A couple of prospects have requested me not too long ago about prepayment; how we glance after prepay prospects, and if prepayment meters are ever utilized in instances the place a buyer is in severe debt.
Many shoppers choose prepayment meters and understanding precisely what they’re ‘placing on’ the meter at anybody time. We’ve labored exhausting to make prepayment an important choice for them: we do not cost for putting in a prepayment meter (most suppliers cost as much as £150), and the charges a prepayment buyer pays aren’t any dearer than the charges prospects pay on our commonplace Versatile tariff (uncommon within the vitality business, the place when you have a prepayment meter you’ll typically pay extra in your vitality).
And in terms of individuals who can’t carry on prime of vitality payments, we consider there are often simpler, higher methods to assist than putting in a prepayment meter.
Greg Jackson, Founder and CEO
Our message to prospects struggling to pay has at all times been: so long as you’re speaking to us, we are able to work with you – connecting you to additional assist and discovering different methods to assist.
If we see a buyer starting to construct up severe debt, lacking common funds and never responding to our regular emails, we’ll begin making an attempt to succeed in out to speak about how we will help. We attempt exhausting – there are sometimes over 20 makes an attempt to contact you earlier than we get to the stage of putting in prepay meters – we’ll get to that later.
There’s loads we are able to do, together with:
- Personalised account assist. Our group is at all times readily available to provide individualised assist to go well with our prospects’ wants (issues like returning any constructed up credit score, giving cost holidays, ensuring you’re on the most cost effective tariff or providing a sensible meter improve so you possibly can keep in management and profit from schemes like Saving Periods).
- Help from our Octo Help fund. Our devoted fund has £15 million earmarked to provide direct invoice assist to these struggling to pay. It’s helped 60,000+ folks up to now.
- Join you to present assist schemes from the federal government and different organisations. These schemes embody vitality effectivity measures to assist scale back your payments whereas nonetheless conserving you cosy, and even direct monetary assist such because the Heat House Low cost and particular authorities assist within the vitality disaster.
- Give tailor-made in-home vitality saving recommendation to assist prospects make easy changes to save cash on their vitality payments (e.g. decreasing the stream temperature of a gasoline boiler can save the standard residence round £112 with out feeling any distinction in heat). We’re even sending skilled Power Helpers round 500,000 houses to provide this recommendation in particular person this Winter.
- Free electrical blankets to probably the most susceptible prospects, significantly folks with severe medical want, because it’s less expensive to warmth a human than a house – our evaluation reveals a typical residence can save round £300 a 12 months. We’ve despatched out round 40,000 this 12 months already.
We do not set up conventional ‘dumb’ prepayment meters (the place you possibly can solely pay by prime up) and actually are actively making an attempt to take these out and swap them for good prepay meters to offer a greater expertise for our prepay prospects.
We do assume that individuals ought to discuss to us in the event that they’re struggling to pay their payments, and that it is not truthful if some prospects must cowl the price of others who do not pay. However we expect there are significantly better methods of taking care of prospects who aren’t paying than becoming a prepayment meter.
Actually, we’ve involuntarily switched fewer than 100 prospects to a sensible prepayment meter within the historical past of our enterprise. That’s 0.00006% of our complete buyer base. That’s much less total than some suppliers do in a single day. And the place we ever do, we cost them a particular low charge to assist them get on again of their payments.
Earlier than we ever get near happening the route of involuntary prepayment, we undergo an intensive plan to attempt to attain the client. Over 6 months of calls, emails, texts, letters and even visits in particular person. If we uncover at any level that they’ve a medical dependency or different issue meaning a prepay meter just isn’t appropriate, your entire course of is suspended and we’ll purpose to supply different assist as an alternative.
Our Director of Laws, Rachel Fletcher, explains extra right here:
We don’t cost good prepayment prospects extra
Beneath Ofgem’s value cap, vitality suppliers are allowed to cost £59 a 12 months extra on prepayment tariffs. We do the other. In these very uncommon situations the place we could swap a buyer to good prepayment operate, they obtain a particular charge beneath the worth cap. Presently, it’s our least expensive commonplace tariff and these prospects get further care with monitoring of off-supply durations and welfare checks. We’ve additionally not charged for set up of the prepay meter (whereas most different suppliers cost £150).
Pleasant credit score
Prospects on good prepayment with Octopus even have entry to our beneficiant pleasant credit score hours. It will imply ought to your credit score run out you will routinely roll onto pleasant credit score to maintain you on provide till 10am the subsequent working day. We’re accessible by way of e-mail and social media till 10pm day by day of the week, and we have got emergency assist evenings and weekends together with the power to go away a message and e book a callback with our emergency group.
