Money man Martin Lewis has told people not to panic if they can't read their gas or electricity meters today. He had told consumers that it's wise to submit readings today, but many people have experienced issues doing so.
It is all around the fact that the energy price cap rises by nearly £700 per year from tomorrow, April 1. This means that anybody not on a fixed rate tariff is about to be paying more.
With this in mind, Mr Lewis has said that anyone in this situation should take a meter reading and submit it to their supplier today. He said this would make sure that the correct prices were charged for either side of April 1.
READ MORE: Martin Lewis warns of 3 things we all need to do by Friday as energy price cap rises
However, many energy suppliers - including British Gas, EDF, Scottish Power and SSE, have had problems with their websites and phone lines today as many people attempt to submit their readings. With that in mind, Mr Lewis has posted an update on his Twitter page to advise on what to do if you don't manage to submit a reading today, reports The Mirror.
Those who are on the price cap tariff - so the variable standard rate - who don’t have a smart meter or prepayment meter, should do a meter reading today. It's worth remembering, though, that if you're on a fixed rate tariff you don't need to, as your rates won’t change in line with the price cap.
Mr Lewis said: “It’s really frustrating. “This shouldn’t have happened and we [MoneySavingExpert] are alerting Ofgem to the problem.”
But he advised households “not to panic” and added: “This is just a way of protecting yourself from them trying to overestimate your usage at the higher rate. If you were to do it tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after that, just doing it around now reduces the wriggle room for a problem with estimates. A day or two out isn’t the biggest panic in the world.
“The perfect time to do it is 11.59pm tonight but if you forget or there’s something wrong with the firm, don’t panic. Just make sure you’ve done one in the last few days or in the next few days and you should be pretty close to being charged the right amount.
“If you can’t send it through online or their phone lines are too busy, some of them do allow you to email a photo of your meter to allow for a meter reading.”
He had been advising households to provide a meter reading so they can avoid their energy usage being overestimate by their provider. The idea is that you can tell your energy provider exactly how much gas and electricity you used before the price cap increases at midnight.
This means any energy used up until March 31 will be charged at a lower price, rather than the higher rate kicking in. For those on a default tariff who pay by direct debit, the Ofgem price cap is going up by £693 from £1,277 to £1,971 from April 1.
Prepayment customers will see a bigger jump, with their price cap going up by £708, from £1,309 to £2,017. Complaints about submitting a meter reading appeared to start from around 8am with most energy providers experiencing issues.
Almost all the problems are that customers cannot log in or use the energy companies' websites. Earlier today, E.on sparked a bizarre Twitter row after it sent a tweet blaming Martin for its website crashing and "bringing down Britain". The message has since been deleted and E.on apologised for "any offence" caused.
