Huge increase in gas bills

beckyo_2

Hi,
Hoping someone can help me!
On friday I received a letter from british gas saying that my monthly payments have gone from £24.50 p/m up to £198 p/m.
After calling them to find out why this had happened, they told me that they had sent me 4 statements in the past year, which would have detailed that our direct debit payments weren't covering the gas that we were using and that slowly we were racking up a debit of £900! I, foolishly, thought that these statements that had come through, were statements, and not bills, and obviously didn't look at them properly as I thought that if we were behind on payments, we would have had a red letter, or something a bit more obvious to tell us that we needed to pay more. I know, it was stupid of me, but I guess I was under the impression that if you have a direct debit, then the bills should be covered.
So anyway, after managing to pay off £500 of the debt (I can't afford to pay any more back at the moment), I've got the monthly payments down to £148 p/m.
After questioning British Gas on how much of our monthly payments is the gas used, and how much is debt payment, it turns out we have somehow been using £100p/m of gas in the past year. I don't know how the hell this has happened because we live in a 2 bed terraced house, with only 4 radiators, and no gas fires or gas cooker.
Last night I turned off the gas boiler and checked that the meter wasn't still going up, which it didn't, so the only thing I can guess now is that the boiler is playing up, but even so, £100 per month still seems excessive for a broken boiler.
British Gas charge £60 to check the boiler for you, and £60 extra to check the meter, so now I'm not sure what to do. Should I question whether british gas are charging incorrectly, or just bite the bullet and get someone independent to check the boiler for me?
Sorry for the long rant, I'm just really confused, and not sure what to do next. I really can't afford all of this!

IKWeb

Hi,

There is a small chance (small chance) that the meter maybe faulty, but if you have done a burn test and the meter stops when you turn of the boiler then that would say to me the meter is fine,

you said BG charge £60 for checking the boiler, which is right, what I would say tho if the house is yours take out the HomeCare 100 plan, if you have gas and elec with BG £12.00 per month, if not its £13.00
DONT tell the person you speak with to set this up you may have a problem
you will then get a service of the boiler witin 28 days and they will then be able to tell you if anything is wrong, if the boiler passes you can then canx the homecare, if it does have something wrong then you get it repaired for free under the HomeCare agrement.

Hope this helps.

beckyo_2

Hi. Thanks for the advice. I did sign up for a service agreement yesterday and was told it was £28p/m. After speaking to my mother in law she advised me to cancel the agreement because I would be better off having an independent gas man to look at the boiler first. With BG, you do get a boiler service as part of the agreement, but then if any work is done you are tied in to the agreement until you have paid off the amount charged for the repairs. She said that this could end up being a lot more than if you went to an independent gas engineer. Would you disagree?

IKWeb

Yeah that is true, but if you look @ the cose of an independent gas man,

1) call out fee £60 - £80+ (where I am from ((Manchester))
2) Then parts and Labour (and boilers are not cheap)
3) All the dodgy engineers out there,

The price you were quoted was due to the fact you said you may have a issues with the boiler, so the 28/pm is for the homecare with initial breakdown cover,

If you call back and say I want to take up say HomeCare 100 @ either £12.00 or £13.00 then thats what you will pay, but yes as your aware if you have work done you do need to keep it for the 12 months.

Swings and roundabouts really.

beckyo_2

OK, thanks for the advice. My husband is away at the moment so I'll speak to him when he gets back and decide what to do. Your help is much appreciated!