help required to avoid financail crisis

alliballi

Deep in Debt and Shoegal we are at work to all day, but they say its right we do not agree obviously, so got someone coming out at last to have alook at what we use and we turn everything off at the switch to, maybe should post on uitilites forum, apologies for doing my wee comment about the electricity on OP thread x

alliballi

Deep_In_Debt wrote: »

I'm with SP so I suggest you challenge them further as I'm sure you can get a better deal especially as fuel prices are supposed to have dropped.

We have been challenging them since January and get nowhere especially as they never call you back and we have to all the time, also looked about and cant get it cheaper, think I am paying for all the flats lol

Deep_In_Debt

Do you read your meter or is it estimated?

They told me that £120 was perfectly normal for usage for someone in my situation! I guess they must have thought I was powering the National Grid whilst I was at work!

I got them to reduce it by virtually signing up with another company who had to approach SP for final meter readings. SP then contacted me to ask if I knew what was going on and why was I changing...it was then that they got challenged and they reluctantly agreed!

pinkiepie68

alliballi wrote: »

Then you are very lucky, because I have been fighting with SP for months and they say its right for a 3 bed flat and our usuage is 'normal', plus I do not use tumble dryer anymore and have only 2 heaters on, wish I was paying less believe me

I have to agree. We live in a 3 bedroomed end terrace and our bill for all electric is £ 120 per month and we are also now paying £ 30 per month arrears accrued over the cold snap. My washing machine is on once per day and my mum is in the house without the heating on all morning until our cheaper rate time comes at 1pm til 4pm. Then she put the heating on for 3 hours until the more expensive time from 4pm til 8.30pm. Our washing is done at cheap rate time and we turn all our appliances off from standby. There are 4 of us. We are on an "Economy 10" tarriff (cheap times 4.30am -7.30am / 1pm - 4pm / 8.30pm - 12.30am) and our supplier is Scottish Hydro. No other supplier we have come accross (even using comparison sites) will say that they can beat the price that we are on (Scottish Gas will not even offer us a quote). We have had our meter checked and changed and we monitor the usage by taking readings on a weekly basis to check for accuracy, but we cannot seem to bring it down. Our loft is insulated and we have cavity wall insulation, but we stay in a rural area at the bottom of a valley, therfore we do not have huge benefit of conducted heat from other homes or a built up area. Our neighbours are all in a similar price bracket - some of them have moved to oil, but their electricity is still high. I too wish I could reduce my payments, but have tried for years and can't

Pinkie x

alliballi

Deep_In_Debt wrote: »

Do you read your meter or is it estimated?

They told me that £120 was perfectly normal for usage for someone in my situation! I guess they must have thought I was powering the National Grid whilst I was at work!

I got them to reduce it by virtually signing up with another company who had to approach SP for final meter readings. SP then contacted me to ask if I knew what was going on and why was I changing...it was then that they got challenged and they reluctantly agreed!

I have given them meter readings almost on a daily basis driving me nuts, they have now put it down to £120 only because I told her we cant go on like this, also seems since September our readings had been transposed ie. day rate at night rate amount etc, but they still said the £173 then was ok, so now they put it down to £120 because we went mad with them, also to make it worse we had missed a payment in January and they said its ok we will add it on and you can pay it over the year and did they oh no they took both payments in Feb over £300 made my mortgage bounce and now I got to pay the arrears on mortgage back over 4 months grrr at the end of my tether with them honestly, sorry had to get all that out lol x

alliballi

pinkiepie68 wrote: »

I have to agree. We live in a 3 bedroomed end terrace and our bill for all electric is £ 120 per month and we are also now paying £ 30 per month arrears accrued over the cold snap. My washing machine is on once per day and my mum is in the house without the heating on all morning until our cheaper rate time comes at 1pm til 4pm. Then she put the heating on for 3 hours until the more expensive time from 4pm til 8.30pm. Our washing is done at cheap rate time and we turn all our appliances off from standby. There are 4 of us. We are on an "Economy 10" tarriff (cheap times 4.30am -7.30am / 1pm - 4pm / 8.30pm - 12.30am) and our supplier is Scottish Hydro. No other supplier we have come accross (even using comparison sites) will say that they can beat the price that we are on (Scottish Gas will not even offer us a quote). We have had our meter checked and changed and we monitor the usage by taking readings on a weekly basis to check for accuracy, but we cannot seem to bring it down. Our loft is insulated and we have cavity wall insulation, but we stay in a rural area at the bottom of a valley, therfore we do not have huge benefit of conducted heat from other homes or a built up area. Our neighbours are all in a similar price bracket - some of them have moved to oil, but their electricity is still high. I too wish I could reduce my payments, but have tried for years and can't

Pinkie x

I know pinkie it is murder Scottish Gas gave me no quote either and cheapest one was a bit iffy so didnt want to change, honestly you cant win, I am sure I supply the street with electricity lol x. I take my towels to a laundrette to wash and dry so i only do 2 washings a week too scared to do anymore totally ridiculous way to live, and as yourself with your mother sitting with no heating on its like the bloody dark ages.