coin operated utiliy meters in England

[PTsideshow]

Here is a question, that was promoted by a statement on another site about coins for the meter on the gas line in a village in the English countryside.

Do they still have a meter on the gas lines at the houses where you have to drop coins in. or have they gone to plastic debit type cards.

Or can you pay by the month?

Or it something that is only used in small towns?

Or in apartment buildings and the like?

And finally do they have guards that come round with the person that collects the money, and are the meters and money boxes in or outside the houses?

In this country I don't think I have every heard of metered utilities, in the coin operated metered way!
glen

[bogstandard]

Glen,

I think they have done away with all the coin operated utility meters by now, purely because the people who used them were the poorest in the land, and they used to break into the meters when they got short of money.

Nowadays, we still have meters, but they are read by a meterman who calls around every three months, they then send us a bill for the gas and electricity we have used. There are many fifferent ways to pay the bill, from weekly payments into a post office to direct debit from your bank.

But again for the poorest in the land, they have fitted meters that accept payment from a plastic cards, that you either top up or buy from local shops. Once you have no more credit on the card, tough luck, gas and electricity is shut off automatically by the meter, until you can afford to put more credit in.

Bogs

[sbwhart]

Hi Glen taking it one ? at a time

Do they still have a meter on the gas lines at the houses where you have to drop coins in. or have they gone to plastic debit type cards.

No:- but they use to but now you can use the plastic debit card if you wish. This is used in some rented accommodation student rents short term rents etc

Or can you pay by the month?

Yes most people do it this way, you can pay monthly if you wish or quarterly over the net also, in the UK there are quite a lot of utility companies suppling thing like gas and electric often both, all in competition so there are a lot of ways you can pay your bill, you can have a yearly contract for both gas an electric, you can choose to pay a fixed amount every month and settle any difference at the end of the year etc

Or it something that is only used in small towns? Or in apartment buildings and the like?  The same system is universal.

And finally do they have guards that come round with the person that collects the money,

When the money was collected from the houses the guy was on his own, it did happen some time that he was robbed but not very often

 and are the meters and money boxes in or outside the houses?

Some meters are outside for the guy to read he has an electronic thing he just punches the number into but they are slowly changes to a more outomatic system.

Some meters are in the house as is our case, we usually read our own meter and phone the reading in they come rounds every 12 to 18 months or so to check you havn't been diddling them.

Hope this helps

Stew

[PTsideshow]

Yes it is interesting to find out the truth of things. If only to upset the local "Legend in his own mind" that know all things, at least in his own little universe.  The plastic card thing would work here for some of the welfare level till some one figured out how to load up the card with the home computer!
We have the same stuff about paying over here. Only they hate the banks e pay as they can't charge us for it like they do for their version of e pay. And they are always trying to get us to switch to theirs were they take it out of my checking account each month and I don't even have to look

They are trying out a radio transmitter device to see if it will kill the customers before they crank up the power of the transmitter! Right now they have somebody drive thru the areas that have it and the computer in the car talks to the chip in the meter.
Thanks
glen

[sbwhart]

It always amazes me how resorcefull people can be with scams where money is involved, one scam is to swap the pipes round on the gas meter so that it goes backwards. One guy tried it near us and blew his house up, three other houses were that badly damaged they had to be demolished, he was a little singed around the edges but out of hospital after a couple of days:-  a very lucky chap.

Stew