Please Help- So confused by Scottish Power Bills!

luce181

Hi all,
Would really appreciate your wisdom!!

My boyfriend and I moved in together a year ago, the gas & Elec were both on British Gas so we stayed with them and were paying £55 a month(combined)
That was fine and had no probs really until a pushy Scottish Power salesman came round in Jan. I was on my way way out at the time and said he would have to come back when my boyfriend was around (thinking he wold give up- oh no!).
When I arrive home abt 1hr & half later he's there and my boyfriend has practically sold his soul to the devil- I find out afterwards the salesman had told my boyfriend that I had agreed that it was a good deal- even though I diddn't even speak to the salesman as I was on my way out!

Anyway after reading the letter I thought- well it sounds like we'll save some money so may as well leave it be!
So we receive a letter saying our monthy DD will be £40 (combined) and that it will switch in March- woo hoo I think, we've saved £15 without even trying, hmm...

So it switches in March and we pay the £40 a month.

But in May our bill says we owe £31.97.
On 15/05/08 we're told that our DD will increase to £88.50
I phoned them and they gave me some spiel about the meter readings being wrong and I'm told it will be sorted BUT my DD is still £88.50!

I then receive two bills neither of which really make sense to me, one dated 06/03/08 to 29/05/08 which says for Electricity we are in credit by £68.95.
Meter readings
Start 12489E
End 13033C
Units Used 544

The other is dated 06/03/08 to 01/06/08 and says our Gas charges are £29.35.
Start 3395E
End 3549C
Units used 154

The next bill is from 30/05 to 24/09 and apparantly we are in credit by £104.44.
But at the sme time it says that our DD is going up to £101 a month! :eek:

Electric Meter:
Start 13033C
End 14061E
Units used 983

Gas:
Start 3549C
End 3569E
Units used 20 !! :rotfl:

So according to the last bill we've only used 20 units of gas since 02/06/08!

I really don't understand this and maybe someone could help,
Our final meter readings from BG on when we switched were:
Electric 12278 (dated 03/03/08)
Gas 3395 (dated 05/03/08)


Our readings today are:
Electric 13891
Gas 3653

I don't really understand how to convert that to Kwh so if anyone can help me there that would be great!

Sorry for the long post I'm just so confused.
I think we need to switch as it seems to me that scottish power are giving us the run around, but none of the other companise seem to be any better from waht I've been reading!
Please help!
Lucy

notbritishgas

Well the first thing is that the bill of 24 sep had the end readings estimated.
When you take into account the readings you have just taken you will notice that the electric is lower than the estimate of 24 sep meaning you used less electric than the amount on the bill.
As for the gas you will see that the current reading is more than the estimate meaning you used more gas than billed for, in fact up to today you have used 104 units from 30 may.
To convert to kwh you need to know what type of meter you have, if measuring 100's of cubic feet you multiply by 31.5 to give an approximate kwh, if a metric meter measuring in cubic metres you multiply by 11. Your meter will have on it somewhere either m3 or cubic feet to denote what type you have.

Magentasue

Assuning your starting readings are accurate:

ELEC - 13891-12278 = 1631KWH in approx 8 months = av 204 per month = 2450 a year.

GAS - 3653 - 3395 = 258 = 2838 OR 8540 KWH = depending on whether your meter is metric or imperial.

So, if you round your elec up to 3000kwh a year, I reckon that's a reasonable overestimate. If you're paying 15p a kwh, that's £450 a year so £38 a month would be a reasonable DD amount.

Gas more difficult because winter use probably much higher than summer so difficult to estimate. If you know your winter usage last year, you could work it out the same way. Make sure you work with actual readings or your own (not estimated E) and convert your gas meter units by the correct factor. Imperial units need to be multiplied by 33 and metric units by 11.

Look up what you're paying per kwh and calculate your probable annual bill, rounding up rather than down.

luce181

Thanks for the replies
Well my meter has ft3 on it so I guess its cubic feet?

Scottish power have put my prices up so heres what we pay:
Electric:
Primary 14.142
Secondary 8.753

As of 01/09/08 it went up to:
Primary 15.681
Secondary 10.292

Gas:
3.508

As of 01/09/08 it went up to:
4.441

Our British gas bill from March 08 says we used 110 gas units over 48 days (18/01 to 05/03)

I supose what I want to know is whether it would be cheaper for us to switch?!
Lucy

Forgetful

we are just looking at our bill from scottish power too. we were on a price fall tariff with a dd of £55 pm... and after each bill we were still £40ish in credit,...now suddenly we find we have been swithced to a fixed dual fuel december 2009 tarrif and our dd has now been increased to £78 pm.I am so confused....why can they not just have a plain and simple price per kwh usage for the gas and electric without all the hassle!!!!!!!

Magentasue

OK. so you've used 8540kwh gas in eight months. So long as your usage for 48 days Jan to Mar is actual, not estimated, you averaged 76kwh of gas a day in the winter. Times that by 120 to get roughly four months = 9120. Do annual gas is 8540 + 9120 = 17660kwh.

Unless my maths is wrong, you need to input those annual figures into a comparison site to see how much you could save. If you don't switch, calculate your annual bill, come up with a monthly figure ( a twelfth) and contact SP to negotiate.

Forgetful - you should be in credit over the summer so that your winter usage is covered.

luce181

Thank you for your help,

Have done a quick search and reckon we could save about £100+ a year if we switch to npower or British gas.
I'm going to phone scottish power first to see if they will give us any discounts- now I have all the figures I feel more confident about asking.

Have heard some pretty bad reveiws for npower, so hopefully we'll be able to negotiate a bit with scottish power!
Wish me luck!!

Lucy

Magentasue

Good luck!

Speaking from my own experience, there's not much to choose between suppliers. People have negative experiences and sometimes that's because they have unrealistic expectations, sometimes it's because they get an unhelpful person on the other end of the phone and sometimes it's because the suppliers act incompetently. To me, it seems as if any could happen with any of them. I switch regularly (once or twice a year on average), just on price.

I've always found that if you know what you're talking about, are reasonable and polite and don't get someone incompetent, they're fine.

Once you know your annual usage and the current cost, you have a realistic idea of what you should be paying. Without these, you are just arguing about what you would like to pay or what you can afford but that's not the same as what you need to pay.

aliwali

We are with Scottish Power, We have found their customer services to be completely incompetent. We did however manage to get them to reduce our DD from £85 to £50 as we were so much in credit. I did a comparison search and they are still the cheapest for us as we are on a 3% discount rate.