Having gas pre-payment meter removed

Hi,

We are (hopefully) moving in to our new house in the new year (waiting on mortgage offer to come through). The property has a pre-payment gas meter, but I would like to move to Scottish Power on a dual-fuel bill, pay monthly and save money. The meter hasn't been in long (I guess less than 2 years). If I ask them, will the current provider (npower I think) remove the meter? Will it cost me?

You wil probably find that it will cost you to have it removed and the provider will want you to pay by Direct Debit for your bils. The up front payment will be put on your account and provided the bills are paid promptly for the first year, you will be refunded your initial outlay.

I asked about the same thing when I first moved into my house, but couldn't afford the outlay, so I just opted to keep the meters.

shouldn't cost anything to be removed (used to work at British Gas) though depending on the history of the house could be asked to pay a 'deposit' up front as the comapny may have had problems with bad payers previously. Ask them though

When I moved in here I had a pre pay meter.

These things cost a bomb so get npower to shift it asap.

No charge was made to swop and the costs are far less.

Having said that it took them two years to get the bloody bills right.

having this problem myself at the moment, i have just moved to a house with a quantum gas meter, and yes it eats gas like hell , to have it removed you have to have a credit check and have credit on the meter, they dont like to change them so it could be difficult.

when we moved in to our house, it had an electricity token meter, we wanted to change it and were told to keep it in credit for 4 months, never use the emergency button before they would consider changing it. It didn't cost us anything to swap it though as long as we did what they told us to do.

Hi I am in the same boat and apparently british gas get transco to move them for free. Sounds a bit of a pain as they will only give you a morning or afternoon appt and now they cant do it until mid Jan. You have to phone with your meter reading and book an appt. Trying to find out if your committed to them for 12 months or so then but the person I spoke to wasnt sure!! Another option is to get the company you are transfering to to sort it out with transco. I went on uswitch website and found atlantic electric and gas to be the cheapest, gas with a nil service charge is 3.593p per kwh, with the prepayment meter with british gas its about 5.2p per kwh!!! Def worth switching! Atlantic said they would sort it all out for me but would have to transfer with the prepayment meter which takes a month and then they would convert the meter.

Someone who I know has a Quantum meter and is spending upto £40 per week on gas!!! I have suggested she has it removed and switch to paying by direct debit with a normal meter. She is with British Gas and has informed me that they have said that to have the pre-payment meter removed would cost her £500.

Any advise as I really do think that £40 per week is just outragious and she has said she hardly puts her heating on as she is frightened of the cost!!!

Someone who I know has a Quantum meter and is spending upto £40 per week on gas!!! I have suggested she has it removed and switch to paying by direct debit with a normal meter. She is with British Gas and has informed me that they have said that to have the pre-payment meter removed would cost her £500.

Any advise as I really do think that £40 per week is just outragious and she has said she hardly puts her heating on as she is frightened of the cost!!!

As mentioned above it is normally free. Initially they are installed when people are in arrears (rather than cutting off gas totally), so a large unpaid bill is then repaid as you use your current gas. The rates on these meters is higher and your costs reflect the debt that is being clawed back. That said £40 per week is extreme, you would need most boilers on full 24/7 and still not meet that usage.

we have a pre-payment meter for the gas and we find it quite cheap and that it works for us, although saying that we only have a gas fire and cooker, everything is electric

Someone who I know has a Quantum meter and is spending upto £40 per week on gas!!! I have suggested she has it removed and switch to paying by direct debit with a normal meter. She is with British Gas and has informed me that they have said that to have the pre-payment meter removed would cost her £500.

Any advise as I really do think that £40 per week is just outragious and she has said she hardly puts her heating on as she is frightened of the cost!!!

as Corgigasman suggests there will be some debt on it which is being paid back as more gas is bought.

Unless the roof is missing!

We had both gas and electric pre-payment meters in the house we moved into last year. British Gas changed the electric meter for free, but Southern Electric, the gas supplier charged us £50 to change the gas meter. Apparently if we had been existing customers, they would have changed it for free, not sure how we would have managed that though!

There was debt on both meters (over £1k on the gas) but as soon as we proved we had just bought the house we were able to open a new account and arrange for the meter swap.

We were spending over £30 a week on gas with the pre-payment meter, and £60 a month on direct debit