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Speaking to your supplier if you can’t afford to top up your meter
If you can’t afford to top up your meter, the first thing to do is speak to your supplier. The sooner you talk to your energy supplier, the sooner they can help.
We know it might seem daunting to make contact. This guide will give you the confidence to have the conversation. We’ll cover speaking to your supplier over the phone, as well as through live chat.
We’ll look at:
- Speaking to your supplier if you can’t afford to top up your meter
- Speaking to your supplier if you can’t afford to repay the debt on your meter
We’d also recommend checking our Financial support section. When everything feels too expensive, make sure you’re not missing out on extra help.
Before the call/live chat
You’ll be well prepared for the conversation if you’ve got the following to hand:
Your supplier’s phone number should be on a recent bill or letter. It should also be on their website. If you’re having trouble finding it on their site, try a Google search. For example, search: “ScottishPower phone number”.
Whoever you speak to will ask for your account number. You should be able to find this on a recent bill or letter from your supplier. It’s usually somewhere near the top.
If you’re struggling, your energy supplier has to come up with an affordable solution to help with bills. They’ll ask you what you can afford to pay.
You can use a budgeting tool to work this out. The Citizen’s Advice Bureau have a handy budgeting tool on their website: Citizen’s Advice Budgeting Tool
Your supplier might ask you for a meter reading. This helps them understand how much energy you’re using. They might use your reading to work out a more affordable payment plan. Check out our How to read your meter guide for help.
On the call/live chat
Before you’re connected to an advisor
You might have to go through an automated service.
On the phone, you may need to choose from several options. Try to pick the options that best match the reason for your call.
On the live chat, you may also be asked to choose an option that best matches your reason for getting in touch. You might also be asked to enter your name, address and account number at this point.
When you’re connected to an advisor
When you’ve gone through the options, you should be connected to an advisor. The advisor will ask how they can help.
If you can’t afford to top up your prepayment meter
The result you want is:
Emergency credit
An affordable plan to pay back the emergency credit
To get the best result:
- Explain your situation to the advisor
- Tell them that you need emergency credit. Under Ofgem’s rules you have to be offered emergency credit
- Ask if your energy supplier has any grants or hardship funds you can use
- If you are in a vulnerable situation, tell the advisor that you need extra credit. Ofgem’s rules mean you are entitled to this even if you have run out of emergency credit
Any emergency credit you receive will need to be paid back. To arrange this:
- Ask the advisor to come up with an affordable repayment plan
- Tell them what you can afford based on the budgeting you did before the call. Remember, you can use the free Citizen’s Advice Bureau Budgeting tool here: Citizen’s Advice Budgeting Tool
If you can’t afford to repay debt on your prepayment meter
The result you want is:
An affordable plan to pay off the debt you have on your meter
To get the best result:
- Explain your situation to the advisor
- Ask if your energy supplier has any grants or hardship funds you can use
- If you can usually manage the repayments but need more time, ask for a payment break or payment holiday
- If a payment break or holiday won’t help, ask the advisor to come up with a new repayment plan. Ofgem’s rules mean they have to do this. Tell the advisor what you can afford to pay back. Tell them how often you can pay this amount. Remember, you can use the free Citizen’s Advice Budgeting Tool to work this out
- If you want the debt to come directly out of your benefits, let the advisor know. There’s a scheme called Fuel Direct which lets you do this.
Before the end of the call/live chat
- Ask the advisor to repeat what has been agreed
- If you’re on a call, write this down, along with the time and date
- You can also ask the advisor to send you a letter confirming what’s been agreed
- If you’re on a live chat you should be able to save a copy of the chat at the end of the call. You can also ask for the advisor to confirm what’s been agreed by sending you a letter
- Check with the advisor whether you need to do anything
- When you are happy that an agreement has been reached, you can end the call or live chat
- If you are not happy, see the advice below
If no agreement has been reached
- Tell the advisor that you want to speak to a supervisor
- If you are put through to a supervisor, follow the same steps as before: explain your situation and what you would like to happen
- If the advisor cannot put you through to a supervisor, or if you cannot reach an agreement with the supervisor, make a note of their name, along with the time and date
- The next step will be to make a complaint. Our Problems with your energy supplier guide will take you through the process.