Financial guru explained: ‘If it estimates too much after the price went up, you will pay more’
On the 1st of October, the energy price cap will rise by 10%. This will see the vast majority of homes across the UK face skyrocketing energy bills as we head into the winter months. However, Martin Lewis is urging people to be proactive in order to assure they get a fair bill at the end of the month.
He shared on his titular podcast : “Reminder that it’s Meter Reading Week. It used to be Meter Reading Day but I managed to crash most of the big energy firms by doing so.” The Money-Saving Expert’s previous warnings have often sent thousands of people to update their meter readings at once, overloading the websites and sending Brits into a fury in the aftermath as they couldn’t enact his advice.
The MSE founder continued: “Now I say it’s Meter Reading Week because it really doesn’t make much difference. If you don’t do a metre reading and you pay by monthly direct debit your usage is estimated and it’s your energy firm that using an algorithm will decide how much was before the price went up and how much was after.
“If it estimates too much after the price went up, you will pay more. I’m not suggesting that they’re trying to diddle by doing that, more you might just fall foul of the algorithm. You might also gain from it. The way to make it totally fair is to give a metre reading within a few days on either side of the 1st of October.”
By doing this, Brits are essentially confirming to their energy supplier exactly how much they used before and after the price cap rise to ensure their bill is as accurate and fair as possible. Martin continued: “Most firms you can do it a day or two before and a couple of days afterwards and backdate the metre reading as long as it’s an honest one. If you’ve got a working smart metre, working being the operative word, you don’t need to do this because your smart metre is sending in metre readings anyway.”
Ending his BBC podcast, the finance guru added that people on non-smart electricity prepayment metres could benefit from a unique loophole in the system. He explained: “In that very specific case, it’s the act of topping up that tells the metre what you should be paying.
“If you top up before the 1st of October your metre will be told the current rates and it will not be told the new rates 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.” However, he warned that Scottish Power don’t allow this to begin with and energy firms “do have the right to claw back the difference”.
