[punnybumpkin]

Hi, I use the My Utilita app to top up my gas meter. I'm currently in a queue in the online chat function because I received a notification in the app saying my gas meter is going to "turn off soon"... I tapped it but nothing is appearing explaining why. There's quite a long wait on the online chat function and I'm panicking a little bit because it's so cold and I have vulnerable family members. There is plenty of credit on my meter. Can anyone suggest why it's going to switch off and what it means? Thanks!

[JacobCX]

Hi @punnybumpkin

I'm sorry to hear about the issue there. If you have plenty of credit on your meter then you should have no interruption to your supply. Gas meters don't switch off the energy supply except for serious safety reasons (and there would be no warning, it would just activate) or if the balance reaches £0. If that happens you can activate your emergency credit for £15 of extra energy.

The meter itself is the best place to check your balance and you can so so by pressing the "B" button on the front of the meter to see your balance on the screen. That will never be impacted by your app. If you have an in-home-device as well this should display the correct balance.

One of the features of the app is that it tries to predict how long your energy will last for at the current rate of use. This is a really handy feature for a lot of reasons but can sometimes get confused. If it thinks someone will be boiling kettles and running hot showers continually for days on end it might think your energy balance would hit £0 much much faster than is actually the case, and so would try to alert you.

Our online chat function can get busy at certain times so it might be a little wait but you will eventually speak to someone. If you'd like to do so, feel free to send me a direct message by clicking my name and then the "Send Private Message" button on my profile page. If you send me your name, post code and/or account number I can speak to our customer service teams and find out what's happening. Continue to use the webchat function as it will probably be faster than for me to check but I'm happy to look into this on two fronts.