£678.32 bill - please advise

Truly.Yours

Hi there, we have just received a massive bill of £678.32 for electricity and gas/ It is our highest bill ever!! I am very worried and dont know what to do. We will have to pay it but can we change supplier or something? Please advise?

We are with e.on.
The last bill was on 10th october.
This bill is for up untill 31st January.

This is what it says on the bill:
Electricity charges
Normal primary units used 274 kWh at 23.58p each
secondary units used 1216 kWh at 10.13p each
Total electricity charges=189.98(exclusig vat and disscounts)

Gas
gas primary units used 815 kWh at 6.219p each
secondary units used 12554 kWh at 3.388p each
total gas charges= 476.01 (exclusig vat and disscounts)

please pay £678.31

I have no idea what all those kWh numbers mean... can you please advise as to what we should do?

I would be very gratful. thank you.

I have browsed the forum and read articles and it says dont switch... i am very confused.

HJS86

Hi

We just changed from EON standard rate which seems to be what your electricity rates are.

We've gone to N Power who gave us a much better deal.

xx

Magentasue

First thing to do is check the bill - are the meter readings actal (A) or estimated (E)? If estimated, go read your meters - how close are the estimates?

While you're there, check the gas meter - can you see any reference to cubic metres or m3 (metric meter) or to cubic feet ft3 (imperial meter). Which do you have?

Jubbs

Hi there,

I think I should be able to explain your bill.

For each fuel you are charged Normal/Primary rates and Secondary rates.

Normal units/kWhs are the first 900 a year for electricity and 2680 for gas done on a prorata basis.

So to find out how many Primary units there should be on a bill you take the total amount of units for a year, divide by 365 and times by the number of days the bill is for. so for elec its 900/365 = 2.46, times 112 is your primary units.

Your gas charges are obviously quite high, how big is your house and how is it heated? I am guessing gas central heating, how long do you have it on for in the winter and how many radiators do you have?

The other important thing to check is the meter readings, make sure they are accurate, take new readings and check they are right.

Jubbs

The other thing is, don't change supplier, firstly Eon can object to the switch. Secondly as soon as you leave a supplier they become less understanding about the balance, while your with them they will give you many more options to pay it back, when you leave its pay up in three months.

JulieM

10th October to 31st January is almost 4 months, just bear this in mind if comparing with the same quarter last year.

Truly.Yours

Magentasue wrote: »

First thing to do is check the bill - are the meter readings actal (A) or estimated (E)? If estimated, go read your meters - how close are the estimates?

While you're there, check the gas meter - can you see any reference to cubic metres or m3 (metric meter) or to cubic feet ft3 (imperial meter). Which do you have?

They are actual, a man came to check them on the 30th. and then the bill came.

The gas meter says 'cubic feet' on it.

Truly.Yours

Jubbs wrote: »

Hi there,

I think I should be able to explain your bill.

For each fuel you are charged Normal/Primary rates and Secondary rates.

Normal units/kWhs are the first 900 a year for electricity and 2680 for gas done on a prorata basis.

So to find out how many Primary units there should be on a bill you take the total amount of units for a year, divide by 365 and times by the number of days the bill is for. so for elec its 900/365 = 2.46, times 112 is your primary units.

Your gas charges are obviously quite high, how big is your house and how is it heated? I am guessing gas central heating, how long do you have it on for in the winter and how many radiators do you have?

The other important thing to check is the meter readings, make sure they are accurate, take new readings and check they are right.

They are accuarte readings as the man came to check them

Truly.Yours

Thank you to everyone who replied. i really appreciate the help.
3 bedroom house,central heating, rooms are quite cold though so needs to be on a lot.
We can probably pay off the bill within 3months, but how do we go about changing supplier?

worried_jim

Have a look at http://www.uswitch.com/

savers_united

Go check your meter personally and post the figures on here for both Gas and Electric.
Then post the readings of the last bill you received in October if you have them. (Should also be on this new bill)

While your there note down the serial numbers on both the Gas and Electric meters and see if they correspond with those on your bills.