No Gas, Help!!

[xMummy29]

Hi there! in a real mess at the moment!
I'm with utilita for gas & electric and was planning on topping up today however a direct debit has gone out and left me with literally nothing! I have 26p on the gas and that's in emergency, really panicking i don't have any family that can help.

Does anyone know if they will shut off my supply when it runs out?? it's so cold today aswell, so worried if I turn it on they will shut off my supply. Any advice would be great!

Thanks! X

From their website - you need to phone them. They may be able to top up the card for you and you just pay them back another day.
utilita.co.uk/help

I'm having difficulty paying for Top-Ups

We understand that paying for energy can be difficult, so we want to help. If you let us know that you are having difficulty, we can work with you.
We can also look into how you can reduce your energy usage to bring down your cost.

Please contact us if you are struggling and believe you may be left without supply for an extended period.
We will check (based on your usage and circumstances) if we can top-up your meter with enough credit to help you stay on supply.

(from the website)

Yes, it will go off. Phone them - most utility companies will give you a one off credit if you're in real difficulty and will add it onto the debt you're paying off (or if you have no current debt they'll take it from the meter each week until paid back). I know some companies will only do this once in a 12 month period though. They give you a code to take with your card/key to a Paypoint, then you have to spend an hour trying to explain to staff what they need to do with it to credit the card (in my experience!). It takes a couple of hours to send the code by text usually, plus ages waiting to talk to them on the phone, so the sooner you ring the better!

Make sure the amount you ask for will cover you until you get paid again. I had a credit due to waiting for Universal Credit - they gave me six weeks average usage credit but it took over nine weeks for my UC to be paid (it was - 10°c so we had a few very chilly weeks on microwave food only). Don't underestimate what you use.

This just gets better! I have no credit...no money to top up with and to top it all off i am currently still paying back what I owed when I switched...they take £2.50 off everytime i top up so the chances of then giving me credit are pretty slim.
I'll check out the website....what a week I'm having. :'(

Thank you for your reply though I really appriciate it. x

I was still paying a debt off at the time too, but they just added the credit onto what I owed in total. It's worth asking.

If no joy - your county council will have a scheme giving loans/grants for emergency fuel costs. They can sort it all over the phone and then pay the funds into your bank account. Check the council website or ring them, also the CAB can help you apply if you can get in to see them today/tomorrow.

I'm with Utilita and they're very good (in my experience)

Ring them. They'll help. I had to do this a few weeks ago due to a direct debit going out for that month AND the previous month that hadn't been taken for some reason.

Hello everyone

We've had a number of reports from people concerned about this thread so, as we usually do in these circs, we're putting our heads round the door with some important reminders.

Sadly, we at MNHQ can't know with 100% certainty that any poster is genuine and as frustrating as it is, we're not able to vouch for anyone here.

So we always ask everyone to remember that not everyone on the internet is who they say they are – and remind folk not to give more to another poster, either financially (in cash or gifts) or emotionally (in time or care and support) than they'd be prepared to lose if things went wrong.

Did someone report my thread??
i don't believe I've done anything wrong apart from ask for advice!?
what a nasty thing to do, thanks for the support to whoever did that...nice way to add to the day I'm having.

(and to the others, thank you for your helpful advice, much appriciated! x i have messaged utilita and they should get back to me in 5 working days...fingers crossed it's today!!)

You were reported because you have no previous posting history and people were concerned it was a scam. This isn’t nasty: it’s wise to be cautious on the internet and let MN look into it.

Utilia has a friendly credit scheme. If it runs out after 2pm it wont go off before 10am tomorrow. That might give you a bit of breathing space for them to get back to you.

Indeed, Bramblemouse.

Unfortunately, OP, at this time of year there tends to be a considerable number of people joining MN specifically to post about their financial woes, with the oblique intention of garnering donations of cash from others.

However, you probably wouldn’t know that if you’ve literally just come across MN today and joined in order to ask for advice about your gas account.

Seeing as you’ve got active internet access, contacting your gas supplier might yield more relevant information that you will get from MN.

Go to a citizens advice if you have one near. You can use one of their phones to call your utility provider, and they can also give you other advice. Hope you get it sorted

when do you get paid? Can you manage without for a while? What do you cook with?

Hi sorry for late reply! unfortunately no luck with them getting back to me, So think I'll have to go up tomorrow and see what I can do. Have given up at this point tbh. lol but thank you all for your help, and I completely understand what you're saying about scams etc, people will try anything these days for money i can assure you I am not a "scammer" and will not be asking anyone for money! :) fb seems to the worst for scams at the moment! it's awful.

Thank you all once again. :) x

Why have you messaged them? Phone them and get a human on the phone!

Don't message them. Ring them. They're open 8am-8pm
0330 3337 442

The above number is if your top up card is the blue one.
If it's a red one the number is 0345 2068 999

Also:

What happens if I run out of gas and/or electricity credit?
If your meter runs out of credit at any time of day, you have access to £15 'Emergency Credit', giving you time to top-up, but you must always activate it to be able to use it and prevent your supply turning off when your meter reaches £0.00. Your in-home display will notify you, which when accepted enables access to this emergency fund - be aware, this will need to be repaid when you next to top-up, so you are in positive credit by at least £1. In some cases you may be able to activate your Emergency Credit at your main meters, even if your supply has already turned off.

If the Emergency Credit itself runs out after 3pm, the supply will not go off until 10am the next day, giving you time to get to the shop or buy more credit in whichever way suits you. This additional facility is called 'Friendly Credit' and is accessible during evenings, weekends and bank holidays, to ensure you never go off supply.

Although it is useful to have the convenience of 'Emergency' and 'Friendly Credit', prepayment smart metering works best when you keep your meters topped-up. As with all prepayment meters, if you run your credit down to zero and get disconnected, you will need to top-up so you are in positive credit of at least £1.00, in order to get your supply back on.

Why message them and then have to wait for 5 days? Phone them and stay on hold as long as necessary to speak to a person.

OP can't ring - she said upthread that she's also got no credit.

(Although you'd be better off borrowing a phone call from a neighbour or friend than waiting for the response to a message; it takes a lot longer and a lot of places will want to verify your identity before they help, so over messenger this could take a few days).

OP obviously has an internet connection. She could use the live chat facility on Utilitia's web site to chat to someone immediately.

NEARLY OUT OF GAS OR ELECTRICITY NEED HELP FUEL VOUCHERS ONLY GIVEN TO THOSE SANCTIONED AND NO ONE TO TURN TO READ THIS.. my MESSAGE ON BRITISH GAS CHAT ON THE INTERNET MY ACCOUNT.
This is something that British Gas can help you with.
Wilson: We have a dedicated team that deals with this, unfortunately, they do not have the webchat facility.
Wilson: You can contact them on 03332029804*.
Wilson: They are available from Monday to Friday between 9am to 5pm
Wilson: They will add some amount to your meter they dit they put £20 on electricity and £20 on gas It's called DISCRETIONARY PAYMENT
I dont know what other fuel companies do this but it's worth a try but british gas do i verifie it.Hope this helps.... keep warm.

Go to Citizens Advice and they will give you a top up.

Zombie thread alert!!