Emergency credit for electricity prepayment meters

We never want you to be without an energy supply, so we put £6 of emergency credit on your electricity prepayment meter. This gives you some extra time to get to the shop and top up.

You can use your emergency credit when the balance on your electricity meter drops to 50p or less. This is when your meter will give you a warning beep and you'll see a flashing 'e' on the screen.

To start using your emergency credit, just take your key out of the meter, then put it back in.

You'll see the letter 'e' on your meter if you're using your emergency credit. Your screen tells you how much emergency credit you have left.

Your electricity prepayment meter screen will show you what you owe for emergency credit. The amount will also include any standing charges or debt repayments you've missed (you don't pay these when you're using emergency credit).

Your screen will either:

• Change from Display A to Display B automatically; 'Display B' shows you how much you owe
• Start to flash; when this happens, you can press the blue button to see how much you owe

Just top up your key in the normal way, and put it back into your meter. We'll automatically take a payment for all your emergency credit debt.

Your electricity won't come back on until you've paid back this debt. So your top-up needs to cover:

• The emergency credit you've used
• Any missed standing charges or debt repayments (you don't pay these when you're using emergency credit)
• Any friendly non-disconnect energy you might have used before you used your emergency credit (not all prepayment meters have this service)