Martin Lewis has issued an alert to those with non-smart electricity prepayment meters, encouraging them to top up as much as they can afford before the upcoming Monday deadline. The energy guru warned that with a new price cap swinging into action for UK households from Tuesday October 1sending energy bills soaring to £1717the savvy move would be to act now.
In a recent appearance on the BBC Sounds podcast, Mr Lewis advised: “And just another tip, if you will have a non-smart electricity prepayment meter, I would top up now as much as you can afford. That’s because in that very specific case of non-smart electricity prepayment meters, it’s the act of topping up that tells the meter what you should be paying.”
Delving deeper while talking to co-host Adrian Chiles, he explained: “So if you top up before the 1st of October, your meter will be told about the current rates, and it will not update to the new higher rate until you top up again. So the longer you can run not topping up on or after the 1st of October, the longer you will usually stay on the lower rate.”
The Money Saving Expert founder then clarified potential exceptions, stating: “Now I say usually because first of all, Scottish Power don’t allow this. And secondly, the other energy firms do have a right to claw back the difference and claw back the extra, but they generally don’t do it.”
The founder of Money Saving Expert, a regular on ITV, went on to advise listeners ahead of the new price cap from Ofgem: “So it is not a guaranteed gain from doing it. But in most cases, apart from with Scottish power, you are likely to gain on a non smart electricity prepayment meter by topping up now and lasting as long as you can until you top up again”, reports Birmingham Live.
Mr Lewis further explained to Adrian and the listeners tuning in this week: “I hope that makes sense.”
