Are we paying too much for Gas?

Feanor

Hi

I am with British Gas, we pay every quarter when we receive a bill and I think we are just on their standard tariff.

When we first moved in it was on a prepayment meter and we used to spend around £40 -£60 a month on gas. Its a 2 bedroom ground floor flat & we have gas heating, water and gas hob. In the winter we'll have the heating on for maybe 1.5hrs in the morning and say 4/5 hrs in an evening and 6-8 hours on a weekend.

In the summer we dont have it on very much at all. Our first bill with them for Jan-March was £287 and then I received the bill today for 2nd Feb-24th April (they did read the meter but I need to check it) and its £220.

This puts us on track to be paying £1014 ish for a year. It just seems like alot for a 2 bedroom flat no?

Obviously we will cut down on usage, but I am wondering how I go about finding a cheaper supplier.

For electric we are on a prepayment meter and use about £30-£35 a month which is no problem at all. I just looked on uswitch and it said npower would be £200 cheaper. Is that true?

I'd really appreciate some advice on this please.

Thank You

Feanor

I just put into uswitch the amount we use a year in Kwh (about 24,000) and its saying npower would be £180 cheaper a year.

macman

Are both opening and closoing readings actual, or estimated? No one can tell you if you're paying too much without knowing what your consumption is. Forget how much you are paying, state your actual cosnumption over the bill period of x days.

Feanor

Yes they were both actual readings although I haven't checked they are correct myself.

For the last one (£220) it says 5976 kwh used over 80 days.

Thanks for your reply.

spiro

You could reduce you prices with BG by just moving to a monthly DD tariff rather than paying on bill.

Probably the coldest 80 days we have had in years.

macman

First thing you should do when you get your bill is to check that the readings are correct.
Pro rata'd to 365 days, that's about 27,000kWh, which would be a bit above average for a 2 bedroomed house with gas CH. But of course your last quarter will reflect the winter period and the exceptionally cold weather. The heating will soon be off and your consumption will drop sharply. So your consumption seems quite low-it won't be 4 times the winter quarter bill, so well under £1,000.
You need a full year's bills to see what the real average over a year is, or ring your supplier to find out the last year's usage.
As spiro says, by opting for quarterly payment on receipt of bill you are shutting yourself out from all the best tariffs-switch to monthly direct debit with an online tariff. Standard tarrif is the most expensive.