The pros and cons of pre-payment meters

Pre-payment meters are a great way to budget. They’re also very reliable.

A meter has several advantages:

• It’s an easy way to budget for gas or electricity – no worries about bills arriving later.
• It offers you an emergency credit facility if you are unable to buy credit straight away.
• It allows you to stay on supply while repaying any money owed.

Pre-payment meters have some possible disadvantages too. But these needn’t be a problem if you check your meter regularly, and plan in advance.

• You need to make sure you can easily visit a charging point or token outlet whenever you need to buy credit for your electricity or gas meter, otherwise you may go off supply.
• You’ll need to make sure you have enough credit on your meter if you go away from home. Even when you’re not there, your meter will still be charging for any appliances you normally leave on, such as fridges and freezers, or your hot water.
• Remember too that you’ll usually have to buy more credit for your gas meter during the winter months, when you use more energy.

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Different types of meter

• Gas The meters used for gas supply are all of the Quantum Meter type.
• ElectricityThere are three different types of electricity pre-payment meter installed in homes: Smartcard Meters, Key Meters and Token (Card) Meters. The type in your home will depend on where you live and which system is used by your local network operator.

The Quantum Meter

There’s only one type of pre-payment meter for gas – the Quantum Meter. When you switch to EquiGas with a Quantum meter, our partners will provide you with your own personal Gascard, which you must take with you every time you go to charge your meter. It contains information to ensure that the money you pay goes towards your own gas account and not to anyone else's.

It’s important that you only use your own Gascard when buying gas. Don’t try and use a relative’s or neighbour's Gascard – nobody else’s card will work in your meter.

When you switch to EquiGas with a key meter, our partners will arrange for your meter to be programmed to apply the correct EquiGas tariff.

If you move into a property with a pre-payment gas meter, we will need to send you a new Gascard. If you don't receive this before you move in, you can use the emergency credit facility.

If you have not received a new Gascard within one week of moving in and you are worried about running out of credit, phone our Pre-payment Meter Team. In an emergency we can arrange to visit you to give you a gas supply.

If you move out of a property with a gas meter, please return your Gascard to:
Siemens, Stephenson House, Killingworth, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne NE12 0EH.

Please tell us your new address so we can send your final bill to you, which will show your final balance. Please see our section on Final bills.

The Key Meter

A key meter uses a special plastic key that will only work in your meter. You take your key to your local charging point and buy electricity in multiples of £1.

The meter tells you exactly how much electricity you have left. You can get other information by pressing a button on the meter, including meter readings, the service charge and any money you are repaying from past bills. If our prices change, the meter will be updated with the new prices automatically. This also happens when you have repaid any money you owe from past bills.

When you switch to EquiPower with a key meter, our partners will send you a new key that will programme your meter to apply the appropriate EquiPower tariff for your area.

The Token Meter

A token meter is operated by inserting cardboard tokens (cards) with a magnetic strip on the back. After you’ve put your card in the meter, it will no longer work and you can dispose of it.

You will be notified of your own account number, which you must provide whenever you want to buy tokens for your meter. Only buy tokens from recognised agents – if you buy tokens from an unauthorised person, the money you’ve paid to them won’t show on your account, and you’ll have to pay for the electricity again when you are billed. Never use your plastic card to buy tokens for friends, relatives or neighbours. This will ensure the value of the tokens you buy gets credited to your account.

If our prices change, our representative will reset your meter at our next regular visit. However, if you are repaying any debt the meter will stop collecting this once it has been repaid, so we do not need to call in these circumstances.

When you switch to EquiPower with a token meter, our partners will arrange for your meter to be programmed to apply the correct Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) tariff for your area (SSE are our supply partners). You will then receive a credit for any difference between the SSE tariff and the EquiPower tariff every quarter. For more information, see Token meters and the EquiPower tariff below.

The Smartcard meter

This meter uses a smartcard, which is the same size as a credit card. It operates by downloading information from an electronic chip on the card. You can take your smartcard to one of our local charging shops and buy electricity in multiples of £1. If our prices change, the meter will be updated with the new prices automatically. This also happens when you have repaid any money you owe from past bills.

When you switch to EquiPower with a key meter, our partners will arrange for your meter to be programmed to apply the correct EquiPower tariff for your area.

