When Worlds Collide



Differences of opinion can be creatively

stimulating as well as frustrating. - Jim Coleman





Saturday, April 7, 2012

Prepaid Gas and Electricity Meters

What is THAT?? Yep... exactly.
Someone had the audacity to say "Hey! We have prepaid phones and prepaid visa cards, lets make a prepaid gas meter! The home owner will have to have a key that they put an amount on and once that amount is used then the gas gets shut off and they don't have any heat or hot water or a way to cook until they add more money onto it! We will charge them extra for the key, and the meter and a few other taxes here and there as well so they will end up paying 10% more (according to the BBC) on their gas then they would if they had a normal bill, but this way there can never be any debt on the account. Nevermind if the family using the meter has two small children who rely on hot water to heat bottles and have baths and...oh yeah... STAY WARM! If the meter runs out of money at 9:30 at night when all the shops are closed, they can just go without for 12 hours. Let's only put it in poor districts too... nobody cares what the poor think if they complain and if an upper class family moves into the area on accident, because the wife is American who can't tell if a neighborhood is ghetto or not because all the houses are either hundreds of years old or look like the box a refrigerator came in covered in rocks, they can pay the £300 to have it removed, even though we installed it for free! Hey Hey! Lets do it with electricity too!  We are gonna be RICH!"
Prepaid electric meter
prepaid gas meter

TV License

So a few months ago Paul and I were cuddling in front of the TV when a commercial came on. It looked a little bit like a commercial for a dating website when at the end it said "You don't have to do everything all at once. Pay your TV License online one month at a time." I thought it was a joke and started laughing. Paul said "Why is that funny?" and I said, "That TV tax thing". He still looked at me quizzically, and I  said "Oh my word, TV License is real??" He got out a notebook that had his TV License in it. He pays £144 a year for it. That's like $180... to own a TV... so you buy your TV at an exorbitant price at the store and then continue paying on it for the rest of your TV's life. Apparently it is so the BBC doesn't have to have commercials, but I find that it's awfully annoying to not have any. It means that there are no bathroom breaks, no chatting breaks, and you never know what is available in  your city or town restaurant wise or sale wise because there are no commercials for it. This is definitely a negative for the UK. Thankfully though, we only have to pay 1 fee for the household. The rest of Europe must pay PER TV. YIKES!!! I have also heard that Most of Europe has a radio license tax as well. Good news to people with black and white TV's though, you only have to pay £89 a year for your TV license! Although that sounds a little racist to me.
TV license from 2006...looks like the fees have gone up since then!