Energy companies going bust was briefly covered on Radio 4 Money Box. Not that I think that the Co-Op are likely to go bust but I don't see why I need to have my DD increased in order to keep me in credit. In most aspects of trade the service is provided and then you pay for it. Energy seems to be different in that you pay BEFORE receiving the service. If my energy company want to charge me monthly for the power that I have actually used that month then I have no problem with that. If it has been decided that smart meters need a mobile phone signal then they are not very smart. They are already connected by a wire!
Just checked mine................Barstewards. And they now seem to be offering me £30 cashback to have a smart meter installed. As they let me down twice earlier in the year when they just didn't bother to turn up for an appointment, I politely declined. (more polite than I was in my phone call to them when they let me down twice, anyway. )
I think it’s less a govt edict that you have to stay in credit and more than the govt have strict rules about who you can turn the supply off from and under what circumstances. So they have a debt-reduction plan which means keeping the majority in credit and those who are at risk on a payg plan
.......Oh, and I appear to not be eligible to have my own money paid back to me. I should have known better than to have the temerity to ask.
Moved into a rental last October. By spring I got a letter from Eon saying that my payments were going from £95/mth to more like £200. This would have put me back in credit within two months. Called and wrangled it down to £150 and lo and behold at the begining of winter I was about £250 in credit. Balance is about right. Now they're harassing me to have smart meters fitted for both gas and leccy.
I have smart meters who call Brit gas & electric for me. I am then billed at the end of each three monthly period. No direct debit. No problem.
I don’t want smart meters I’m happy to do my own reading I can keep an eye on the robbers I can imagine it being bumped up under my nose if I didn’t watch them
i am on British Gas Tariff nameHomeEnergy Secure Apr 2020 They supplied new smart meters gas/electric at the beginning of the year when we moved , plus we had a new combi boiler installed by them which came with Hive included, all excellent no more meter reading automatically billed every month with exactly what you have used. Plus with Hive they monitor your boiler performance from afar, i haven't got involved with all the add ons they offer .
