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Get a smart prepayment meter
Take control of your energy costs and choose to pay in advance.
With a smart prepayment meter, you’ll have access to Pay As You Go energy and can top up your account only when you need it.
What is Pay As You Go energy?
Pay As You Go energy, also known as prepayment energy, means you won’t receive bills for your gas or electricity usage. Instead, you buy credit to top up your energy meter, which powers your home. Your credit then reduces daily as your standing charge, energy payments, and any debt repayments are taken.
What’s a prepayment meter?
A prepayment meter lets you use Pay As You Go energy. You can top up your prepayment meter, also called a Pay As You Go meter, by using a special gas or electricity key or card at designated top-up locations – like the Post Office. Once your key has been loaded up with credit, you’ll need to insert it into your prepayment meter to be able to access Pay As You Go energy.
However, upgrading to a smart prepayment meter makes it even easier to manage your energy usage. Smart Pay As You Go meters let you top up from wherever you are, and come with more benefits than traditional prepayment meters, including a free smart meter in-home display.
What’s the difference between a traditional and smart Pay As You Go meter?
Traditional Meter
Top up at the shop only
Insert key / card to apply top-up
Limited visual display on meter
No energy usage information
No control over settings
An obstacle to environmental targets
Holding Britain back
No average change in spending
Smart Meter
Top up anywhere, any time
Top-ups are applied automatically
Free in-home smart meter display
See real-time usage in pounds and pence
Customisable spending alerts and budgets
Helps reduce carbon emissions
Driving Britain forward
Save up to £61 a year*
What are the benefits of a smart prepayment meter?
Quick and simple energy
There are just two steps to getting a smart Pay As You Go meter: book an appointment and get visited by one of our expert engineers for installation.
Easy top-ups
Add credit from your phone or in a shop, which is automatically applied to your account in minutes.
Take control of your usage
With your smart prepayment display device, you can see your energy use in pounds and pence. You can also set budgets and alerts (so you don’t forget and run out of credit), apply top-ups, and view your top-up history.
No more bills
Since you pay for your energy before you use it, you won’t receive a monthly or quarterly bill that you’ll have to pay.
What are the disadvantages of a prepayment meter?
There are some reasons why Pay As You Go energy might not be for everyone. Here are some things to consider before you get one:
If you run out of credit or forget to top up, you risk your supply going off. But with a smart prepayment meter, you can easily top up your meter from your home at any time.
You must make sure you have enough credit on your meter to cover standing charges. This is because your standing charge is deducted from the meter’s credit daily, even if you don’t use gas or electricity.
You’ll need to top up your meter even when you’re away from home. This is to avoid losing your supply when your appliances, such as your fridge, freezer, heating and hot water, are kept running. Don’t forget – you’ll also need to cover standing charges while you’re gone.
Take a look at our energy tariffs and smart meter options here.
What happens if I run out of credit?
If you run out of credit and aren’t able to top up, don’t panic – you might not lose your supply right away as you may have access to:
Emergency Credit
Non-smart prepayment meters will have an Emergency Credit of £10–£20, while smart meters have a £10 Emergency Credit. Some meters automatically enable the credit, while others need you to accept it manually.
Friendly Credit
If you use up your Emergency Credit, customers with some prepayment meters will have access to Friendly Credit. Friendly Credit is available at specific times of the day or night when it can be difficult to top up at the shops.
You can learn more about Emergency or Friendly Credit here.
Remember, if you have a smart prepayment meter and run out of credit, you can add credit to your meter by logging into your UW account or the UW app.
How do I top up my smart prepayment meter?
Topping up is easy. Here are just some of the ways you can add more credit to your smart prepayment meter:
Top up online
The easiest way to top up is by using your mobile phone within the Energy section of the UW app or by accessing your online UW portal. Your new balance can sometimes take up to 45 minutes to appear.
If you haven’t already done so, we suggest you register an account for quicker and smoother payments; you’ll just need your bank card details and top-up number.
Top up in-store
Simply take your top-up number to your local PayPoint outlet. Find your nearest PayPoint outlet here.
Buy the amount of credit you'd like. You can add £5–£49 at a PayPoint retailer.
The cashier will top up your key or card and give you a receipt. After inserting your topped-up key into your meter to transfer the funds, keep ahold of your receipt until the credit is showing on your display, just in case.
Top-up through your smart meter display
If you need access to your top-up sooner, or on rare occasions when your PayPoint retailer's automated top-up doesn’t register on your meter, follow the links below.
Choose the link depending on which generation of smart meter you have installed.
Your account at your fingertips
Download our app in seconds, and top up your smart prepayment meter from home (or anywhere!).
