Energy suppliers must follow our rules before they can move you onto or install a prepayment meter in your home. Read the rules they must follow about installing a prepayment meter without household permission.
A prepayment meter also known as a &#;pay-as-you-go meter&#; can be a helpful and effective way to manage budgets and amount spent on gas or electricity.
If you have a prepayment meter you will still pay standing charges.
It is important that you can get to your meter, if not you can ask your supplier to move it. It is illegal to move a meter yourself.
You can switch suppliers if you have a prepayment meter and if you have debt of less than £500.
Suppliers must offer different ways for you to pay back debt, moving to a prepayment meter is one option.
Your supplier can only install a prepayment meter to pay debt if it&#;s safe and you can easily use and access it.
If you have a prepayment meter you will still pay standing charges. You will also need credit to keep your appliances running as normal if you&#;re away.
It is important to have access to your meter. If not, you can ask your supplier to move it. It is illegal to move a meter yourself. You may be charged for moving it, but it&#;s free if you are registered with the Priority Services Register. Read the Citizens Advice guidance about how to move your gas or electricity meter or if you are having problems getting to or topping up your prepayment meter.
If your meter cannot be moved, it must be replaced with one that lets you pay for energy after you&#;ve used it. This applies if you have a disability or illness that makes it bad for your health if your energy were to be cut off or hard for you to top up, understand or use the meter.
You can switch suppliers if you have a prepayment meter and if you have debt of less than £500. Read how you can switch supplier or energy tariffs.
You should contact your supplier straight away if you cannot afford to top up your meter. Our rules mean that they must offer support. This includes extra support credit if you&#;re in a vulnerable situation and have few options to pay and additional support credit while you work out ways to pay.
You&#;ll need to pay back the credit from your supplier when you next top up. Suppliers must work with you to agree on a payment plan you can afford.
You can ask for:
You can get help if you cannot afford your bills. You can also get advice from Citizens Advice about getting temporary credit, what to do if you keep running out of credit, scams and how to speak to an energy adviser if you cannot afford to top up your prepayment meter.
Ofgem, Energy UK and Citizens Advice have set up guidelines for suppliers to help improve how they support people in vulnerable situations including debt this winter. Find which suppliers have signed up to the winter Vulnerability Debt Commitment.
Many suppliers have also signed up to the Energy UK vulnerability commitment. This means they will never knowingly disconnect your household energy supply if you:
You could get up to 60 days' space from creditors to focus on getting debt advice and setting up a debt solution by applying to the Breathing Space, sometimes called the &#;Debt Respite Scheme&#;.
If your application is approved, all creditors are informed and must stop any collection or enforcement activity. You will still need to keep making your regular payments if you can afford to.
Get debt advice and apply for the Breathing Space scheme with the StepChange Debt Charity.
If you&#;re not happy about your supplier&#;s service or if they cannot fix the problem, you can complain about your supplier.
Suppliers must offer different ways for you to pay back debt, moving to a prepayment meter is one option.
Your supplier can only install a prepayment meter to pay debt if it&#;s safe and you can easily use and access it.
After the debt has been repaid suppliers must contact you and assess if a prepayment meter is still the most suitable and preferred payment method. If you decide to move from a prepayment meter, the supplier must agree where you pass any required credit checks.
The rules in gas and electricity licences say that suppliers must install prepayment meters without a household&#;s permission in a fair and responsible way, and that they should only be used as a last resort.
If you are struggling to pay for the energy you use, contact your supplier straight away. You should talk to them about your circumstances and tell them if there are older people or children living in the household and if they have any medical conditions.
Last year, we asked that installing prepayment meters without a household&#;s permission for paying back debt be paused. This was because of our concerns about the behaviour of suppliers installing them in households. There are new rules that have been moved into the standard gas and electricity licences. All energy suppliers have to follow them.
Before a prepayment meter can be involuntarily installed, suppliers must:
Suppliers must do certain things before they can install a prepayment meter to get back debt owed to them without a household&#;s permission. They can only install prepayment meters if they have been checked and confirmed that they meet all the requirements in the rules. Check energy suppliers that can install prepayment meters without household permission.
