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Powergen: paying too much?
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okay: this is a very long story so please bear with me..
when my OH and i first moved into our 1 bed ground floor flat, our gas bill was part of our rent (rented from housing association), basically the tenants shared a single gas supply and we paid £5 extra a month towards the gas. However, in February 2005 our kitchens were refurbished and as part of that, they gave us all individual gas connections, with meters, and supposedly put us all onto british gas.
We waited for our first gas bill from british gas.. which never came. Instead what arrived was a bill addressed to new customer, 1-2-3-4 (the numbers of the flats) X road, from Powergen. We thought there was an error, because it was to everyone, and also rather high. We went to the housing association, who assured it us was being taken care of, and to ignore it. So we did.
More bills arrived, also to 1-2-3-4 X Road... which we duly ignored (as per instructions). Finally, one arrived addressed to my OH, still at 1-2-3-4 X Road. We figured that they got the name from OH's getting the electric supply from them. Finally, in November 2005, they were threatening to turn it over to debt collectors so we got in touch with them. by this time the bills were over £300, so we agreed a repayment schedule of £20 every 2 weeks, and we stuck to that.
The bill continued to go up over the winter, despite making that payment every 2 weeks, faithfully. The following March a new bill arrived, a very high one (which we thought was for info) and we continued to make the payments as scheduled. Then a red letter, then a nasty letter. At this point i contacted the finance officer at the local new deal, someone who helps those who are in debt or have financial problems free of charge, and she's taken over disputing this account, since about april all stuff to do with Powergen gas has been turned over to her.
In addition: we're being treated as business customers, because our old housing association were business customers, and because we are, even though we get both gas and electric, we don't qualify for the dual fuel discount. We've also been told that i can't get tesco clubcard points on my powergen payments - and this would amount to quite a lot, over the time we've been paying, as you can imagine - because we're business customers.. even though we're *not* business customers. Again, the finance officer is handling all this.
Finally: the meters themselves: our meter is the old one that used to supply all four flats, its dated march 2003 and looks very old and rusty. The other three flats have shiny new meters. Tonight, on the advice of someone, we're going to turn the gas supply off at the mains and see if our meter continues to go up by morning, if it does, we'll know that either there's a leak or someone else's meter is hooked into ours. we've been advised to ask for a new meter, which is something i've asked the finance officer to look into.
We've continued through all this to make payments of £20 every 2 weeks on the gas faithfully, and £20 on the electric every 2 weeks (officially, £80 a month or so). This is despite being on benefits, but recently, we're starting to *really* struggle.. to the point where its a toss up between eating and paying the bills. We've not had the heating on since about May, continuing to resist having it on even now (pulling jumpers on, cuddling under quilts on the sofa, anything but turn the heating on).. and i resent paying the money, especially as i know we're up to date on the electric, and almost certainly don't owe them anything.
My questions are:
1) is £40 a month too much to be paying on the gas, considering that we use gas for heating, hot water, and cooking, we're a small one bed flat with double glazing and insulated walls and we're both fairly young - 30s, no children living here or anything like that.
2) if i make payments of half the current amount, £40 a month instead of £80, given that the bills are in dispute, can powergen touch me? Our bills are paid via a card (*not* a card that goes into the meter, just a card that enables us to spread out the payments weekly or every 2 weeks at the post office).
3) I've taken all the advice in the OS threads about reducing bills, but is there anything else i am missing?
advice would be greatly appreciated..
keth
xx
when my OH and i first moved into our 1 bed ground floor flat, our gas bill was part of our rent (rented from housing association), basically the tenants shared a single gas supply and we paid £5 extra a month towards the gas. However, in February 2005 our kitchens were refurbished and as part of that, they gave us all individual gas connections, with meters, and supposedly put us all onto british gas.
We waited for our first gas bill from british gas.. which never came. Instead what arrived was a bill addressed to new customer, 1-2-3-4 (the numbers of the flats) X road, from Powergen. We thought there was an error, because it was to everyone, and also rather high. We went to the housing association, who assured it us was being taken care of, and to ignore it. So we did.
More bills arrived, also to 1-2-3-4 X Road... which we duly ignored (as per instructions). Finally, one arrived addressed to my OH, still at 1-2-3-4 X Road. We figured that they got the name from OH's getting the electric supply from them. Finally, in November 2005, they were threatening to turn it over to debt collectors so we got in touch with them. by this time the bills were over £300, so we agreed a repayment schedule of £20 every 2 weeks, and we stuck to that.
