In October last year, Sam from North London came home to a surprising message on her energy display saying “top up soon”. Sam explained the situation with her energy bills on yesterday’s episode of Rip off Britain.
Prepayment meters are a pay-as-you-go system where people buy their energy before they use it via an app, or using a key card.
The energy usually costs more than if someone were to pay by direct debit.
Sam said: “I was upset because they had switched me without my permission and I just think it’s unfair.”
She explained that last March she was on a standard meter her monthly bill, which she used to pay by direct debit, suddenly shot up from £80 to £273 which was far more than she had expected to pay, even with the energy hikes in the price cap.
She was hit with a higher energy bill, and moved onto a prepayment meter which on average adds £80 to yearly bills due to standing charges.
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Sam continued: “It was a massive jump from what it was before.
“I explained to my energy company that I don’t have the money, there’s no way I am able to pay that.”
She was told that the jump was to pay for both ongoing and previous usage which was news to Sam as she believed her account was right up to date.
Whilst an investigation took place, Sam was worried because if the £273 was taken from her account, she would not be able to pay her other bills and she would have been left overdrawn. She cancelled the direct debit and took control of payments herself.
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Sam said: “It wasn’t that I was refusing to pay at any point, the issue was I had get down to the bottom of where the £273 had come from and how it was calculated because that was triple the amount I was paying before.
“My understanding was there was an investigation and that was being looked into.”
Through summer, Sam faced many different bills – one in which said she was in credit which “didn’t make any sense”.
She continued to pay for what she could however just as things started to look up, she came home to see that her meter had been switched to prepayment.
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She said: “I’m not turning the heating on, it’s too expensive and watching and looking and clocking up the costs of how much it is to run and thinking about what I can afford.
“The fact they have switched me over at a time like right now is really disgraceful, really disappointing and really upset by what they have done.
“The prepayment meter is more expensive so definitely are putting more money on there.
“The cost of what I’d pay for a months usage this year versus what I was paying last year has quadrupled.”
Sam now has to pay for every unit before she uses it.
Ofgem states that prepayment meter customers on average pay an extra £80 each year on energy compared to those on direct debit.
Some of this comes from standing charges which are around nine pence a day higher for gas and five pence a day higher for electricity.
The prepayment premium is affected thousands of people.
Due to debt, around 120,000 people switched to direct debit from pre-payment meters since last year.
Rip off Britain continues tomorrow on BBC One at 10am.
