Martin Lewis details how Britons can lower bills ahead of new energy price cap
Martin Lewis has shared two tips to help reduce your bills ahead of the new energy price cap, which kicks in on Sunday 1 October.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain, the MoneySavingExpert explained that he has dubbed this “meter reading week” and urged Britons who pay by monthly direct debit and don’t have a smart meter to check their readings.
By submitting an accurate reading, people can “reduce any error where energy firms assume more of the usage is at the current high rate, rather than Sunday’s low rate”.
Lewis’s final tip was for those with a non-smart electricity pre-payment meter, urging those customers to try and top up after Sunday to ensure they are charged the new lower price.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain, the MoneySavingExpert explained that he has dubbed this “meter reading week” and urged Britons who pay by monthly direct debit and don’t have a smart meter to check their readings.
By submitting an accurate reading, people can “reduce any error where energy firms assume more of the usage is at the current high rate, rather than Sunday’s low rate”.
Lewis’s final tip was for those with a non-smart electricity pre-payment meter, urging those customers to try and top up after Sunday to ensure they are charged the new lower price.
Transcript
00:00 Because prices are changing, I call this Meter Reading Week.
00:05 And that means if you are on--
00:07 if you pay by monthly direct debit
00:10 and you don't have a working smart meter,
00:13 you should be doing a meter reading sometime
00:15 during the next week.
00:17 So go to your meter, take a quick picture of it--
00:19 that's the easiest way--
00:20 and put it in.
00:20 Why do you do that?
00:22 Well, with prices changing on Sunday, what we want to do
00:24 is reduce any error where the energy firms assume
00:27 more of your usage is at the current high rates
00:31 rather than after Sunday's lower rates.
00:34 So you get the meter reading, again,
00:35 doesn't matter what day you do it.
00:37 If you do it on Saturday and Sunday, fine.
00:39 If you do it a few days afterwards,
00:40 you can always backdate the reading you've given.
00:42 And the final important tip out there is for anyone--
00:45 going to do this slowly--
00:46 on a non-smart electricity prepayment meter.
00:52 Non-smart electricity prepayment meter.
00:57 Specifically, those meters change the price
01:01 you pay on the day that you top up.
01:05 So if I had one of those, what I'd be doing
01:07 is trying not to top up this week,
01:09 unless you really need to, in which case,
01:10 just top up what you'll use this week.
01:13 And then go and top up on Sunday.
01:15 Because by topping up on Sunday, that's what tells your meter
01:19 you should be charged a new lower price.
01:21 So even if you don't need any extra energy on Sunday,
01:23 go and top up your electricity on Sunday just by a quid
01:27 so that your meter knows to charge you less.