Huge Bill... do I have a leg to stand on?

carkeyz

Hi all

Basically I am just looking for some advice. We have been in our 1 bed flat for 18months and in this time never got round to having metres checked or giving a reading over the phone.
We pay our bill quarterly, Southan Electric just send us a bill for the gas and a bill for the electric each quarter and we pay in full.
We have had a huge bill in £492 for G+E for the last 3 months, this is so high due to a meter reading being done and it being the "winter" bill.
I phoned them and said I was unable to pay this immediatly and asked to pay £70 a month till it was clear but they have said that they cant do that and we need to switch to a pre paid meter and pay £5 a week off debt.
Im not happy with this at all as I have literally 2 days before I go on maternity leave and dont want to rn out of G or E with a newborn and have heard that you pay more with a meter and just dont want the inconvience of having to go to the shop to put money on the card.
I dont see why they cant take my £70 a month - I have budgetted that we can afford this and still put enough money away for our next bill - I will be switching to monthly DD but have no idea what our income will be in next few months so want this next bill to be quarterly again as I can work with that at the moment. if they are willing to accept £5 a week - this is only £20 a month and I dont want this debt hanging around forever?
Surely they cant make me do this?
Any advice would be appriciated.
Thanks
Carla

Magentasue

Thing is, if you pay £70 a month, you'll be building further debt as you use more gas and electricity. With a prepay meter, you are forced to repay the debt, albeit more slowly, while paying for what you use now.

But a prepay meter is to be avoided if possible. I suspect that if you only want to pay £70 a month, you will need to pay a large chunk of the £492 first.

carkeyz

What I mean is I have budgetted for the next bill and the bill after so will have the money for them when they arrive its just this bill im having problems with.

OH was the one that spoke to them re above he was on the phone for ages, I have just phoned them, explained that other bills wont be going on and have got them to agree to what I can afford when I can afford it so feeling very happy

KimYeovil

If you knew in advance (and have known for eighteen months) that you were paying quarterly

I don't understand why you think you should pay £210 per quarter if you want to use £282 extra. Is your meter yet another one of those located behind a 'beware of the leopard' sign?

Can you not find an extra £140 over the next two months? (IE, the £210 you've put aside over the previous three months, the £140 you want to pay at £70 which only leaves an extra £140.) That'll let you clear the bill before the next one is due. More sensible than changing to prepayment.

(And, of course, £500 for a quarterly winter month is not remotely 'huge'.)

Rikki

You should check the meter readings with the bill each time you get one.
Never rely on the companies estimated readings otherwise you get a large bill like you just have.
As you have got a good record with them for payment you have been able to reason with them, well done. For your own sanity take regular readings from now on.

Rikki

KimYeovil wrote: »

(And, of course, £500 for a quarterly winter month is not remotely 'huge'.)

:eek: Don't say that I haven't had my winter bill yet. :rotfl:

But I do budget and take regular readings.

Premier_2

carkeyz wrote: »

...I phoned them and said I was unable to pay this immediatly and asked to pay £70 a month till it was clear but they have said that they cant do that and we need to switch to a pre paid meter and pay £5 a week off debt.

... if they are willing to accept £5 a week - this is only £20 a month and I dont want this debt hanging around forever?
Surely they cant make me do this?
Any advice would be appriciated.
Thanks
Carla

I think there has been some misunderstanding here.

Your current bill of £492 is a total based on what you actually consumed within the last 3 months plus the shortfall due to underestimated readings from the last 18 months.

Now it would be difficult to say exactly what proportion is due to what, but your previous billed amounts would give a good indication.
Let's assume for the sake of argument that £282 is what you actually consumed in the last quarter and £210 is the shortfall.

Therefore are you proposing to pay the £282 you actually consumed plus £70 off the £210 now? If so and you agree to pay £70 next month plus £70 the following month, I would think the supplier would accept this as you would have paid off the total amount prior to your next bill.

Or are you simply proposing to pay the £70 now, which as already mentioned would probably mean you accruing more debt as you are probably using more than £70 per month.

If you have a prepayment meter installed, the £5 per week (£20 per month) is not all you would pay, but the amount you would pay on top of your actual consumption.