Do I need to activate my new electric key before picking up RTI?

OVO didn’t tell me that. I don’t have access to my meter. I’ll have to contact the caretaker. Me trying to add this £100 via the RTI code won’t have messed things up will it? 

If the RTI with the credit failed to load onto the Key, then there’s a chance the Key is still in the correct state to be Registered/Paired/Activated in the Meter. Try putting it in the Meter for now and see what happens. If you do NOT get an error code, then you should be good. In this situation, try loading the RTI credit again and see if that works.

If you see B4, D1, D4 or D6 then there’s a chance you’ve potentially bricked the Key and may need to get it programmed again.

If you get any other errors, let me know and I’ll advise further. If you don’t have direct access to the Meter 24/7 though, then upgrading to Smart would definitely be recommended so that you can top-up the Meter and monitor the credit balance by remote control without pestering the caretaker all the time.

As it so happens, I actually know a few RTI Codes for both Traditional Prepayment Gas and Electric Meters. However, I’m forbidden from revealing them because of the unintentional side effects of doing so means I’d get in a ton of trouble. What I mean is that I don’t want to accidentally give you a code that instantly zaps all your credit and wipes the entire meter config back to factory defaults! Because yeah, there’s a code for that!!!

Thank you for your help. I live in a basement flat and can’t have a smart meter. I’ve already tried. It’s a nightmare. 

How long ago did you try to ask for one? New solutions might make it possible now.

Let me also check with ​@Lukepeniket_OVO because I think AltHAN is almost ready to make a return.

That sounds a bit of a faff if you have a top-up key/card and have to get the caretaker out each time that you top-up the meter.

Getting a smart Prepayment meter fitted will mean that you no longer need to do that.
(and no doubt the caretaker will be happiy that you don’t have to keep calling them out).

Not able to have a smart meter it’s a basement flat. 

As Blastoise186 has already said, being a basement flat does not necessarily rule out having a smart meter.
Things have changed since the days of the early smart meters.

More to the point is where the current meter is located, because a replacement meter will go in the same place.

I asume that the current meter is not in your flat.
Where exactly is the current meter?
If it’s in a locked cabinet then how do you get to it to top it up?

The current meter is in a locked room away from my flat. 
 

I’ve to contact the block management company when I want to top up. It’s an absolute nightmare but nothing I can do. 

Well, you’re in the right place. The OVO Forum is very much about crafting nightmare ending solutions. And we’re well known for our puzzle solving.

We’re checking our options at the moment, but if you can hang on for a bit then I think this little box of magic tricks might be just the ticket to unlocking a Smart Meter upgrade for not just you, but your entire building. The basic idea of AltHAN is to make it so that your Smart Meter and IHD will behave as if they’re both close to each other, even if they’re far apart.

All I need to find out is when it’ll be ready to roll again and I’ve got contacts at OVO for that, such as Luke.

We’ll keep you posted.