Massive Electricity Bill, Need Lots of Help!!!

nick_thomson

Hi everyone.
I have some trouble with my electricity supplier (Scottish Hydro) I'm going to try and keep this as simple as possible.
I don't have gas, just electricity (storage heaters).
At the start of the year we had an outstanding balance of just over £100 pounds, so I increased my DD to £125 from £90, hoping to pay it off. I rang them a couple of days ago and after taking my reading they say i have an outstanding balance of £680!! I have (stupidly) never made an effort to keep on top of my meter readings. And looking at my bill from 10th March until today (fixed reading) is £485 (Tariff is Standard THTC, I have used 2982 on the main one (heating control???) and 1143 on the little one (Standard Energy??))

Obviuosly summer months are cheaper but after some looking it still seems REALLY high (price wise). After speaking to them, they said that it might be high because they could have under estimated previous bills by quite alot, and then these have just caried forward and mounted up.

I know the information I have given isnt great, but I'm really worried about the situation, so any help would be really really appreciated.

Thanks again,

Nick.

Magentasue

The figures don't really mean much if they are estimated rather than actual. As I see it, you're posting about two issues - the amount you have to pay for your electricity and clearing the debt you have built up.

Electric heating is expensive so it's not unbelievable that £100 a month wasn't covering your use in winter. However, over the year, that might be about right. In other words, if you cleared your debit balance now and started at zero, £100 a month through the summer might build up enough credit to see you through the winter.

You need to find out how many kwh you use in a year, work out how much that costs and then divide by 12 to find out what you need to pay every month. Bear in mind it needs to be a bit higher for you because you should be starting at zero around April. If you can't afford that, you obviously need to look at how you can cut back, and maybe switching if you clear the debt.

As for clearing the debt, your supplier will have a minimum monthly amount they can accept that will cover what you are using and clear the debt over a given period. You need to negotiate this with them unless you can afford to clear the balance.

kippen_noedel

(£90pm = £1080) + (say 4 months at extra £35 = £140) + (£580)
that sounds like £1800pa

savemoney

If anything you needed to at this time of year build a credit to pay for the most expensive months, otherwise you will be even worse stage this time next year unless you get cheaper supplier, increase payments or reduce consumption

Using electricity to heat your home is more expensive than gas

rahl101

The best thing you can do is go back to your old bills (or your supplier if you have to) and find the last statement you have when the reading was an actual reading and not an esitmate. You state how much you think you've used since 10/03/09, but that figure is an estimate.
Once you have got an older correct read you can try and take a look at your actual consumption.
You unfortuantely can't use the basis of £100 outstanding at the start of the year, as again it was an estimate and you will more than likely have owed more at that time.

This seems to be a catch up bill (where you have let estimates run and then an actual read has been provided)
Sorry to say that the balance is possiby correct.

It might alsobe an idea to make sure the meter details are the same on the bill and the meter itself.

They will give you time to pay the outstanding and if they have a previous read will be able to advise you of consumption levels and how much they "advise" that would cost on their tariffs, that consumption figure could be used to shop about, but you'll be expected to pay the balance off first.

FINALLY (for me anyway) I would ask about how suitable your tariff is for your needs. THTC is a lifestyle tariff designed for people home a lot during the day, the amount of heating given is controlled externally by your supplier as it's normally needed for elderly people who cannot cope on 8 hours offered by Domestic Economy (economy 7 for Scotland), if this isn't you, you need to get in changed asap as the charges/unit rates are more expensive as part of the deal for extra heating hours.

nick_thomson

Thanks for all your replies guys. After abit more reading I think its pretty much just me not keeping on top of readings, or shopping around for the best deal. The outstanding balance isnt a problem, because I am paying by Direct Debit they are happy for me to carry on doing that, and I will just have to increase the amount.

I'll have to just pull my finger out and get the best supplier/tariff going, after i am back to square one.

dunloadin

nick_thomson wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies guys. After abit more reading I think its pretty much just me not keeping on top of readings, or shopping around for the best deal. The outstanding balance isnt a problem, because I am paying by Direct Debit they are happy for me to carry on doing that, and I will just have to increase the amount.

I'll have to just pull my finger out and get the best supplier/tariff going, after i am back to square one.

You will have major problems trying to change suppliers if you have a THTC system, this system is very much Scottish Hydros 'baby', don't be surprised if other suppliers won't touch it with a bargepole.

You will have two meters, one for your Domestic supply, and one for the Heating. If there is only one meter it will be a token meter that has had it's tarriff zeroed out.

The Domestic and Heating supplies do not work in the same way that Eco7 does, in that your Domestic supply is charged at the same rate 24/7. It does not go to cheap rate, so no point in putting the dishwasher on late at night. If you plug in any additional heaters these will also use electricity at the higher rate.

The heating is also charged at the lower rate 24/7...ALL heating including your hot water, any panel/convector heaters in the system, and of course the storage heaters. This is all controlled by teleswitching, either by a teleswitch connected to a standard meter (rare) or usually by a radio telemeter.

You can change supplier, presumably by saying you have an eco7 system, but I would strongly advise against it. I know some folk have managed to change to BG as I change meters for them in the area and come across THTC systems and the resulting billing mess that occurs at least once a fortnight.

rahl101

dunloadin wrote: »

You will have major problems trying to change suppliers if you have a THTC system, this system is very much Scottish Hydros 'baby', don't be surprised if other suppliers won't touch it with a bargepole.....

....You can change supplier, presumably by saying you have an eco7 system, but I would strongly advise against it. I know some folk have managed to change to BG as I change meters for them in the area and come across THTC systems and the resulting billing mess that occurs at least once a fortnight.

Call up Scottish Hydro and state that the tariff is unsuitable and they'll change to a Economy 7 meter free of charge, thus allowing you to change supplier at a later date if you want to!;)

dunloadin

rahl101 wrote: »

Call up Scottish Hydro and state that the tariff is unsuitable and they'll change to a Economy 7 meter free of charge, thus allowing you to change supplier at a later date if you want to!;)

The tariff is not unsuitable if you have a fully working THTC system in your property.

You can change to Eco7 if you want, it will require the two meters you have to be removed and an Eco7 meter to be fitted. But if you do you will be paying the higher rate for your panel/convector heaters through the day, will lose the automatic 'boost' for your hot water supply, and be paying at the higher rate for hot water if you use it through the day as well.

adprob

Hey. I also have THTC and my usage comes in about 90 per mth. As for changing the meter its not that straight forward. THTC is a specific heating system and the wiring on your circuit board is specific for that. To change off it you would need to get some rewiring done to ensure that the heating and hot water (which are all at the cheap rate) get wired into the E7 meter when its fitted.
I prefer THTC as all the heating and hot water is at the cheap rate and I dont have to worry about the storage heaters running down on cold days/

elf06

Ok so this may or may not help but I have storage heaters and was (up until the end of last year) on Scottish Hydro Electrics key meter with E7. I changed from key meter in Dec (seperate issue i know) to a normal DD bill. I was paying approx £40 a month in summer and approx £90 per month in winter. This should hopefully go down as I will get a 2% decrease for paperless billing and a further discount (5 or 8% I think) for paying by DD. Saying that I got a real fright when first quarterly statement came through as it was showing a bill of £429.43 and an outstanding balance of £169.43 - that was, of course, until I realised it was an estimate and was (by my calcutations) about £100 over that it should be. This should be easily cleared with less use in summer months!!