The bill continued to go up over the winter, despite making that payment every 2 weeks, faithfully. The following March a new bill arrived, a very high one (which we thought was for info) and we continued to make the payments as scheduled. Then a red letter, then a nasty letter. At this point i contacted the finance officer at the local new deal, someone who helps those who are in debt or have financial problems free of charge, and she's taken over disputing this account, since about april all stuff to do with Powergen gas has been turned over to her.
In addition: we're being treated as business customers, because our old housing association were business customers, and because we are, even though we get both gas and electric, we don't qualify for the dual fuel discount. We've also been told that i can't get tesco clubcard points on my powergen payments - and this would amount to quite a lot, over the time we've been paying, as you can imagine - because we're business customers.. even though we're *not* business customers. Again, the finance officer is handling all this.
Finally: the meters themselves: our meter is the old one that used to supply all four flats, its dated march 2003 and looks very old and rusty. The other three flats have shiny new meters. Tonight, on the advice of someone, we're going to turn the gas supply off at the mains and see if our meter continues to go up by morning, if it does, we'll know that either there's a leak or someone else's meter is hooked into ours. we've been advised to ask for a new meter, which is something i've asked the finance officer to look into.
We've continued through all this to make payments of £20 every 2 weeks on the gas faithfully, and £20 on the electric every 2 weeks (officially, £80 a month or so). This is despite being on benefits, but recently, we're starting to *really* struggle.. to the point where its a toss up between eating and paying the bills. We've not had the heating on since about May, continuing to resist having it on even now (pulling jumpers on, cuddling under quilts on the sofa, anything but turn the heating on).. and i resent paying the money, especially as i know we're up to date on the electric, and almost certainly don't owe them anything.
My questions are:
1) is £40 a month too much to be paying on the gas, considering that we use gas for heating, hot water, and cooking, we're a small one bed flat with double glazing and insulated walls and we're both fairly young - 30s, no children living here or anything like that.
2) if i make payments of half the current amount, £40 a month instead of £80, given that the bills are in dispute, can powergen touch me? Our bills are paid via a card (*not* a card that goes into the meter, just a card that enables us to spread out the payments weekly or every 2 weeks at the post office).
3) I've taken all the advice in the OS threads about reducing bills, but is there anything else i am missing?
advice would be greatly appreciated..
keth
xx
0
Comments
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Have you asked the other flats how much gas they are using? Can any of them help by telling you how much they pay or how many units they are using? If they all say they are getting bills of "x" a month then yours should be similar if you have similar usage patterns.
If you are (or were) paying back the £300 or so bill, then £40 per month may not be excessive. I presume you've been checking the meter readings and they match the bills? Regarding them billing you as a business, I can understand how that could happen, the most important thing will be to make sure they are charging you 5% VAT not 17.5% VAT on your bills. As you are residential, your VAT should always be 5%. By the way business prices may be cheaper than residential (they almost always are on electricity for example) so don't assume just because they are billing you as a business the bills will be more expensive. If in doubt get your suppliers residential prices off the internet and do a comparison. It will mean you don't get clubcard points though, I can see that. You have the right to ask to be back billed as residential anyway, so if that's what you want, keep asking.
Once you get it all sorted, you may want to think about changing supplier, that may give you some extra savings.
I really do hope you get it sorted.Indecision is the key to flexibility
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Hi,
I have been with Powergen for a couple of years now and have not had any problems with them.As you are on the internet you can sign up with them to have paper free bills so that you can look at them on their site,plus you get a small rebate for not having a paper bill through your letter box.You can also look back at all your bills online to see what your usage is on your gas and elec (if on dual fual) ,plus you can make sure that you are on the correct tariff,you can also put in your own meter readings so that you know that when you do get your bill online it should be the same reading as that what was taken by the bloke that takes your readings.Remember to take your own reading on the same day as the bloke comes round to take his reading that way you can cross reference them so you know that its right.
good luck.0 -
Powergens Domestic Gas prices are:
Primary Rate: 3.559p per kWh
Secondary: 2.830p per kWh
These are exc VAT at 5%
I will comment on the rest later I just have to pop out - I work for powergen so will have a proper read and see what they may offer you.0 -
anniecave wrote:Have you asked the other flats how much gas they are using? Can any of them help by telling you how much they pay or how many units they are using? If they all say they are getting bills of "x" a month then yours should be similar if you have similar usage patterns.
