Panic mode on british gas bill

danz0l

We pay by direct debit and have paperless billing. I haven't checked in a while as i foolishly thought that being direct debit our utilities bills were being taken care of but for some reason i checked today and had the shock of my life. Electricity states we are £84.84 in credit but the gas states we are a whopping £755.17 in debit.

We currently pay £55 direct debit to british gas for the electricity monthly and £45 (they reduced it from £60 to £50 to what we pay now), rent a 3 bedroom flat, have the heating on 20 thermostatically controlled and only use gas for this and hot water.

The breakdown is

What you paid - thank you
Direct Debit Payment 25 Mar 09 £45.00
.............................................................................................................
Direct Debit Payment 23 Apr 09 £45.00
.............................................................................................................
Direct Debit Payment 22 May 09 £45.00

Total payments £135.00

Gas you've used this period
Total cost of gas used £409.47
25 Feb 2009 - actual 7995
26 May 2009 - actual 8379
= 384 imperial units over 91 days (actual)
Gas units converted = 12352.42 kWh used over 91 days

First 668.00 kWh x 6.689p = £44.68
Next 11684.42 kWh x 3.122p = £364.79

Total cost of gas used £409.47

Thats in a quarter which is plain nuts.

Balance carried forward £468.96
Gas you've used £409.47 this period
Your discounts £8.31
VAT at 5% £20.05
Your new account balance
£755.17 in debit

How on earth would i possibly be using this much gas ? Anyone think this is high ?

my statement in december read

Balance carried forward:
£ 67.93 in debit
What you paid:
£ 217.93
Gas you used this period:
£ 197.69
Your discounts:
£ 8.42 in credit
VAT at 5%
£ 9.46
Your new account balance:
£ 48.73 in debit

So in just 6 months i have run up a debt of £755 AFTER i paid at least £45 a month.

Anyone any advice ?

f10na

My mum got something similar she has always had her meter read and now they are saying she owes them over £500 and they are increasing her dd from £31 to £134 her and my dad does not work due to ill health (cancer)

pookienoodle

we had a shocking gas bill of over £800
This was because we had the gas central heating set to 21c on constant(we had been advised this was the best was to do it rather than timed.)
as the outside temp was very low this winter we used an immense amount of gas.
I now moniter our meter readings every few days to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Magentasue

That's a lot of gas but makes sense if you've had heating on all day - as said, timed saves money. However, it includes April and may when, presumably, you've used very little heating so maybe they're charging you for an imperial meter when you have a metric one?

Check your meter - do you see ft3 or cubic ft anywhere on it?

stewie_griffin

Have you checked to make sure your gas meter is definately an imperial one rather than a metric one?

Edit: Beat me to it Magentasue

Magentasue

stewie_griffin wrote: »

Edit: Beat me to it Magentasue

Great minds (and people who spend way too much time on here :rolleyes:) ...

KimYeovil

I think £47 per month (if it were metric) would not be enough to keep a three bedroom house at twenty degrees twenty-four hours per day. £136 seems the more reasonable sum.

Magentasue

Agreed, kim, but the bill refers to end Feb to end May so heating may have only been on for three or four weeks.

danz0l

Thanks guys for your responses. We too were told its better to keep a house at a certain temperature than timed but i guess we are finding different now.

I'll check the imperial, metric thing as its possible. We are also concerned to hear from the flat beneath us that they have never receieved a gas bill and wonder if we are heating theirs as well (they do have a seperate gas meter though). We also live above a shop and its quite possible we heat that too. Its the first year we have lived here and frankly that gas bill has scared the hell out of me. We have always run the thermostat in previous houses at or around the same and never had a bill like that.

What happens now with british gas as we can no way on earth afford to pay that in one sum and increased utilitiy bills are going to really make us struggle.

Magentasue

If the statement is accurate, your DD will be increased to cover your actual usage and clear what you owe. Start saving before they suggest it.

Definitely use heating on timed and, when you put it on again for the winter, read your meter daily/weekly. Different properties use different amounts of gas to maintain the same temp so you can't go by what you've paid in previous houses.

stewie_griffin

danz0l wrote: »

We are also concerned to hear from the flat beneath us that they have never receieved a gas bill and wonder if we are heating theirs as well (they do have a seperate gas meter though). We also live above a shop and its quite possible we heat that too. Its the first year we have lived here and frankly that gas bill has scared the hell out of me. We have always run the thermostat in previous houses at or around the same and never had a bill like that.

Check your meter and make sure the meter number and reading correspond with those on your bills.