be using 45p worth of electric but with standing charge, VAT etc taken into account you get charged roughly £1 a day so paying more for charges than actual usage.
I think prepayment meters are the way to go and once you've paid debt you can change companies and know that you can only use what is on meter and won't build up another debt.
Not sure what company your with but EDF also have a trust fund that offer grant's to help you get out of debt.
It may seem inconvienient at first having to remember to top gas and electric up but once you get used to it, it's as simple as taking your card or key with you when you go shopping. There is also emergency credit available which you can use if your credit runs out but you haven't been able to pop to the shop this will last a couple of days until you can top up only thing is you get charged at higher rate for using it but as soon as you top up debt gets cleared.
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