Help! Gas & Electric gone up AGAIN!!

yellowlabellady

Hi there

I am so worried, my DH has just told me that our Gas/Electric payment has been readjusted again after he called the company today to give them a final meter reading as we had our meter changed at the beginning of the week.

We are with Scottish Power and thats all I know at the moment, dont have any paperwork with me for units&measurements etc, but Dh said we are apparently on their lowest rate and its fixed til 2011.

Originally we were paying £85 a month for both gas&electric, but this was adjusted in October to £115 a month, which I thought was bad enough.

Anyway, today, they have told him we are about £390 in arrears so the payment is going up to £167 a month!!!!

Now, perhaps I am too naive, but this seems an awful lot to be paying for gas/electric for a 3 bed semi with 2 adults and 1 child living in it?

More than that, it seems an awful lot of an increase - thats about £90 a month in the space of 3 months, surely that seems alot?

Has anyone got any advice please?

Thank you

notbritishgas

Some of the increased £167 will be going to pay off your debt of £390 so you are not really using £167 worth a month. It depends how quickly they want it paying back, if in 6 months then that is about £60 extra, if in 12 months that is about £30 extra. I would think once you have paid back the debt your DD may reduce.

KimYeovil

How much have you been using? £167 is not a lot to be using these past two or three months. If you continue to use that much in warmer weather then you got worry.

Until you check your meters it's difficult to say.

Remember, if you were paying £85 last year before this cold winter then it is not surprising that payments have doubled - there's a 35% price increase and the colder-than-for-several-winters weather to account for.

Magentasue

If you are in arrears, you have been paying too little and/or using too much.

You need to tell us how many kwh you are using in a day/week/month. It's no good complaining about the cost going up if you are using more energy than you are paying for. Don't mean to sound harsh but you have to remember that the DD reflects usage.

yellowlabellady

Magentasue wrote: »

If you are in arrears, you have been paying too little and/or using too much.

You need to tell us how many kwh you are using in a day/week/month. It's no good complaining about the cost going up if you are using more energy than you are paying for. Don't mean to sound harsh but you have to remember that the DD reflects usage.

Thanks for such a thoughtful and compassionate answer!:rotfl:

As I said in my OP, I dont have the details to hand at the moment, but was just wanting to see if anyone could shed light on if this was normal or not - I am not an expert on gas & electric charges so thought someone else might give me some advice.

And, for the record, Im not "complaining" if we have used that much, it just seems strange when, apart from the extra heating cost you could assume we used over the winter, our lifestyles havent changed at all to reflect the extra useage. If we have used it then fine, but its still alot of money and we are quite careful, or so I thought.

If I am using "too much" then I guess Im supposed to let my 2 year old be cold????

Magentasue

Didn't mean to cause offence.

Nobody can tell you if it's 'normal or not' - it depends on how much energy you are using. As I said, either you weren't paying enough to start with, or you are using more than you used to/was predicted.

When my children were little, I could only afford to heat one room because it's all we could afford to do. Of course, you need the heating on when it's as cold as it has been but it's always a choice of having what you want and having to pay for it or cutting back to what you can afford.

Honestly, I'm not unsympathetic but you need to know why you are in arrears - whether it's gas or electricity. Maybe it is just the heating but if the arrears have been building for a while, it may be more than that. Energy prices have gone up, of course, so that will be a factor and maybe why your DD went up in October?