emergency gas questions

[polcrumb]

hiya, ive moved into a new house and it turns out even though the new gas company has set me up a direct debit, the previous people were on a prepayment meter. they say that to change it i need to run out of emergency credit. have never used a prepayment meter - i dont understand the screen. ive googled it and cant find versions of my screen. does credit count up or down? from 15 downwards or up from zero? currently it says £-1.81. does this mean i have spent 1.81 or have that left???? also, i dont know why im presuming emergency credit is fifteen quid and not a fiver or a tenner. can someone advise?

Emergency credit is usually £5. If you have -£1.81 then it sounds like you are already into the emergency credit.

thank you. i dont know whether to burn through it to make sure i can get them out today to change my meter. hmmm. im back at work tomorrow...

This all sounds bizarre. We had the same situation, and they just arranged a credit check and booked a date for the meter to be changed. There was a wait if a couple of weeks, and we used prepayment in that time. If you run down the emergency credit your power will go off!

the energy company i am with (spark) told me if i have any credit and i want to get switched over from this prepay meter that they will charge me. they cannot change it (they say) if there is any credit on it. i dont understand either

We had a prepayment and got it switched out - you can shop around for new provider. Some charge you and others don't. Look around for the best option.

We switched to British Gas specifically because they don't charge for changing the meter.