ENERGY firms facing bankruptcy due to soaring bills have been patronisingly advised that a prepayment meter would control their spending.
Companies such as Bulb and Octopus Energy have been inundated with emails and leaflets encouraging them to switch to a prepayment meter, which they will be able to top up at any participating retailer with a little key.
Gas wholesaler CEO Denys Finch Hatton said: “It’s really easy. Use your debit cards, or cash if they won’t let you have a debit card, get the money credited to your energy business’s corporate account, pop the key back in the meter. Sorted.
“It’ll be set up somewhere inconvenient like right at the back of the cupboard under the stairs so it’s difficult to check how much is on it, and the key just won’t work sometimes and you’ll have to phone us up.
“We load all your debt onto the meter so you’re paying it off as you pay for the gas you’re using, and there’s a special higher rate for gas because we’ve gone to all this trouble of giving you this lovely meter.
“Keep it topped up with a few million a week – if you ask how, I say ‘by budgeting’ – and it won’t run out cutting off thousands of households at, say, 3pm on Christmas Day leaving you desperately scrambling to find an open Co-op.”
An Ofgem spokesman said: “Those energy f**kers have been rinsing us for years. They deserve it.”
