Moving into a home with a prepayment meter
Welcome to your new home. Now you’re in and settled, taking control of your new energy account is important so you don’t run out of credit. We’ll talk you through what you need to know.
What to do if my new home has a prepayment meter?
If you have a prepayment meter (also called a Pay As You Go meter) you’ll pay for your gas or electricity before you use it.
First thing to do is let your new supplier know you’ve moved in. Do this before you use a key or card or put any money on the meter. If your new supplier is British Gas, you can tell us you’ve moved in online in a few minutes.
How does the prepayment meter in my new home work?
There’s two types of prepayment meter - smart and conventional prepayment meters. With a conventional prepayment meter you’ll have a key for your electricity meter and a card for your gas meter. With a smart meter, you’ll have a card for electricity and a card for gas.
You can usually tell whether you have a smart prepayment meter or a conventional one by whether there is a slot for inserting a card/key. Conventional meters will have a slot, whist smart meters won’t.
Conventional prepayment meters
If there's already a card/key for the meter, you can use that to top-up. But you shouldn’t add money to your key or card until you’ve let your supplier know you’ve moved in. This makes sure you don’t pay for any debts on your meter from the last person who lived in your home.
If you need to top up and your new key or card hasn't arrived, you can:
- For gas, you can get a new gas card at your nearest Payzone energy card stockist.
- You’ll need to activate your key card before you top-up – if you try to top-up the card before activating it, the card won’t work and the top-up will not transfer.
- To activate your card, simply insert it into the meter, chip facing up, and leave it there for 60 seconds.
- You’ll need to make two trips to a Payzone, one to pick up the card, then a second to top it up after activating it at home.
- For electricity, call us on 0330 100 0303 and we'll give you a reference number. After 30 minutes, take this to your nearest Payzone energy key/card stockist, and they'll give you your new electricity key.
Smart prepayment meter
When you move into a new home with a smart prepayment meter, you’ll first need to tell your us you’ve moved in. You will then be issued a card, holding a 19 digit Smart Card Number (SCN). This number is very important, and will be used to identify your meter when topping up at a Payzone, online or via our app.
Once you top up electric or gas on your smart meter the credit will be added automatically.
Find your nearest Payzone
When using the payzone store locator, find shops that stock new energy cards/keys by looking for this green symbol:
Need help with your meter?
Get help with topping-up, or if you’re having trouble adding credit to your meter, plus lots more.
Moving out of a home with a Pay As You Go meter?
Tell us if you're moving out if we supply your home, so we can close your account and refund you for any credit you are owed.
Got a prepayment meter in your new home with another supplier?
Join over a million British Gas customers on Pay As You Go. It takes a few minutes to get a quote.
If you're currently with another supplier and have a prepayment meter, you must join British Gas on Pay As You Go to avoid problems with switching your supply.
Help & Support
Need assistance
Pay As You Go enquiries:
If you are off-supply, you can call this number 24/7 every day, all year.
For all other enquiries, please call between
Mon - Fri: 8am - 6pm
Sat: 9am - 2pm
Want to change to a credit meter?
We can change your meter from Pay As You Go to credit. You’ll need to tell us you’ve moved in first.
Priority Services Register
We can provide extra help to those who need it the most.