British Gas taking me to cleaners??

oasismark

Hello all,

1st post on here but i feel i must get advice from somewhere.

To cut it short, my Gas & Electric accounts got in debit, because BG didn't put up my DD when the priced went up last year.

So Jan 2010 time i was about -£300 on each account, with DD payments of:
£81 for Gas
£95 for Electric

Now first off i find it hard to believe i'm paying almost £200 a month! and my account is still £600 in debt!

I live in a 3 bed semi, have a new boiler fitted, and a electric cooker, gas fire and central heating. The heating can be on quite a lot as mrs works shifts and is in house during day sometimes, but its never blasting out 24 hrs a day.

The debit just doesn't seam to be going down, even through the summer last year.

Other that just giving readings and believing what the confusing bill says, as there anything i can do to check i'm using what they are saying i'm using?
Is it just a fact that i'm using so much gas & electric, or could there be some fault or error?

Example, Jan 2010 gas bill for 1 month (25 days even) is £120.15!!
I can supply details if needed.

I wanted to move companies but the debt put me off, but i thought i'd take the hit, and move to get lower prices overall.

So now to the next thing, upon changing suppliers i've had a final bill from GS, and i've now been hit with a £35 charge on each service, for leaving early!!!

£70 on top of a £600 bill!!!! :mad::mad:

Called them up and the tariff i was on 'Fixed till 2012' has a cancellation free of £35 if you leave before 2012!!!

Now i think i signed up over the web, and they tell me it was in the small print, but these charges should be in large print!!

If i signed up over the phone i was certainly not told about these charges.

I've already set up a payment plan, cos i cant pay it all at once, but is there any hope of getting this massive final bill reduced at all, either checking actual usage or asking to remove the cancellation charges?

Thanks for reading

Mark

KimYeovil

The meters are in your home. Why not read them and compare them with your bill? I fail to see why your situation is the responsibility of British Gas.

£120 is a modest bill for one month in the coldest winter for 30 years.

oasismark

KimYeovil wrote: »

The meters are in your home. Why not read them and compare them with your bill? I fail to see why your situation is the responsibility of British Gas.

£120 is a modest bill for one month in the coldest winter for 30 years.

I dont doubt a confusion in metre reading, its the waffle like:

Gas units converted = 2942.74 kWh used over 25 days
Usage charge First 184.00 kWh x 7.678 p =
Next 2758.74 kWh x 3.843 p =
£ 14.13
£ 106.02


Total cost of gas used £ 120.15

Gas units are converted to Kilowatt hours using the following formula:
metric units
used
calorific value
volume correction
to convert to kWh
gas used expressed in kWh 264 x 39.2400 x 1.0226400 ÷ 3.6 = 2942.74

I don't understand.

And you say £120 for 1 month is a decent amount to pay??? :eek:

Premier_2

oasismark wrote: »

I dont doubt a confusion in metre reading, its the waffle like:






I don't understand.

And you say £120 for 1 month is a decent amount to pay??? :eek:

The "waffle" is something that is standard on all gas bills - it explains how the charges are calculated.
The top part explains the unit prices applicable
The lower part describes how gas metered units (cubic metres) are translated into kWh (the units used for billing)

... and yes £120 for a month in the middle of what was the coldest winter for many years is not overly high (depending on property etc) There were many households spending about £20 per week to keep warm.

kjsmith7

As you're with BG I'd suggest EnergySmart - basically you get a monthly bill online, you put the meter reading in yourself but the meter readers will still come round. You still pay by your normal DD, but it makes it a lot easier to keep an eye on things monthly rather than quarterly. Plus, if you make changes, you can see the difference quicker. You get £40 after a year for trying it out, it won't affect your FP2012 (so you won't get charged the exit fee). Just a suggestion.