What we’re doing for prepayment customers

The safety of customers and employees is our main priority and we want to reassure you that we’re here to help. Our teams are working closely with government, health organisations, the energy regulator Ofgem and consumer advice organisations to ensure we continue to follow the very latest advice and we’re as prepared as we can be.

To prevent further spread of the virus, we may have to operate with reduced numbers of employees. If this were to happen, it would be right that we focus our efforts on ensuring we take care of our more vulnerable customers and those with prepayment meters.

Prepayment customers

We’re urging all customers with prepayment meters to prepare for the possibility of self-isolation as much as possible.

If you’re a prepayment customer, please think about asking family, friends or a neighbour for help to top-up your prepayment meter if you can't get to an outlet to top up your credit. Or if you know someone impacted by the current situation, please consider offering help to top up their prepayment meter.

Our priority remains keeping all our customers on supply and helping people to stay safe and healthy.

Your prepayment meter has an emergency credit facility that lets you ‘borrow’ money from the meter if your credit runs low.  

You will have to pay any emergency credit you borrow back to the meter, along with any debt owed – including standing charges that may have built up while you have been using the emergency credit. Please note that while you are in your emergency credit you will not be paying anything towards standing charges or debt.

During Spring we updated our prepayment meters with higher levels of emergency credit to protect customers from losing supply if they were unable to top up as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. 

We are now putting the emergency credit levels back to the previous values of £7 for electricity, £12 for 2 rate meters, and £6 for gas. Don’t worry if your settings take a little longer to adjust as these updates may take up to 6 weeks.

If you are concerned about using and repaying your emergency credit, please contact us on Live Chat or call us and we can look at ways to help you.

How you repay your emergency credit is slightly different for gas and electricity.

For gas: When you top up you’ll get at least 30% of your top-up as credit for gas usage. The rest, if needed, will be used to repay your emergency credit debt and the full amount you’ve borrowed will need to be repaid before you’ll be able to access emergency credit again. If your meter display says 'Emergency Credit Used', this means you have not yet fully paid back all of the emergency credit you borrowed from the meter, so just keep topping up. Once you’ve caught up and the meter displays 'Emergency Credit Available', you can then borrow the emergency credit from the meter again if you should need it. You can check your emergency credit limit by scrolling to screen number 22.

For electricity: You must top up at least the value on screen B, or screen 2 (dependent on the type of meter you have), which shows how much needs to be paid back to get out of emergency credit and into normal credit. When you are back in credit and the key is inserted in the meter, you can check your emergency credit limit by scrolling to screen R, or screen 7 dependent on the type of meter.

No, emergency credit should be used as a last resort and we encourage all customers to monitor their credit regularly to ensure they don’t run out.

If you're self-isolating or about to start self-isolating you should ask a member of your social bubble, such as a friend, neighbour or family member, to top up your meter on your behalf and just leave the key or card on the doorstep so you don’t have to come into contact with each other.

Remember to clean and disinfect objects you touch regularly - including your card - to reduce the risk of passing on the infection to other people. Please don't soak your card in liquid as this is likely to damage it and stop it working. Regularly wash your hands for 20 seconds using soap and hot water, or use hand sanitiser if that's all you have access to.

If you are not in self-isolation and are able to visit a shop to top-up please do so. You should ask a member of your social bubble such as friend, neighbour or family member to top up your meter on your behalf and just leave the key or card on the doorstep so you don’t have to come into contact with each other.

Remember to clean and disinfect objects you touch regularly - including your card - to reduce the risk of passing on the infection to other people. Please don't soak your card in liquid as this is likely to damage it and stop it working. Regularly wash your hands for 20 seconds using soap and hot water, or use hand sanitiser if that's all you have access to.

If you’re about to run out of credit and can’t arrange a top-up, please contact us and we’ll look at other ways we may be able to help.

If you’re about to run out of credit and can’t arrange a top-up, please contact us and we’ll look at other ways we may be able to help.

We always look at a customer’s ability to pay, taking into account your individual circumstances and vulnerabilities. So if you’re struggling, please get in touch.

If you are not in self-isolation and are able to visit a shop to top up, please do so. You can also ask a member of your social bubble such as friend, neighbour or family member to top up your meter on your behalf. Remember to clean and disinfect objects you touch regularly - including your card - to reduce the risk of passing on the infection to other people. Please don't soak your card in liquid as this is likely to damage it and stop it working. Regularly wash your hands for 20 seconds using soap and hot water, or use hand sanitiser if that's all you have access to.

You can top up a maximum of £49 at a time and the meter will hold a maximum of £249 for gas and £255 for electricity, and you can always do multiple transactions at the shop in one visit to add more credit to the key or card.

If you are unable to arrange a top-up, please contact us and we’ll look at other ways we may be able to help.

We always look at a customer’s ability to pay, taking your individual circumstances and vulnerabilities into account. So if you’re struggling, please get in touch and we may be able to lower your weekly debt recovery rate for a period of time.

Every home will use different amounts of energy but, as a guide, if you're on npower’s standard prepayment tariff, the average household will use around £46 of gas and electricity for 14 days at current Ofgem average consumption figures up to 1 April.

You can top up a maximum of £49 at a time. The meter will hold a maximum of £249 for gas and £255 for electricity, and if need be, you can always do multiple top ups at the shop in one visit to add more credit to your key or card.

At the moment, the majority of outlets including Post Offices, PayPoints and Payzones are open as normal. Post Offices and convenience shops selling food are on the government's list of essential places to remain open.
All Warm Home Discounts will have been applied by the end of March and you'll receive a voucher in the post, so please be patient. If you’re unable to get to the shop to redeem the voucher, a person who you trust can collect your discount for you. All they’ll need are two pieces of your non-photo ID, such as a council tax or utility bill from the past 6 months, or a bank statement or rent book from the past 12 months. The ID must show the name and address that’s printed on the voucher letter.

If you’re not in self-isolation and are able to visit a shop to top up please do so.

You can top up a maximum of £49 at a time and the meter will hold a maximum of £249 for gas and £255 for electricity, and you can always do multiple transactions at the shop in one visit to add more credit to the key or card.

Every home will use different amounts of energy but, as a guide, if you're on npower’s standard prepayment tariff, the average household will use around £46.67 of gas and electricity for 14 days at current Ofgem average consumption figures up to 1 April.

If you are in self isolation you should also ask a friend, neighbour, or family member to top up your meter on your behalf and just leave the key or card on the doorstep so you don’t have to come into contact with each other.

Remember to clean and disinfect objects you touch regularly - including your card - to reduce the risk of passing on the infection to other people. Please don't soak your card in liquid as this is likely to damage it and stop it working. Regularly wash your hands for 20 seconds using soap and hot water, or use hand sanitiser if that's all you have access to.

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We’re unable to carry out meter exchange appointments at the moment as our engineers are focused on emergency appointments.