Gas & Electric - Help Me!

Hotlips_3

Dear All,

I moved into my 3 bed house in september 05 and I contact Atlantic, who I was with in my previous property and they set up my new account. My direct debit started out as £20 each for gas and electric. In march, they re-calculated my usage and said it had gone up, so I then started paying £40 for gas and £25 for electric.
Last week, I got a letter saying they wanted to up my direct debit to £113 for gas and £85 for electric for usage. I phoned them and they said that because of my recent meter reading, the usage has gone up and now I am having to pay £68 per month for gas (as there is £400 outstanding) and £40 for electric (as there is £110) outstanding.!

My question is this - surely they must have a guide for what an average 3-bed house uses and why am I now being charged for usage that happened nearly a year ago? What can I do? If I change supplier, I will have to pay the outstanding charges immediately, but at the moment, I am paying it monthly, over two years.

Feel I have been misled somewhat!
Please advise - or have I been very naive?

zorber

Hotlips wrote:

Dear All,

I moved into my 3 bed house in september 05 and I contact Atlantic, who I was with in my previous property and they set up my new account. My direct debit started out as £20 each for gas and electric. In march, they re-calculated my usage and said it had gone up, so I then started paying £40 for gas and £25 for electric.
Last week, I got a letter saying they wanted to up my direct debit to £113 for gas and £85 for electric for usage. I phoned them and they said that because of my recent meter reading, the usage has gone up and now I am having to pay £68 per month for gas (as there is £400 outstanding) and £40 for electric (as there is £110) outstanding.!

My question is this - surely they must have a guide for what an average 3-bed house uses and why am I now being charged for usage that happened nearly a year ago? What can I do? If I change supplier, I will have to pay the outstanding charges immediately, but at the moment, I am paying it monthly, over two years.

Feel I have been misled somewhat!
Please advise - or have I been very naive?

Feel you have been Naive
I have a 3 bed house my gas is £18-20 permonth and £30 electric. I dont try to hard to save and i run alot of electrical items. my pc is on most of the time.
But i do have energy saving bulbs on all my lights, i rarely use the tumble drier but hang out on line (saves 50p per wash) careful with heating though other half isnt so careful.
Unfortunately you pay for what you use, look on the bright side you are in debit to them which means you can earn interest on the money you owe them.

Look at how you use your energy, Windows open when heating on.
Heating up too high?
Put a jumper on rather than turn the heating on etc
energy saving bulbs

you will be supprised how much you can save!!