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. To help you out, we have increased our emergency credit for gas and electricity from £7 to £45. This will help you stay on supply longer if you run low and can’t get to a top-up point.

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 supply.

Please note that while you are in your emergency credit you will not be paying anything towards existing debt or standing charges.

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.

If you’re using emergency credit for gas, you will see the following if you put your card in the meter and press the red button A. Your meter will display "Emergency Credit In Use".

If you are in your gas emergency credit, the meter will reclaim 70p in every pound you top up to go towards paying this credit back. However, once you’ve repaid all of your emergency credit you will then receive the full value of your top ups.

If you’re using emergency credit for electricity your meter will display an “E” in front of the amount.

If you are in your electricity emergency credit, this needs to be paid in full before you will get any credit from your top-up. Please make sure that you top up with enough to cover the emergency credit you have used and what you need for your future usage.

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

If you're self-isolating or about to start self-isolating you should 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.

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

We have increased our emergency credit for gas and electricity from £7 to £45, so that you can stay on supply longer if you run low and can’t get to a top-up point. This will be loaded onto your payment card or key when you next top up.

It is important to note that you’ll have to pay back any emergency credit you borrow to get back on supply, including standing charges that may have built up while you’ve been using the emergency supply.

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.

We have increased our emergency credit for gas and electricity from £7 to £45, so that you can stay on supply longer if you run low and can’t get to a top-up point. This will be loaded onto your payment card or key when you next top up.

It is important to note that you’ll have to pay back any emergency credit you borrow to get back on supply, including standing charges that may have built up while you’ve been using the emergency supply.

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 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 £46.67 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.

.

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