New energy top-up warning for all prepay meter customers ahead of Christmas bank holiday weekend

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Advice Direct Scotland is urging energy prepayment customers to prepare for Christmas shop closures by topping up their meters early this week.

The charity is also advising people to reach out for support as soon as possible if they are struggling to heat their home or facing financial difficulty over the festive season.

Scotland’s national advice hub, which offers free and confidential help to hundreds and thousands of people across the country each year through its online portal, warned that consumers need to be aware of Post Offices and many PayPoint or PayZone outlets opening hours over the extended Christmas and New Year bank holiday weekends.Some prepayment meters may have ‘emergency’ and/or ‘friendly’ credit features available to prevent households being cut off, and it is important for people to understand how these work, in case they run out of credit.This is an amount of credit, normally up to £10, added to your meter to make sure you stay on supply if you cannot top up.

You have to manually activate your emergency credit when your meter is running low.For smart meters, this can be done on the display, and for traditional prepayment meters, it can be activated by removing and replacing the top up card.Any emergency credit will have to be repaid, and this is done when you top up and replace the key or card in the meter.Some meters will have this feature to prevent prepayment customers losing supply outside shop opening hours, for example, overnight, at weekends and on bank holidays.Friendly Credit is also paid back when you top up.The times for friendly credit vary, and some suppliers do not offer the facility on more traditional meter set ups.