Help I cannot afford a 35% increase

davieg11

I already pay £68 a month for gas from British Gas. There is no way I could pay any more. What will happen if I stop paying? Will I be blacklisted from all other gas companies. I am on my 90 days consultation period at work and really worried about what to do.

epsilondraconis

Sorry I can't help with your contractual question; however do you think you could reduce the amount of gas you use? Perhaps reduce the amount of time you are heating your water etc.

Hope everything works out okay.

Edit: How about posting on the Debt Free Wannabee board - you'll get lots of great advice on there. They'll probably ask you to post your statement of affairs (SOA), which lists your income and outgoings, so they can help you in specific areas.

Inchy_2

£68 sounds a lot for a months usage BG's Pence Per Unit price is roughly 1p more than the previous price of 6.151 at tier 1 you wont be hit that bad that you need to overly worry especially if you take the previous advice, and are more conscious of the gas used. 35% sounds worse than it actually seems.

davieg11

Thanks for the reply guys. I have looked at my last bill and the first 661kwh are at 6.151p and rest at 2.58p so if I cut down on usage (stop idiot wife with heating on and windows open) , it may not be so bad. Still I will hope I get a new job pretty quickly though.

bristolleedsfan

davieg11 wrote: »

(stop idiot wife with heating on and windows open) , quote]


My kids mother is the same during the winter months, heating on full blast, windows open and tee shirts worn.

chrism_scotland

davieg11 wrote: »

I already pay £68 a month for gas from British Gas. There is no way I could pay any more. What will happen if I stop paying? Will I be blacklisted from all other gas companies. I am on my 90 days consultation period at work and really worried about what to do.

You wouldn't be blacklisted by other companies however a supplier can refuse to allow someone to transfer away from them if they owe a balance, generally anything over £100.

xpl51

Blimey mate that`s high for your rates Southern Electric equivelant is First 1143kwh-3.74p All rest 2.64p
If you just have Gas with BG then the 35% rise will make your units 8.3038p & 3.48p respectively

tomsolomon

We pay around £60 a month in the winter for heating, thats low for a three bed semi. With the new price hike from British Gas we now cannot afford to buy gas for our meter. We have a toddler and a baby on the way and I'm on the sick, my parter is athsmatic and needs the heating on when its cold outside. We haven't bought gas for at least four months now, and when the weather gets colder we will just have to suffer because we cant afford it....


You tell me how thats fair, when the owners of British Gas have just announced a 992million profit for the first half year............

[Deleted User]

Don`t worry too much about the children and being cold. Many of us were brought up in the 50s when houses were freezing with frost on the inside of the windows. We were such healthy children and I am sure that the cold helped

tomsolomon

kittie wrote: »

Don`t worry too much about the children and being cold. Many of us were brought up in the 50s when houses were freezing with frost on the inside of the windows. We were such healthy children and I am sure that the cold helped

Don't talk to me about cold I had the coldest room in the house when I was growing up, there used to be a quarter inch of ice on the window in winter so bad as you couldn't see out of it. I swore if ever I had kids they wouldn't be subject to the like, thank you very much.

Primrose

Central heating has made us all very soft. I too was brought up in a house which had a coal fire in the living room and that was the only heating in the house. We all wore extra layers of clothing, wore bed socks and took hot water bottles to bed and we survived. If you cook by gas, cook all your vegetables, including potatoes in the same saucepan and turn the burner down to its lowest point once boiling has been reached. Turn the heating thermostat down one degree. Leave the laundry on the bed for an extra week to reduce heavy washing machine use and wherever possible dry the washing outside rather than use a tumble drier.