Scottish Power charges criticised

The cross-party group of MSPs handed in a letter to the company

Scottish Power has been urged to stop back-charging customers with token meters when prices go up.

A cross-party group of MSPs met the company on Monday morning to request that it follow its rivals and stop backdating charges.

If token meters are not adjusted when prices go up, a customer can unwittingly run up debts.

Scottish Power said the issue would be resolved within the next few years when all pre-payment meters were replaced.

Consumer group Energywatch said Scottish Power was the only electricity supplier in Scotland to still charge.

Jackie Baillie MSP, convenor of the cross-party group on debt, said: "Scottish Power is the only one of the big three power companies in Scotland that still has the practice of back-charging people for their pre-payment meters.

"Scottish Gas and Scottish Hydro Electric have ended that iniquitous practice and it's only Scottish Power that's left."

New meters

Scottish Power said the issue should resolve itself when new meters were installed.

Ann Laughrie of Scottish Power said: "Over the next couple of years, Scottish Power is replacing all pre-payment meters with state-of-art key token meters at the rate of 10,000 a month so far.

"So this problem will no longer exist."

Scottish Power said it had about 100,000 token meter customers in Scotland, far more than its rivals.

The firm said that it tried to read customers' meters every three months to help avoid them running up significant debts but it could sometimes be difficult for meter readers to gain access.

Other companies only guarantee to read meters every year, Scottish Power said.