New gas and electric bills in...

smallfry1983

:eek::eek::eek::eek:

So, we are with british gas, and they are now doubling our monthly direct debit (25 to 55 for electric, 40 to 90 for gas) as a result of our use. We use hardly any gas in Winter, but they seem to have put the direct debit up to cover the £120 we owe them after this winter + our average winter day use. DH and I = not happy.

How best do I go about comparing utilities? I have annual consumption, monthly consumption, and can figure out quarterly consumption. I'm assuming annual is probably the best?

kjsmith7

Annual consumption. Your direct debits will also be being calculated annually. What tariff are you on (it will say on the bill)? What is your annual consumption (add it up from your last years bills)? If you type your unit rates from the bill on here, your bill can be calculated. Do you owe anything?

dogshome

Hi smallfry1983 - The implication of your post is that you have very recently Switched to BG or moved into a property supplied by them.

The whole idea of D/D payment is that you pay for your entire annual consumption by way of 12 equal monthly instalments, but as you seem to have started the account and it's D/D's during the most expensive months of the year, it's not surpising that you presently have debt on both accounts.

Unfortunately, almost every supplier in the industry is pursueing a policy of trying to zero or reduce winter debt at about this time of year - No matter when the account started

Your only defence against this is to challange any D/D increase with your own figures showing that the account will be in balance or credit at it's annual anniversary
Look at the bill you have and calculate the Gas use & Elect use per day, then multiply this by 183 to take care of a winters consumption.
Cut the gas use by 80% and the Elect use by 20% and multiplty these by 183 for Summer consumption - What you now have, albeit it bit rough and ready, is your annual consumptions
Apply this to the tariffs on your bills and see if your present D/D's will pay for it
- If it does write to BG with your figures, if it's a bit under offer to raise your D/D level to equal it, if your D/Ds are a bit over, then get very indignant that BG are trying to increase your D/D payments
Sorry about the homework, but Good Luck

kjsmith7

dogshome, for one - BG don't reassess DD's for the first year someone is in a property in 99% of cases - I had to ring up to request my DD's be increased when I first moved in as I was a little bit worried that they might be too low (turns out I was wrong, but ah well).

As it's very likely you've been in the property for more than a year, instead of extrapolating your usage, just add it up from your last years bills and apply it to the rates on your statement. You'll be charged for the first 500kWh of electric at the more expensive/primary/'Tier 1' price on the bill over the whole year, and everything else that you use will be charged at Tier 2/cheaper price.

E.g. - if you use 3300kWh of electric in a year, 2800kWh will be at the Tier 2 price and 500kWh will be at the Tier 1 price. Remember to add 5% VAT on top of your figure. The direct debit discount is up to £40 a year for electricity, dependent on usage.

For gas, the threshold is 2680kWh. So, if you use 20,500kWh of gas in a year, 2680kWh will be at the most expensive/Tier 1 price and 17820kWh will be at the cheaper price. The DD discount for gas is up to £65 a year dependent on usage - the more you use, the bigger direct debit discount. Remember again to add VAT on.

I agree that you should calculate your yearly bill and either phone or write to BG. If your electricity bill annually is £300 a year, then great - £25pm will cover you. In all honesty, it is likely your usage is around £40pm and you owe £150 for electricity. If your gas bill annually is £480, fantastic - £40pm is fine. Again, it's likely you use around £70pm and have a £200 debit, or you use £80pm and have a £100 debit, etc. etc.

Hope this is helpful for you.