Scottish Power underestimated my bill for two years and are now claiming £2000+

The advice is to check you bills against meter readings and get them corrected or even better send in a reading once a month. Virtually everyone who doesn't bother to do this gets a nasty shock at some time when the meter does eventually get read. Just read all the other threads from those who feel hard done by

You have not been screwed. Don't blame Scottish Power, they sents bills but you just didn't bother to check.There is no excuse for just accepting guesstimated bills and not doing something about it. Five minutes once a month or even once a quarter would have saved you all this grief.

You'll just have to pay up and try a few energy saving measures to try reduce your ongoing consumption so you can pay it off a bit faster.

shshshsh wrote: »

Hi,
The last time I updated my meter readings was September 2015. Around that time I switched to paying my bills by direct debit, automatically set to around £14.68 per month. Every quarter I'd receive an estimated bill of around £50 to £60 and the direct debit would automatically pay it off. No problem.

In April 2017 (last month) I was hit with a new estimated bill of £2331.50, I put in my meter readings and it brought it down to £2202.50. So, while it looks like I've been severely under paying my electricity bill, I can't help but feel I should have been made aware about this sooner! My monthly direct debit is now £300+ per month.

I called Scottish Power challenging them on back billing for more than 12-months but I was told this isn't a back-bill. Now I don't know what to do.

I was thinking about leaving Scottish Power for a better energy provider but now I've been locked in. Is there anything I can do about this? I know I should have put in my meter readings earlier but I can't help but feel I've been screwed here.

Any advice would be useful thanks - this a huge change to my outgoings.

You have to pay for the energy you have consumed (actually the energy the meter has recorded as being consumed at the property)

So first question would be how accurate is the estimated bil you have recently received?
Presumably with a massive change in estimated consumption, the supplier had good reason to do this (just as a fairly recent meter reading being obtained, despite it not being so recent that it was used to bill you up to)

The supplier won't allow you to leave them until you do pay what you owe.

So pay up. Borrow the money if necessary if you really want to leave the supplier asap.

Alternatively, the supplier will usually agree to you paying off the debt over the period it was created, in this case presumably 2 years.
The advantage of this is that you efeftively have an interest free loan supplied by the supplier.
However, expect the supplier to want you to pay monthly by DD whilst this amount is paid off (and you pay for ongoing consumption)
A further advantage of this is that this is probably a cheaper alternative than the pay quarterly on receipt of bill tariff you are currently on.

Either way, you need to contact your supplier and sort something out. If you remain with them, ensure you are on their best tariff for you.

superbigal36 wrote: »

£14.68 a month.
That was me in a one bedroom flat in 1985

Probably during warm weather when you were out for most of the day, too.