Why all the threads for "do i need to pay my bill?"

spinningsheep

Sorry if anyone feels this is out of order but I am seeing more and more threads on here about people not being billed by their utility providers for a number of years for one reason or another, and then asking "do I need to pay my bill" or "eek please help they want £XXXX from me for gas used etc. How can anyone be this dense! You used the power/gas/water, now you pay the bill. What did you think would happen? The nice men from the gas board would say "oh dont worry about it, you have all that heat and light on us". If you don't get a bill, OBVIOUSLY they will eventually want paying for what you've consumed! Honestly, it riles me, those who try and get out of paying their energy bills are slapping the costs onto those who do pay, if you chance your arm on getting away with not paying, don't be shocked when you get the mother of all bills!

Andy_WSM

And if you don't get a bill, for heavens sake put the money aside to pay for your consumption once they do catch up with you!

You've only got to look around this forum to know that you should be putting aside around £100 a month to pay for both - every month! Some people will spend more, some people less, but at least you will have SOMETHING towards the bill - and if you don't get billed for as much as you've saved it will be a nicer surprise than getting a bill you can't pay!

KimYeovil

Why should this section be any different from any other part of this site? Every other section and loophole results in other customers being 'screwed' - it is never the profits or the dividends or the bosses' bonuses that are affected.

Cardew

Whilst I agree totally with the sentiments expressed by the OP, the fact is that with gas and electricity people do gain by avoiding facng up to their financial responsibilities.

Invariably they get the sum owing discounted by a percentage and often years to pay back the money owed.

I get particularly irked by those who disingenuously claim;

A. I honestly hadn't noticed that BG/Eon/Npower etc had not been taking any money from my account for x years.

B. When I moved in I tried my very hardest to find out who was my supplier.

C. They haven't read my meter so I shouldn't have to pay.

DVardysShadow

Cardew wrote: »

...
I get particularly irked by those who disingenuously claim;

A. I honestly hadn't noticed that BG/Eon/Npower etc had not been taking any money from my account for x years.

B. When I moved in I tried my very hardest to find out who was my supplier.

C. They haven't read my meter so I shouldn't have to pay.

And I am irked by those who disingenuously or ingenuously

• don't read their meters
• don't compare them with the bill
• complain about how much they pay each month, but have no idea how much they use because they don't or won't read their meters

space_rider

Here here, and the ones who complain when eventually they are asked to increase their DD to pay for what they are using and more of their debt. You don`t go to the supermarket, put the food in your car and then tell them you`ll pay back at so much per month but only for a quarter of the food you`ve eaten.

dogshome

Sorry troops. I don't agree
Yes there are indeed a few posts on a 'Can I get away with this' theme, but the majority are from people in serious trouble because of::
A Lack of education in just how important it is to check each and every Utility bill to the
last full stop. But the question is - Where do they get this education other than this site?
B The massive holes in the 2002 Utilities Act - Can you imagine what it does to a working
family who carefully budget, when they get a bill demanding a further 200% on all the
money they have paid for Gas in the last 5 years due to a Metric/Imperial meter mix up,
likewise an unexpected demand because thier meter readings have been estimated time
after time after time.

From the posting times, it's apparent that many posters to this thread are retiree's as I am, and we have the time to really look at our bills.
But think back to when you had the job and a couple of kid's to worry about and if you are honest, you will remember that checking the leccy bill wasn't your highest priority

Dr.Shoe_2

The thing is that the utility companies do have a duty of care towards their customers but on the other hand you shouldpay what you owe. The same thing happened to us, no bills for a couple of years and then an £800 bill. We did put money aside but that only came to about £500 so we had to find the rest. We did pay every penny back but we then got a one off "loyalty" discount off our next bill as a goodwill gesture because they'd messed up on our billing.

Ken68

And constantly changing tariffs and other confusion marketing tactics don't help the less educated especially when they are also bombarded by Let's Compare and the like.
The industry wants re-nationalising.

dannyjebb

we have lived in our new house for 3 months and not had one bill yet from council tax gas or electric phone, but have been putting 85 for CT 100 for gas and electric and 30 for the phone away each month so when we finally get a bill wont be struggling.Surely if your not getting a bill when you expect to get one you should ring up the company and see whats going on?

milliemonster

Well I'm not a retiree, I am a young working mother of two with a stressful job but still manage to check my consumption on a monthly basis, come on it literally takes a couple of seconds to read your meter!, and from that work out what I owe and update my readings online so I always know month by month what I'm paying against what I'm consuming.

I do think though that utility companies shouldn't just estimate bills for what seems an endless period of time, then 2 years down the line slap someone with a £2000 bill, maybe they should only estimate for 6 months at a time and then take an actual reading so people don't get into fuel debt.

I also think it's about time the tariff structures were overhauled, they are far too complex and make it very difficult to compare