powergen (eon) pre-payment meter

[essexboy]

Hi everyone

I have an account with powergen(eon) and five/six years back after a year of arguments they agreed my meter reading were transposed.

A new meter was fitted and after a couple of bills it was evident that the readings was still transposed, after refusing to pay anything until the problem was resolved once and for all powergen accepted it was faulty.

Their answer as a result of not paying for a while and ammasing a debt of £168 was to suggest a pre-payment meter. Reluctantly as we had amassed this bill and not had a proper bill for best part of three years i agreed to this (stupid i know, now with hindsight)

I have been on the prepayment meter for over three years now and the debt was repaid within the first six months of that period, having read that this method of payment is extremly expensive recently in the media i decided to contact eon with regards to having a billing meter and paying by direct debit.

Their response was a little surprising:

Firstly, the demand a £50 fee to replace the pre-payment meter

Secondly, they insisted i would have to be credit checked to set the direct debit up (as i have recently purchased a new car i cannot see this as a problem), but why do i have to be credit checked if i am not entering into a credit agrrement?

Thirdly, the direct debit payments were for more than i am paying on the prepayment meter on average per month, the advisor told me i would only save around 6 per cent a year by paying direct debit?

I think their attitude is to keep me trapped on the pre-payment method by using scare tactics therfore maximising the payments i have to pay to them

Any one any thoughts or advice to share

essexboy

[tiglet]

Yes, change to another supplier and inform them you want a credit meter putting in.

[ozzywizard]

I would agree with Tiglet, get out of there. You ovbiously have no debt with them now (I know this because they would not give you the option of credit meter if you did) so they cannot object to you changing supplier.

When you do a COS (change of supply) take note of the reading on your switch date and ensure the opening (new supplier) and close read (EON) are the same.

Follow same process when your meter is changed.