A supplier can swap your meter by getting a warrant or by remotely switching your smart meter. They can only do this after they have taken all reasonable steps to agree payment with you. It should only be a last resort in order to avoid disconnecting your supply.
A warrant can cost up to £150 and can be added onto existing debt. People who are in certain vulnerable situations will not have to pay this.
A supplier must install a smart meter when fitting a prepayment meter. They will only install a traditional meter if there are technical reasons. Read about getting a smart meter.
Decide if prepayment is right for you
Decide if prepayment is right for you
Prepayment, sometimes called pay as you go, lets you pay for your energy in small amounts.
If you have a smart meter, your supplier can switch your meter from paying by credit to prepayment remotely. If you have an old-style credit meter, you can swap it for a smart meter in prepayment mode.
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If you have a choice about moving to prepayment, think about how it'll affect you.
You shouldn&#;t move to prepayment if running out of credit and having no gas or electricity would cause you a serious problem - for example, if you:
are aged 75 or older and live alone
have children under 2 years old living in your home
are disabled or have a health condition
can't afford to top up and live with children aged between 2 and 5 years old
If you have impaired hearing or sight, you might find it hard to hear an alert or read the meter.
If your supplier is trying to move you to prepayment, they have to follow rules from the energy regulator Ofgem. If you don&#;t think prepayment is right for you, check how to stop your supplier moving you to prepayment.
If you have a prepayment meter, you'll need to buy credit for your meter from a top-up point - often a local shop or Post Office. Your energy supplier will give you a top-up card or key.
If you find it hard to get to a top-up point - for example, if you&#;d have to travel a long way - you could get a smart meter with a prepayment setting.
If you have a smart meter in prepayment setting, you can:
top up using your top-up card or key
top up online or through an app on your mobile
If you top up online, you should still keep your card or key in case you need to use it - for example, if the app isn't working.
If you have a health condition or disability which makes it difficult for you to reach, work or top up a prepayment meter, you shouldn&#;t move to prepayment.
If your supplier is trying to move you to prepayment you can check how to stop your supplier moving you to prepayment.
As well as paying for the gas and electricity you use, you pay a daily fee for being connected - known as a standing charge. You pay this with a normal meter too, but when you're on prepayment you need to have credit to pay it - even on days when you don&#;t use any gas or electricity.
You still have to pay the daily standing charge even if you don't have any credit on your meter. When you next top up, you'll have to pay back all the standing charges that you owe.
The amount of the standing charge depends on where you live and what tariff and supplier you have.
Example
Jacintha has gas central heating, which she switched off last summer.
She didn&#;t top up her gas meter because she wasn&#;t using any gas.
The meter still took 28p a day for the standing charge, so she soon ran out of credit.
The standing charges built up until Jacintha decided to add some credit because she wanted to switch her heating back on.
By this time Jacintha owed £17.64 in standing charges. When she topped up by £20 the meter took what she owed and she only had £2.36 left. This meant she had to top up again the next day.
There are 2 main types of tariffs:
standard variable tariff, sometimes called a &#;default tariff&#; - your rate goes up and down with the price of energy
fixed tariff - your rate stays the same for the length of your contract
If you&#;re not sure what gas or electricity tariff you&#;re on now, contact your supplier or log in to your online account to check.
If you&#;re on a standard variable tariff (SVT), paying for your energy by prepayment is cheaper than paying by direct debit.
This is because you&#;ll pay a cheaper rate for each unit of energy you use. You&#;ll pay the same standing charge on an SVT as you would if you paid for your energy by direct debit.
If you&#;re on prepayment, your supplier can&#;t spread the cost of energy over the year. You&#;ll probably pay a lot more in the winter when you need to use more energy to heat your home.
If you have a credit meter or a smart meter in credit mode you can choose a fixed or variable tariff that spreads your direct debit payments over the year. You&#;ll pay extra in the summer to build up a reserve of money. The reserve is used to lower the payments when you use more energy in winter. Your supplier will work this out so your payments will be the same every month.
Find out about the types of tariff you can choose.
If you don't want to move to prepayment but your supplier wants you to, you might be able to keep paying for energy after you use it.
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