yup, we've asked. Of the neighours: one spends all his money on booze, so sits there pretty much in the dark and cold most of the time so its not reasonable to compare with, another is elderly and terrified of the local idiots so sits there in the dark most of the time, spends as much time as possible in other people's homes away from his flat, and the other has her heating on mega high (we're peeling off layers if we go round there) and has her heating on the type of card that goes into the meter, but her bill is lower than ours (part of the reason why we think there's a problem with the meter).anniecave wrote:If you are (or were) paying back the £300 or so bill, then £40 per month may not be excessive. I presume you've been checking the meter readings and they match the bills?
yup, we've been checking all that.. part of our beef (and what i didn't want to go into above) is around how much of the money seems to go towards current charges as opposed to paying off the debt we owe - at one point all of that £40 was going towards the current charges, and our debt was remaining static. Its currently, as a result of having the heating off all over the summer (and its still off now) at 116 - or it was a month ago.anniecave wrote:Regarding them billing you as a business, I can understand how that could happen, the most important thing will be to make sure they are charging you 5% VAT not 17.5% VAT on your bills. As you are residential, your VAT should always be 5%.
yup the VAT is 5%, thats one thing i did check. We were assured that there was no difference between being a residential and a business customer, but there clearly is when we're refused both the dual fuel discount and the clubcard points.anniecave wrote:Once you get it all sorted, you may want to think about changing supplier, that may give you some extra savings.
I really do hope you get it sorted.
thanks sweetie.. we're considering switching once its sorted and the debt is paid off, but until then, there's no real point - it would just introduce more chaos into an already unstable picture.
thanks for all the advice!
keth
xx0 -
J_ROBBO wrote:Hi,
I have been with Powergen for a couple of years now and have not had any problems with them.As you are on the internet you can sign up with them to have paper free bills so that you can look at them on their site,plus you get a small rebate for not having a paper bill through your letter
yup, this is something that we want to sign up for - once the situation is sorted, because my OH *hates* making phone calls and i can't make them (am deaf).
Thanks for the advice!
keth
xx0 -
kethry Ive just gone over to internet bills. I just went on their site and registered so I could put the meter reading in myslef as we were in our pj's when the meter man called and I refused to let him in :P .WE didnt have to telephone anyone. Hope you get it sorted.
Our bill is about £70 a month for gas and electric in an end of terrace with only the hot water and heating on gas.Havent got heating on yet though.0 -
In regards to your first part where you were told that Bgas were your supplier - Have you checked this against NGG / Transco records to make sure that your recieving the bills from the correct supplier - This can be found out by getting your partner (I see that your hard of hearing) to call them on 0845 2340040.
I would also check with powergen to find out if the housing association closed there account with them and didn't just update it saying they had tennants in there (This would be fairly important as you could be paying for gas used before the supplies were all made individual) So it could possibly mean that you paying what should technically be a housing association bill.
Business gas customers (To the best of my knowledge as I normally deal with domestic accounts) do not get charged more - But it could be worth looking at VAT and also to see if there is a climate charge levy being billed (Think this is electric but if your accounts are combined you may recieve it on the gas bills), In regards to your account not recieving a dual Fuel discount advise them that you need a VAT Declaration form (Means you not a business) fill it in and send it back and they will return the account to Domestic for you - Put a letter with it asking that they back bill to when you started paying and that you request the Clubcard and Discounts by applied as a standard domestic customer would.
Although you meter looks old and rusty - Its very rare that a meter would go wrong, Do what you say although be aware that usage from the boilers pilot light would still affect the meter increasing - A potential leak if you do find one would need a corgi registerred engineer to inspect it for you and if nessecary they will repair but costs would fall to yourself / housing association.
Your decision to lower payments would only be tempory especially if there records show that your usage is more then £20 a fortnight - Reason for that would be that your using more then your paying and it would mean that your debit balance would increase even more. You could have a PPM installed but be advised these work out to be more expensive although you would have your meter swapped and any debit balance be put on that and paid back weekly through your top ups. Also you can ask your advisor about fuel direct - Where you payments are made through your benefit on an agreement between your agency and the supplier. This would mean that any bills in the future need to be paid in full but your current balance would be sorted for you through your benefits.
If you believe that your meter is being used by more then just your property then you can do a drastic test which is to use the gas cut off lever and then go and knock on the neighbours door and ask if they have a supply - If they say no go and switch it back on and check with them again later.
The other thing is to find out what sort of boiler you have - a combi boiler means that a hot tap dripping could increase your bills as its heating the water constantly as well.
If I think of anything else I will let you know. 0 -
Gal,
thanks for your very long reply.. I've typed out an equally long reply and stuck it in a private message because of certain personal info that's contained within...
thanks in advance for any help..
keth
xx0
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