Arrears Not Being Taken

Marsam

Hi I hope you can help me, about 5 years ago I built up a lot of arrears and you were very understanding and helpful by putting in a pay as you go meter which would keep our supply on and pay off our debt over time. We then just bought our €5 tokens to top up as we went along. After a few months we noticed our arrears weren't going down so we contacted you and you came out and reset the box. A few months later we contacted you again as it still wasn't going down and your rep assured us that the box was set correctly so we should just continue with the tokens. We've been doing this ever since and have only had the meter man taking readings, plus a chap to reset it when price changes happened. After all these years we've just been contacted by yourselves asking us to pay the arrears in full which are now more than before we had the box, which we haven't got the money to do. I'm so worried about being cut off because I thought the arrears should be almost paid off by now not more, can you please advise especially as the house is all electric.

EI: Aoife

Hi Marsam,

Thank you for getting in touch.

Can you advise if you have a token meter where you insert cards into the meter slot?

We also need to know if you are referring to gas or electricity.

We can then advise you in relation to your query.

Thanks,
Aoife

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Marsam

Hi Aoife,

Thanks for getting back to me, yes it is an electricity meter where we insert €5 cards that we buy in batches from the credit union in Dingle.

Marsam

EI: Aoife

Hi Marsam,

Thank you for clarifying that.

A token meter functions as a debt management machine rather than a Pay As You Go meter.

Have you considered our more sophisticated Pay As You Go meters? These meters have a keypad, and can be topped up like a mobile phone. You can top-up these meters online or in-store with a code.

This type of meter is ideal for customers looking to bring down their balance as this can be deducted at 25% of every top-up. This will ensure that your balance will continue to go down.

One of the other benefits of this meter relates to Credit Friendly hours. This means that the meter will not disconnect after 4 or 5pm every day or over the weekend. This includes certain Credit Friendly bank holidays. You can find more information relating to this here.

If you are interested in availing of this, we recommend calling our colleagues on 1850 372 372 to discuss. They are available from Monday to Saturday from 8am to 8pm.

Should you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Thanks,
Aoife

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Marsam

Hi Aoife 

That would be perfect I'll contact them asap,

Thanks for your advice

Marsam

EI: Aoife

Hi Marsam,

You are very welcome.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,
Aoife

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Marsam

Hi Aoife

We contacted them and they told us that we couldn't have one put in until we had our token meter removed, so we rang the number that they gave us and were given a removal appointment and a number to ring once it was out so as to book the pay as you go. Once the token meter was gone we duly rang for the pay as you go only to be told for the first time that we can't have it because we have a night storage meter and that we had to be completely on the 24 hour meter before we could have one. Again we were given a number to ring which we did to arrange this only to be told this time that its going to cost around €200 euro's (which we don't have) to get it done.  This is so frustrating because our attempt to get the pay as you go meter so that we can pay our arrears has hit stumbling blocks every step of the way. Can you please help as we are very worried that we'll get cut off even though we are trying to get it sorted out.

Marsam

Electric Ireland: Una

Hi Marsam,

Thank you for getting in touch.

Please private message us the relevant Electric Ireland account number (or the telephone number on the account), stating that you are the account-holder and confirming your name, address and date of birth.

We have limited access to the Pay As You Go (PAYG) system here in the Social Media department, however we can certainly review the details to see what we would be able to do.

We will respond as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Una

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