Britain's biggest gas and electricity provider has made a u-turn after increasing the minimum top-up for prepayment meters to £5.
After backlash from customers, it said customers will now be able to top up with £1, a move it scrapped on January 1.
In December, the big six energy giant announced that the minimum prepayment top-up would increase from £1 to £5 from 2020.
This was part of the energy giant's switch to using Payzone for customers to top up, instead of PayPoint.
But now British Gas has said it has "listened closely to feedback" and will work with Payzone and Post Office to ensure this amount will move back to £1 from early March – though it expects some customers will be able to top up by £1 earlier than this as the changes are implemented.
Sarwjit Sambhi, consumer chief executive at British Gas's parent company Centrica, said: "Our customers are always at the heart of the decisions we make and so we've listened closely to feedback after making this change.
"The aim of this move was to keep our costs down in order to offer our customers the best value, but I am happy to change this decision whilst we continue to look at ways that we can help our most vulnerable customers."
The move comes just weeks after energy regulator Ofgem announced a new energy price cap from April.
The new rules mean households on their provider's standard variable tariff for gas and electricity will see their bills fall by an average of £22 a year.
Under the changes, the pre-payment meter cap will drop from £1,217 to £1,200 per year - marking a £22 saving.
The energy price cap was first introduced on January 1, 2019 to protect households on expensive default standard variable tariffs. These are often the most expensive deals in the market - costing families hundreds of pounds more every year.