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Budgeting with a pre-payment meter

Your meter uses your money in two ways:

• to pay for electricity or gas as you use it
• to collect any money you owe from past bills. Every day the meter will collect a portion of your arrears.

The meter will display exactly how much credit you have left to use. You’ll then know when you should buy more credit for your meter. Every time you insert your Gascard in your gas meter, the display will show the amount of credit on the card. Check your meter display regularly, so you know how much money there is for you to use.

If your meter is collecting a previous bill, you can press a button and a display on your meter will show you how much you still have to pay (N.B. this is not the case with Smartcard meters where you should call the Pre-payment Meter Team for your outstanding arrears information). When your bill is cleared the meter will automatically stop collecting the extra weekly amount.

If you’re repaying money from a past bill, and your circumstances change and make it hard for you to make the repayments, please phone our Pre-payment Meter Team for help and advice.

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Token meters and the EquiPower tariff

All gas prepayment meters and most electricity prepayment meters are entirely compatible with Ebico’s unique tariff structure. However, one particular type of electricity prepayment meter (the ‘token’ meter) is not.

You will know if you have a token meter as users of this type top-up their meter by purchasing a token which is thrown away after it has been inserted into the meter. The token meter is an old design and the meters themselves are being progressively replaced, at no cost to the individual customer, but a few of them are still in place. Predating the advent of supply competition, they were designed to charge customers one of only a few different energy (kWh) and daily rates.

So, to make sure that token metered customers can still get the benefits of our unique tariff, when a customer who uses a token electricity meter switches to Ebico, we use the following method to correct their charge:

• Their meter is set to charge at our supply partner’s standard electricity rate / standing charge.
• We then credit the customer with the standing charge.
• We also credit the customer with the difference between the EquiPower rate and the rate the meter is charging, so as to ensure the correct financial outcome for the customer.
• Token metered customers receive regular credits by cheque or postal order.

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Charging your meter

There should be a number of local shops where you can charge your key or smartcard or buy tokens for your meter. Many of them have extended opening hours, seven days a week.

If you need details of these outlets for your area, please phone our Pre-payment Meter Team. Alternatively, you can enter your postcode and see a list of your nearest PayPoint outlets here.

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Moving to a new home

Moving out

On the day you move out of your old house, please phone us with your final meter reading and the settings on your meter. If you’re unable to read your meter, please still let us know. We may need to call out to reset the meter for the new customer.

If you want us to call and read your meter on the day you move out, we need 48 hours’ notice. If you phone us to tell us you’re moving and want us to call out to reset the meter on the same day, you may be charged for this visit.

We’ll need to know your new address so we can send your final bill to you, which will show your final balance.

Moving in

Let us know when you’re moving into a new home, as you’ll need to take over responsibility for the supply. When you call, we’ll ask you to give us a reading for your new meter, and to tell us the settings it displays. This is so we can make sure you have an electricity key or card, or a Gascard, so you can buy electricity or gas.

However, we may need to call out to reset the meter. If you want us to call and read your meter on the day you move out, we need 48 hours’ notice. If you phone us to tell us you’re moving and want us to call out to reset the meter on the same day, you may be charged for this 

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Using emergency credit

Your electricity meter will be set with an emergency credit level no lower than £5 and your gas meter will be set with an emergency credit level no lower than £2. This means that you can continue to use electricity or gas for a short period until you are able to buy credit for your meter.

The level of emergency credit you receive on your electricity meter will depend on where you live. If your electricity or gas supply goes off please refer to your user guide to obtain emergency credit. You will need to repay this money when you next buy credit for your meter. Only after all your emergency credit has been paid will your meter return to a credit position.

If you have used all your emergency credit, you cannot use it again until it has been fully repaid.

We recommend you check your pre-payment user guide, which gives instructions on how to use your meter. If you need any help, please phone our Pre-payment Meter Team.

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Changing to a credit meter

If requested, we can change your pre-payment meter to a credit meter, following a discussion about how you plan to pay future bills. If you would like your pre-payment meter removed please phone our Pre-payment Meter Team.

If you should still have money owing on your meter, we will ask you to pay the outstanding amount in full. We may also ask you to pay a security deposit.

If we agree to remove the meter, we’ll make an appointment to do so within 10 working days. When your meter is removed we will also arrange for an up-to-date bill to be sent to you.

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