Consumers who are forced to have prepayment energy meters put in should face a maximum installation fee of £150, the regulator has proposed. Currently such energy users - already the most vulnerable to debt - face a charge of up to £900, said Ofgem. As many as 4.5 million people use prepayment meters for electricity, while 3.5 million use them for gas. Ofgem is suggesting that the maximum fee should be between £100 and £150. For particularly vulnerable consumers, such as those in financial hardship or those with health issues, it says there should be no charge at all. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37349013 Ofgem is now inviting comments and responses to its plans before it finalises them in Novembe and. has published a series of proposals

I moved into a new rental property 5 weeks ago. When I moved in I realised it was a pre-pay meter. I hadn't had one before and immediately called to ask to change to a DD account. I was told I would have to wait a month then have a credit check and then if approved move off. I called today to start that process and whilst I was on the phone the customer service rep performed an Experian credit check and told me I failed and I could not apply again for another 60 days. I logged onto Experian to see my report which is a 989 score out of a possible 999 - an almost perfect excellent rating. It shows a 989 because a couple of months ago I took out a small loan out but I am paying that off as I should and I hope to clear it early in a few months. The only other thing I can think of is it had not updated my electoral register information despite my council telling me on the phone today I am definitely on their list and they have said Experian should update their records this week. So I called British Gas again to enquire further why I had failed their check and they refuse to tell me....well in fact I was told they themselves do not know because she said it was all down to algorithms. Yes computer says no. So, can anyone let me know if British Gas demand a 999 scoring for Experian? And why the do I have to wait 60 days if all it is my electoral registration data had not updated as quickly as it should have? I mean...is that even legal that they force us wait so long? It seems to me just a flimsy excuse to extract more money out of me because of a previous tenant's failure to pay on time. Agh....

On 28/9 I attempted to buy some Tyres from a well known online Tyre distributor, upon entering my Paypal Mastercard payment details, the payment was immediately declined. Thinking it was simply a glitch with the checkout / website I waited a few minutes and then tried again, which was also declined, finally I tried a third time and this payment was also declined. I then checked my emails, to find that I had three emails from Paypal confirming that each of those three declined payments had been individually deducted from my paypal balance, 3 individual payments totaling £736.68. I then logged back into the Tyre Vendors' website and confirmed that no active orders had been placed with them, a phone call also confirmed the fact that they have received no payment from me, and had no orders on the system. I then logged into my Paypal Access card account, to see that the three declined payments hadn't actually been made, but were now appearing in a 'pending' status, and there was no way of cancelling them. I then contacted the card issuer - Prepay Technologies, using the 0845 number provided by Paypal, the person I spoke to, was very sympathetic but declared that there was no way that they could manually cancel off the three payments held in pending status and return the balance to my paypal account, and I would have to wait until 25th November for the pending status to essentially time out and the balance to be returned. Not happy at hearing the news that over £700 was going to be out of my reach for nearly two months, I asked to speak to a more senior member of staff who basically repeated the same thing, but advised me to contact Paypal to see if there was anything they could do to overturn the original payments to the card. So I contacted Paypal on their support number, who were even less helpful than Prepay Technologies, they stated that all they could do was escalate my complaint to an "Account Specialist" who would let me know their decision within 48 hours. Needless to say, that was almost a week ago and no email has been received. A further call to chase it up with Paypal has resulted in them simply washing their hands of the problem, stating that obtaining the refund is an issue between me and Prepay Technologies, and I should contact the card support 0845 number, and so the circle continues..... Obviously having £736 gone from my Paypal balance and tied up and out of reach for nearly two months simply from what are essentially duplicated declined transactions, is a problem, and the lack of funds is also now preventing me from making the purchase I had originally wanted to do in the first place. I'm guessing that the rules for prepayment cards differ from normal credit cards, but are they really able to hold a refund from what were immediately declined transactions for that long?. Any advice would be much appreciated.

hi guys Wonder if you can all help me please. n power are currently threatening to install a prepay meter in my home due to not being able to afford there bills this has been going on for years. We was in alot of arrears few years back which we was paying on standing order every 4 weeks without fail and our bills was coming down nicely then out of the blue they said that standing order was no longer a recognized payment and we should now pay by direct debit. I explained that my husband gets paid 4 weekly and if we set up direct debit then they are unlikely to get the money but they insisted so we switch to DD and they failed to get money due to other bills taking it. We had a visit from someone on behalf of n power and after showing them all the letters and explained to them the circumstances they just walked out apologizing saying he can not enforce anything due to them changing payment and us paying for over a year by standing order. Can anyone advise on what to do because im really getting stressed with all the threatening letters with court and prepayment meters im not refusing to pay but they now want £200 a month electric and £150 gas a month and there is no way i can afford that :-x:-x:-x:-x

