My new home has a prepayment meter. Can I change it?

• ✓Contact the current supplier straight away. Citizens Advice says to try not to use a key or card, or put money on the meter, until you have.
• ✓Ask it to take any debt off the meter, send you a new key or card, and explain how the meter works.
• ✓If you had to top up before you got through, tell it. Citizens Advice says it will pay back any extra charges, as long as you can prove when you moved in.
• ✓British Gas says you need an account with it before you can top up a prepayment meter it supplies.
• ✓No gas or electricity when you arrive? British Gas says its first thought is a prepayment meter that has run out of credit.

Sources: Citizens Advice: moving home, dealing with your energy supply (read 13 October 2026); British Gas: moving home (read 13 October 2026)

• ✓Smart meter in prepayment mode: Citizens Advice says you can ask your supplier to change it so you pay by credit. The supplier can switch between prepayment and credit without visiting.
• ✓Older, non-smart prepayment meter: you can ask your supplier to replace it with a smart meter, which needs an installation appointment. You will not have to pay to have a smart meter installed.
• ✓Your supplier usually will not switch you to credit if you are in debt to it. Once the debt is paid, if you no longer want prepayment, it must replace an old meter with a smart one set to credit, or change the mode on a smart meter.
• ✓Before the change you might have to pass a credit check or pay a deposit. Citizens Advice says a deposit is usually between £150 and £300, though it could be more, and should be a reasonable amount.
• ✓Tell your supplier if it is not safe or practical for you to be on prepayment, even if you are in debt, for example because of a disability or a health condition.

Sources: Citizens Advice: switching from prepayment to paying by credit (read 13 October 2026)

• ✓Citizens Advice says that if you pay your supplier directly for your energy, you do not need your landlord's permission to change how you pay for it.
• ✓You should still let your landlord know if you are going to change your meter.
• ✓You might need to get the meter or smart meter mode changed back at the end of your tenancy.
• ✓Before you switch supplier, Ofgem suggests checking your rental agreement for a default supplier clause, or a notice and return clause that means switching the supply back when your tenancy ends.
• ✓If your landlord pays the energy bills, Ofgem says they deal with the energy supplier directly.

Sources: Citizens Advice: switching from prepayment to paying by credit (read 13 October 2026); Ofgem: switch your home energy supplier (read 13 October 2026)

• ✓From 1 October to 31 December 2026, Ofgem's typical yearly figures are £1,678 for prepayment and £1,723 for Direct Debit, at its current typical use of 2,500 kWh of electricity and 9,500 kWh of gas. On the like-for-like 2023 basis the Direct Debit figure is £1,935.
• ✓Ofgem's Director General for Markets said prepayment customers pay the lowest price cap rates, and could save an average of about £45 compared with Direct Debit.
• ✓Standard credit, paying when the bill arrives, is the dearest way to pay on the cap: £1,861 a year at the same typical use.
• ✓A cap figure is a typical household's yearly cost, not your bill. Your unit rates and standing charge depend on where you live and how you pay, and what you pay depends on what you use.
• ✓Prepayment cannot spread costs across the year. Citizens Advice says you will probably pay a lot more in winter, when you use more energy to heat your home.

Sources: Ofgem: summary of changes to the energy price cap, 1 October to 31 December 2026 (read 13 October 2026); Ofgem: energy price cap will rise by 4% from October 2026 (read 13 October 2026); Ofgem: energy price cap unit rates and standing charges (read 13 October 2026); Citizens Advice: decide if prepayment is right for you (read 13 October 2026)

• ✓If you cannot top up at a top-up point, or keep running out of credit, Citizens Advice says you might be able to get temporary credit, sometimes called emergency credit.
• ✓If you cannot afford to top up, talk to your supplier. Ofgem says it must offer to help, for example with extra credit while you work out how to pay, and must agree a payment plan you can afford.
• ✓You pay back any credit you get when you next top up.
• ✓Friendly hours credit lets you keep using electricity at night, at weekends or on bank holidays. With a smart meter you get it automatically, and you repay it at your next top-up.
• ✓Hours vary by supplier and meter. Octopus, for example, gives smart meter customers friendly credit from 4pm to 10am on weekdays in summer and 3pm to 9am in winter, plus all weekend and on bank holidays. Its older gas meters have none.
• ✓The daily standing charge keeps building up even when you have no credit, and comes off your next top-up.

Sources: Citizens Advice: decide if prepayment is right for you (read 13 October 2026); Ofgem: get help with your prepayment meter (read 13 October 2026); Octopus Energy: prepayment friendly credit (read 13 October 2026)

• ✓Yes. Ofgem says you can switch if you have a prepayment meter and owe your supplier up to £500.
• ✓You can choose a new tariff or supplier after you have moved in, and the switch should complete within 5 working days.
• ✓Debt left by the previous occupier is not yours. Ask for it to be taken off the meter before you switch.

Sources: Ofgem: switch your home energy supplier (read 13 October 2026); Citizens Advice: moving home, dealing with your energy supply (read 13 October 2026)

• ✓Add your new address and move-in date, and Taupia tells you which supplier already serves the property.
• ✓It compares energy deals from 19 suppliers covering around 90% of the GB market, and switches once your household approves.
• ✓In a shared home it splits the bills and tracks who has paid, without moving any money.
• ✓Taupia is free.