Gas / Electricity Underestimated, then I switched suppliers...

joannew37

Hi Everyone,

I'm a new user here, so please be gentle )

I moved to a new address in 2007 and at the time gave my then supplier (Powergen) my meter readings and started to pay £80 per month by direct debit to cover the dual fuel. (I live in a 3 bed maisonette with my children, so, 1 adult, 1 teenager, 1 infant).

Anyway, I switched supply to EDF in June this year as I was promised savings on my current bill!

So now for the crunch... I missed a direct debit payment over Christmas as my Bank was helping themselves to my money and so I telephoned EDF yesterday to get the direct debit reinstated. I thought I would also be proactive and give them my meter readings as nobody has read the meter since I first moved into the property.

Yes... as you can guess, it would seem that my bill has been underestimated, apparently to the tune of £550 since last June in electricity and even more (he didn't even get that far!) in gas!

They also estimate now that my monthly useage is £80 in electricity and £110 in gas (which I can't understand as I am out at work x3 days a week, and my son is at school... etc... etc).

I asked how he came to these figures and I was advised that when EDF took over from Powergen they were given estimated figures and that it's these that they've worked the bill out from.

Am I right in thinking that if I source my original meter readings from when I moved into the property and give them to EDF, they will be able to give an accurate monthly usage estimate based on me living at the property for 18 months?

Also, will they then re-estimate the fuel I have actually bought from them since I switched in June, or will they try/are they allowed to collect the amounts I clearly underpaid to Powergen up until last June as well?

Finally, if I enter into a repayment plan, EDF said I would have to clear the debt within 12 months... is this correct or can I push for more time?

Any help or advice much appreciated.

many thanks

Jo )

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Powergen would not normally let you switch to EDF if your accounts were in debt; so it is reasonable to assume that you were fully paid up with Powergen last June.

You firstly need to check this by checking that the closing meter readings on the Powergen account are the same as the opening meter readings for EDF.

It really doesn't seem possible that you can run up debts of £550 for electricity and even more than that for gas in 7 months, when you have been paying £80 a month(less 1 month). Bear in mind that you use little gas in the summer.

My first thought is you have read the meters incorrectly!

NME_2

Hi there!

That sucks! You'll have to pay it if you've used it, however....

If your bill has been underestimated for that long it probably means your change of supplier read is incorrect. What you could do is take another read, or a few reads, and try and manually estimate a new change of supplier read for yourself based on your actual usage.

What you can then get EDF to do is dispute your change of supplier read with Powergen and have this amended to the read you've worked out. Powergen can then re-do your final bill with them based upon this revised estimate.

The first benefit of this being of course that a lot of the debt will be shifted back to Powergen at the prices as they were in june last year when you changed (effectively saving you about 30%).

The other benefit being that it will take them a month (or two if you're lucky) to sort that lot out, during which time they can't pursue you for any balances, which will give you some time to get the cash to pay the bill off.

I hope that helps, I work in complaints for BG and I know that's probably what I would do with it anyway...