What is Emergency Credit?

Each British Gas gas and electricity meter has £5 of Emergency Credit built in for when you run out of gas or electricity and you are unable to top up.

To access your Emergency Credit you must have the key or card in the meter.

You'll need to pay back the Emergency Credit next time you top up, and any remainder will be put on as credit. If you use all your Emergency Credit and don't top up to replace it, you may not have an energy supply until you have repaid it.

Newer electricity meters also have friendly emergency credit.

Friendly Emergency Credit is available on newer electricity meters. It isactivated automatically if you run out of standard Emergency Credit between 6pm and 9am (or 7pm and 10am during British Summer Time). The meter will not cut off until 9am the next morning, when you need to top up to replace the extra credit you used.

Key meters manufactured after January 2008 also include Sunday Friendly Credit which covers the full day on Sunday.