Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

Original poster

I’ve done a terrible thing… what to do now

235 replies

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:09

Hi,

about 9 months ago I was really struggling financially. My dad had just died and I was in a very bad place.

I knew that I hadn’t been paying enough for my electricity and I was being badgered for a meter reading. Stupidly I submitted a lower reading. I’m ashamed of this and know it’s illegal.

im now in a better position and want to sort this. Do I just enter the actual reading now? I’m also considering just calling them up and being totally honest about what I did.

what should I do? Please don’t judge me - I know how bad this is

OP posts:
PorridgeIsNotSlimmingTheWayIMakeIt · 14/09/2024 10:18

Don't panic OP. Can you afford to pay them the full whack now? If not, ring them up and ask for a payment plan on the basis that a previous meter reading was sent in error and you've just realised. Good luck and cut yourself some slack. Life can be hard at times, if this gave you a bit of leeway when you needed it, no harm done.

Turnups · 14/09/2024 10:25

If you tell them the correct reading now you will be charged for the amount you under-reported last time, so don’t worry about it.

If they query it, say you now realise you typed an incorrect digit last time, as someone else has suggested. You’re trying to do the right thing now so I don’t see any reason to risk them labelling you as dishonest.

MakeMineaDigestivePlease · 14/09/2024 10:25

Why on earth do you think you'd be reported to the police?

All that has happened is you owe them money so you're in debt, not credit.

When people pay monthly by a SO, they often overpay and end up in credit. The companies are sometimes very slow to return that to customers' bank accounts, if they ask for that. So I'd not worry about owing them something.

Just submit the actual reading and pay it.

Why don't you set up a SO so you pay each month?

FarFarWay · 14/09/2024 10:26

You will be OK.

There is also a scheme called you YouPay WePay, and they match what you pay for several months. You do need to call and get the readings aligned with what they are, and speak to somebody.

Teateaandmoretea · 14/09/2024 10:26

You’re seriously overthinking this OP. You’ve played the system not committed a crime.

Are you one of those who comes on mumsnet and screams ‘fraud’ when someone says a 5 year old is 4 to get into the zoo cheaper?

Parker231 · 14/09/2024 10:28

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:13

What’s the risk of them reporting me to the police?

If you now give a correct reading and pay the amount due I’m sure they won’t even notice. Non payers get noticed, not those who make payments.

IMustDoMoreExercise · 14/09/2024 10:29

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:13

What’s the risk of them reporting me to the police?

They won't report you to the police, especially if you now have the money to pay off the arrears.

Please do not worry. You were in a desperate situation. No-one will judge you.

Fluufer · 14/09/2024 10:31

They probably won't even notice. You've been paying, you will continue paying. The computer will probably just up your payments. You won't even have to pay it all at once if you don't want to.

itsmylife7 · 14/09/2024 10:31

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:13

What’s the risk of them reporting me to the police?

Zero.

NotSorry · 14/09/2024 10:34

We got in a muddle with our son’s rental house (uni students) water bill - mainly due to there being 2 meters. We phoned them at the end of the tenancy explained everything and they were so helpful. Helped us sort out the correct reading, sent a bill and it got paid. Just submit a new reading and if it does get queried I’d say my dad had just died and I got in a muddle.

Uselesssil · 14/09/2024 10:37

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:13

What’s the risk of them reporting me to the police?

None. Just pay for the amount you owe.

Utility companies don’t get reported, when they ‘owe’ a customer money, which happens pretty much all the time.

Neverheather · 14/09/2024 10:38

Just enter the correct reading and pay what they ask and it will be fine. Don't beat yourself up, it could have been a genuine error, the previous reading could have been lower because you weren't at home as much, had you been spending a lot of time at your dad's before he died? Your direct debit will probably go up, so if you can't afford it, contact them and explain you are having difficulties. They will be very willing to help you sort this out. Please don't worry.

HashtagShitShop · 14/09/2024 10:39

As others have said, there's absolutely no risk of them calling the police darling so please don't worry.

In a slightly related way, British Gas, added the wrong gas reading for my account. I had an confirming my readings that I'd entered and it was correct. Somehow in processing or being added by a customer service agent or similar the second number changed so they had me using hundreds more kwh than I had. My direct debit went from 90 pounds a month (those were the days....) to 390.

This was during the late October of 2020 so it was a ballache to sort out to get them to recognise and accept the issue due to working at home and lots of people calling and being home to use more gas and electric etc. It also didn't help that you never spoke to the same person twice so had to start to the beginning and they would then go and interfere in what someone else had already done as well as do their own solutions.

