Customers of major energy suppliers including British Gas, EDF, EON and Octopus Energy are being urged to take a photo of their energy meter before midnight. The call comes as the Ofgem energy price cap is set to increase from Thursday, October 1, raising the average cost of gas and electricity for households on standard tariffs by 4%, or £60, from midnight.
Why the meter reading matters
If you use gas and electricity on Wednesday, September 30, but do not submit a meter reading that evening, your supplier could mistakenly attribute Thursday's higher-priced usage to the lower-rate period, leading to an inadvertent overcharge. Without intervention on VAT, the rise would have been even higher, at £105.
Money expert Martin Lewis has previously urged customers to photograph their meter with their phone to have proof of the reading and avoid being overcharged. This is because, unless you have a very accurate working smart meter that updates instantly, energy firms rely on estimated bills.
How to avoid overcharging
If you use a lot of energy on Wednesday but little on Thursday, the energy firm might average your usage across the two days and charge some of it at Thursday's higher rate—overcharging you for energy that should have been billed at the lower price.
You can record a meter reading at midnight on September 30 going into Thursday, October 1, but upload it within a few days to your supplier and backdate it to September 30. Energy firms now allow a few days for uploads because customers previously crashed websites by submitting readings all at once.
Advice from Martin Lewis
Martin Lewis explained on his BBC Sounds and Spotify podcast why you now have a few days to upload the reading. He said: "When I first did this I suggested meter reading day and I crashed virtually every energy site. You can backdate, go and get a meter reading. For belt and braces, you can take a picture of the meter."
Most people pay by monthly direct debit, where average use is smoothed over the year, avoiding large cashflow issues in winter.
