Opinion: I hate poorly implemented PAYG

Posted on 1 Mar 2010 at 12:29

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Pay As You Go (PAYG) services are brilliant. I always know exactly how much I'm spending on my phone/gas/electricity and never get hit by an unexpectedly massive bill at the end of the quarter. I even have PAYG credit cards that I use for online shopping or charge with foreign currency for trips overseas. Admittedly, few people have my pathological hatred of direct debit billing, but most have at least one PAYG service.

I have no major issues with the premium that using PAYG adds to my payments – it's the price I pay for being able to micro-manage my billing. What really bugs me, though, is poorly implemented payment schemes.

The main utilities – gas and electricity – are the worst for this. Since my local Post Office withdrew from the scheme, I can only top these vital utilities up at two local newsagents: one of which closes before I get home from work; the other has a top-up machine that is usually out of order. I've also been informed on more than one occasion that, due to restrictions on the shop's use of the machine, I will only be able to top up my electricity by a maximum of £10.

Fortunately, a more practical solution is available, for British Gas customers at least. If you sign up for the Home Energy Top Up service, launched late last year, you'll be sent a USB device that can be used to top up your British Gas electricity key and gas card over the internet. This sounds brilliantly civilised. I'm still waiting for the device to be delivered – there's currently an expected delay of around a month – but it should make life a lot easier.

Then there's Three, the only major mobile phone provider in the country that doesn't allow you to top up at a cash point. So, instead of a neat and tidy direct transfer of cash on to my phone, if I want to top up while out and about, I have to buy a 16-digit top-up voucher printed on a flimsy bit of thermal paper. It looks just like a receipt. Which is why I accidentally threw one away yesterday and now have no credit. (Also, I have no brain.) Fortunately, Three allows me to register for online top-ups with a credit card, which I have now done.

It's true that I bring this on myself – I don't need to use key meters or PAYG phones. However, for hundreds of people, there isn't much choice in the matter. Utility companies can insist that customers with a poor credit rating be switched to a key meter, and good luck getting a contract mobile if you don't have sufficient credit history (i.e. haven't been in debt at any point in your life).

This ties some of the most vulnerable people in our society to the vagaries of a system that may or may not be able to serve them when they need it. I can easily walk a complaining mile to the next shop with a working machine – not everyone is so fortunate. Incidentally, shop keepers complain of making little to no profit on gas and electricity top-ups, which means there's no incentive for more PayPoint agents to choose to support gas and electricity payments.

Online payment solutions like the one being pioneered by British Gas are certainly the way forward, but only when internet access becomes a universal right throughout the UK - no exceptions.

Author: Kat Orphanides