Given that most pay via dd once a month you have to wait a month to see if was fixed each time and... Well, it never was. One swore he'd fixed it and from his end it was sorted. He did stuff to bills and it was just all messed up on the account. Of course it wasn't fixed. January they took 590. We ended up going to the ceo at that point who passed it to a senior customer service agent and she literally said "I have absolutely no idea what he's done. It's just.. Chaos." but finally she got it sorted out by cancelling all bills from September onwards, manually adding the correct readings going forward and then rebilling us and refunding the overpayment.

I realise it's a long read up there so in short: for months they had us as using hundreds more kwh than we were and that we had underpaid. At no point were the police or bailiffs or court's etc paid. They don't work like that unless you just don't pay full stop and there's a long process they have to go through. You'd know if that was happening to you and it isn't. Please don't worry. Just add the new meter readings, make a sizable payment to the account manually and to give yourself piece of mine add readings to the account for say every Monday for 6 weeks so they can see it's not an incorrect reading and I doubt they'd even contact you to question it.

BobbyBiscuits · 14/09/2024 10:41

No way will they in involve the police. Their cheaping out by making us read our own meters anyway! Say someone had bad eyesight, it was dark, they had shaky hands? Hardly a crime!
Just put the proper reading and pay. If they question it just say it must have been a mistake. You misread/mistyped the numbers.

MsLavender · 14/09/2024 10:43

Don't admit doing it on purpose, just say you must have made a mistake. Plus they fuck people over all the time trying to get money off people that isn't even owed, don't feel bad about it at all OP!

TemuSpecialBuy · 14/09/2024 10:45

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:13

What’s the risk of them reporting me to the police?

Pretty much zero

NewGreenDuck · 14/09/2024 10:45

And just remember. In the bad old days they sent a meter reader around to actually read your meter every quarter! They don't now, so it's really their fault that you made a mistake. 😊

tsmainsqueeze · 14/09/2024 10:46

Don't worry about it it's easy to rectify.
You are one of thousands or more who do this i imagine , i wouldn't think twice about doing it if the need arose , the energy companies don't think about us when they're screwing us over.

TemuSpecialBuy · 14/09/2024 10:47

Please don’t worry about this.
as others said enter the correct reading

or if you are worried you can do it progressively

eg
Last submitted read 1000 real read 2000
sep submitted read 1400 real read 2100
oct submitted read 1800 real read 2200
nov submitted read 2300 real read 2300

Xyz1234567 · 14/09/2024 10:48

I'm sorry you're worrying yourself about this. Sorry for the loss of your dad, people don't function on all cylinders at times like this and you 100% don't need to worry.
They won't care less. They also don't care less when they keep the millions of pounds that people have overpaid them. Just enter the correct amount and pay the bill that arrives. Give yourself a break and find something nice to do today.

IdgieThreadgoodeIsMyHeroine · 14/09/2024 10:49

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:13

What’s the risk of them reporting me to the police?

Zero! If they question it, which they won't, just play dumb and claim you must have entered one of the digits incorrectly.

Hitchens · 14/09/2024 10:50

Ifoughthefight · 14/09/2024 09:42

well, if they are that interested in their money, they will have a way to catch up with you, don't worry about that. But people here are not right. You should be worried that you used lies and cheated. That is how this whole society operates???? That cheating, lies and immorality is ok?

calm down. In the grand scheme of things, someone submitting a lower meter reading as they were having money issues and now quite clearly correcting isn't immoral.

Tryonemoretime · 14/09/2024 10:50

Don't give this any more head space, OP. Loads of us wear reading glasses and long distance glasses. A fair number will be wearing the wrong ones when they read the meter and enter inaccurate figures. Never seen any cases of crimes regarding inaccurate meter readings in the Daily Mail....Have a coffee, send off the new, accurate readings and don't worry.

Xyz1234567 · 14/09/2024 10:54

Ifoughthefight · 14/09/2024 09:42

well, if they are that interested in their money, they will have a way to catch up with you, don't worry about that. But people here are not right. You should be worried that you used lies and cheated. That is how this whole society operates???? That cheating, lies and immorality is ok?

Shame on you for posting this BS

FinalWarning · 14/09/2024 10:55

Hazeby · 14/09/2024 09:17

I doubt a human will even look at it. Put your new meter reading in, the computer will do its sums and recalculate your next bill.

Definitely this. You’re overthinking it. We got £2,000 behind a couple of years ago cos we hadn’t done a reading for ages and hadn’t adjusted our DD when prices spiked. We just gradually paid it off - don’t think we ever spoke to a human.

Swipe left for the next trending thread