£1000 in dept with british gas

vfallows83

hi there hope someone can help me.
we moved into our house (2 bedroom) a year ago and went with british gas for our electricity.
got a bill around august saying we owe £698 i rang them and said there must be some mistake, was told no this is how much i owe them and need to pay now.
have been getting letter after letter about this from them, and everytime i ring and say that i dont believe this is correct and always get the same answer, that is it correct and i have to pay that amount now.
then in december i got another bill stating £998 was due, this time i ignored the letters which i know i shouldn't have but i just couldn't be bothered to argue anymore.
then on friday a bloke turn't up on my door saying that if i couldn't pay this amount now then they were coming back on the 16th to install a key metre.
im now worried because not only will we be paying for the arrears but also the electricity we will be using.
we are on income support, carers and dla, and only just manage to survive.
please could someone help, i just dont know where to turn and am losing sleep over this.
thanks in advance
vicky
xxx

withabix

Have you paid any of your electricity bill at all, since you moved house?
Why didn't you set up a budget account when you started with British Gas?
Do you have gas central heating or just electricity for heating? If you have gas, how much are your gas bills?
Do you have an immerison heater? Does it get left on?
Are the meter readings correct (ie actual) or are they just estimates?
Did you supply a meter reading when you moved into the house?
Is any of the bill carried over from your old address?
Did you pay off all bills with final meter readings at your old address?
What date last year did you change over to British Gas?

Without the answers to all of the above, we can't tell if your electricity bill is reasonable.

Magentasue

It appears that in a year, you have been charged about £17000 for electricity and that you contest the bills.

What is your problem with the bills? Do the serial numbers not match? Are the readings not accurate?

I can't see any mention of payments being made. Have you paid anything?

You only have two options - to settle the account, or to accept the prepayment meters. You can't afford to settle the account and they have arranged to install key meters. I can't see what your question is - I realise you don't want to go on prepay but you don't really have a choice. You worry about paying off the arrears, but, again, what choice is there? You've had a year to pay and it hasn't happened. Being harsh, this is BG's only chance of getting you to pay for what you've used.

I would suggest you read your meter and check the bills. Read your meter every day this week. How many units do you use a day? How much can you afford to put in your meter? You will need to cut back on how much you use - how will you do this? Plan before the meters are installed.

Do you know what makes your meter spin? Consider cutting back on the following in,roughly, this order:

Electric heating
Water heating
Tumble drier
Dishwasher
Electric shower
Washing machine
Plasma TV, ps3 if on for more than a couple of hours a day
Fridge and freezer
Anything that generates heat and/or is on for a long time

SwanJon

Call them and ask about your options - one would be fuel direct.
The debt will only get bigger as you are still using electricity and they will charge you for non-payment.
Start making some payments, about what you can afford to show willing.

anniecave

I hope the 998 includes the 698 as a carried forward figure?

I'd take some daily readings and get an idea of how much you are using at the moment. If you have no gas then your usage will be a lot less in the summer than winter.

It sounds like you need to budget at least £100 a month ongoing for your electric, plus pay off the arrears.

I would phone them up and arrange to start paying them off as soon as you can.

Do you have a weekly/monthly budget? If you do a SOA with all your income and outgoings then you can get an idea of what's going on.

Council tax, electricity/gas, water and rent/mortgage should all be priority bill payments. You must be able to afford to pay these first before anything else.