[melissa26503]

I always said I would never have a smart meter installed but it happened, so all I ever seem to do is put money on then have to power up then it goes on to friendly credit which has then to paid back along side of powering up and the debt on the meter this leaves and lasts me not even a week. Is there any other way that I can still have the smart meter in but pay for it monthly like a lump sum once a month which I would find much easier as I don’t get paid weekly I get paid monthly could any body help and advice the best way for me to get out of this continuous trying to find money to put on my meters. Tia

[Rebecca]

@melissa26503 Hi there! 👋

Thanks for reaching out! The benefit of Pay As You Go mode is that you can balance and see how much you're spending weekly and therefore cater for it - but as you have rightly mentioned, it's not always that easy.

There are a couple of options - you could see how much you're spending weekly & then just apply that to the amount of weeks in the month and then bulk load the meter to that amount at the start of the month.

The other option is indeed 'Credit Mode' whereby you pay a direct debit. The risk of this is that you do not have as much control as Pay As You Go, and you have the lump sum at the end of the month that needs to be paid.

Friendly & Emergency Credit as well as Power Up are not there to catch you out - we put those in place as safety nets and help should you need to rely on it. There is no interest charged - you simply pay it back little by little each time you top-up in the future.

I hope this helps? If you did think Credit Mode was more for you - the best way to go about this would be to ring up the main Utilita Line, as you would need to speak verbally to an agent, as there are a few checks & questions they'd need to go through with you as the account holder to see if it's feasible.

I hope this helps, please let me know! 😊