Hi all, We have just moved into a rented house with prepay meters, which we have no experience with. Our first problem was not letting the utility company know immediately, as the stress of the place being filthy (which is a whole other thread!) and the normal moving stresses meant that we were just topping the meters up for 3 days. We have now switched them to our name, and have no real problems with the gas, which is used only for the heating, water and hob. However, we seem to be using around £10 a day on electricity for a small three-bed house - this seems really high to me. This amount got used yesterday, even though we were out all day ant the only things drawing power (that we know of) were a Sky hub, a fridge and freezer, and a TV on standby. The TV is only a year old and brags about how little power it draws. When my wife spoke to SSE today, they told her that this was a completely normal amount to be paying for an Economy 7 tariff, but it just doesn't add up to me. The day rate is 16.1p/kWh, which is only a bit more than the credit meter at our last house, but we were only billed around £50/month there. I know prepay meters cost more, but we're looking at nearly £300 a month now! Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Hi Got to say what an amazing resource this is! I'm new here but hope to be able to add something to the group Any advice anyone can give on the legality of this situation would be gratefully received. My friends son recently moved into a flat - it is the first time he has had to pay bills and suffers from a disability which means he can't communicate using the phone. He is also agoraphobic. British Gas obtained a Warrant of Execution for a debt incurred by a previous tenant, despite my friends son having written to inform them of his presence in the flat, the date he took up residence, and requesting the option to pay by Direct Debit. British Gas have ignored this letter (he sent it Special Delivery so they definitely received it) instead they have sent a letter addressed to ' the occupier' and informed him that they are coming to fit a pre-paument meter next week. His concerns are firstly that they will try and make him pay back a debt that isn't his by setting the rate on the meter to include it's repayment. Secondly that he will not be able to keep the meter topped up because of his agoraphobia. Can anyone tell me what the legal position is on this, regarding the warrant and the rights that BG has to enforce it if the debt is someone else's? How can we stop them from doing it and how is best to contact them in writing - other than the address given on their letters which they seem to ignore? Thanks in advance for any help you can give SD x

Hello ,im new to the site so ill do the best i can. Back in September 2011 i moved into my flat having broken up with my girlfriend, lived there for around 5 to 6 months constantly topping up the meter with credit. during this time i was constantly visiting my ex girlfriend to see my two children over time we decided to give things another go. i pretty much stayed with her constantly. we had a minor fight in October last year and i came to stay back at my flet for one day and one night having put £10 credit on the meter. We resolved our quarrel and i continued to stay with her. Right now her tenancy is up for renewal but will not be renewed since her landlord has been told to pretty much gut her place and refurbish it, new windows, insulation, new electrics and so on. earlier this week we agreed to move into my property. Today(Sunday 28th April ) we moved back here. She put £20 on the key and as she did so she gave me a shout telling me that the thick red wire that goes from the beefy fuse to the meter was slightly melted at the fuse end and that there is also no security tag on the lower half of the actaris meter. I never noticed this ,not something i would look for,i just put the key in and take it out when i need leccy. however...with a load of post was a hand written letter from southern electric,saying that they called and i was to contact them 7 days from the date of the letter to arrange a convenient date and time to come out and carry out a safety check on the meter. the best we can fathom is that at some point in the past, a previous tenant has fiddled the meter.. I am going to contact southern electric tomorrow to arrange that appointment. but im worried about what they will say when they discover, No Tag and slightly melted wire. Can anyone give advice on what i should say or do? I feel i may have to face the rap for someone elses tampering. Many thanks in advance and speedy reply's will be greatly appreciated!

We are both in our early sixties and on pension credit. Recently we have lost two close friends with one passing away just before Xmas. Although we have no intent for dying just yet, it will happen at some point. You never never know when your time is up! We have looked at some over 50's plans and pre pay funeral plans on the Sun Life website. For £25 per month I get £4545 cover and need to pay until I am 90. If I die in the next two years no pay out. Similar applies for prepay funeral however they lump in a load of extras that we don't really need. we both want simple funerals without an eulogy, music, people grieving etc. as we do not see any point in it. Although we are of the Christian faith, as you no longer occupy your body and it is of no use to any one, why not take it straight to the crematorium wrapped in a shroud? That way no funeral debt is left behind. We are also considering "Whole of life" cover which may be a better option than the Sun Life deals even though you have to pay it monthly for the rest of your life. It seems that for £25 I can get up to £10,000 cover. Are there any other options out there?

Hi, I have been receiving annual statements from BG for a couple of years now. Although it shows my annual usage (previous year) and expected usage for the coming year, it does not show any readings they have based this on or the amount of credit put on my meter via my card. I have e-mailed them twice requesting this information and both times they say it is impossible to give me this information. I have now just discovered when going through the screens on my meter, that although there is zero debt showing on screen 27 there is £4 wkly debt recovery showing on screen 26. Does this mean this mean this is being collected? I have never been in debt to BG the meter was in the property when we moved in and just decided to keep, that was 11 yrs ago. I have e-mailed BG 3 days ago regarding both but all i have received is the standard "we have received your query and will get back to you" so much for their 24 hr response. I also read on the BG watchdog sticky something about checking the time on the meter, what problem would the time being wrong on the meter cause as mine is totally wrong? Thanx in advance for any responses x