British Gas to drop minimum top-up for prepayment energy customers back to £1

Can you save on prepay energy costs?

While prepay can be a good way to manage how much you spend, the amount you pay per unit of electricity or gas is generally a lot more expensive than paying through a credit meter. See if you can save:

• Switch to a standard credit meter. If you can, moving off prepayment and on to standard billed or 'credit' meters – where you pay for your energy via direct debit, cash or cheque – is the best option to save, as you can get much lower gas and electricity tariffs on these meters.
  
  Right now, the cheapest standard billed-meter tariff is £425/year cheaper on typical use than the British Gas prepayment tariff. With British Gas you'll need to pass a credit check to change your meters, though others don't require this, so you could switch provider then change meter – provided you're not currently in energy debt. See Cheap Prepaid Gas & Electricity for more on how to do this.
  
  
• Switch your prepay tariff. If you can't get – or don't want – credit meters, see if you can switch to a cheaper prepay tariff. British Gas has only one prepayment deal, and that is its standard tariff, costing a typical household £1,216/yr on average, just £1 less than the maximum allowed under the regulator's current price cap.
  
  In comparison, Bulb offers the cheapest at £1,019/yr, including £25 MSE dual-fuel cashback if you switch via our Cheap Energy Club. Bulb tells us you can top up its keys and cards at PayPoint and Payzone locations.