Gas and electricity rip off!

LJD1_2

Hiya
I wonder if someone could give me some advice. Checking my bank account i've just noticed that british gas have put our monthly direct debits up to:
Gas: £73
Electricity: £54
We live in a four bedroomed semi.
Does this seem like a hell of a lot of money or is it average because of the price hikes?

I'd appreciate any advice.

Thanks in advance.

Floss

If i were you, I would ring & ask why. Have they written to you at all..... because I think that they have to give you written notice that they are changing the amount under the Direct Debit Guarantee.

saubryn

I'm pretty sure they should have notified you too.

Electricity is only a little higher than I pay - I live in a two bedroomed flat but have two computers and an electric cooker.

Gas seems incredibly high to me - especially for the summer. Do you run the heating all the time? Have you had a lot of estimated bills in the past?

domestic_goddess

I would look around at switching. Try U switch on quidco and get money back for changing to a cheaper provider....

:rotfl:

Graham_Devon

I'm on a key system, it's something the previous houseowners did, I thought I would carry on with it as I have to top it up before I spend it.

I have the computer on most of the time, got to admit I'm not the worlds biggest cook, so don't use the oven much, but do like coffee's (so kettle is on a lot!) and TV is usually on.

Costs me at the moment, roughly £3.50 a week. I am on Economy 7 though, so set the washing machine to go at night. In the winter costs a lot more though because of the heating and lighting, up to £11 a week.

bonnie_2

the gas sounds about right, mine is £71, but leccy is a bit high mine is £35. It's quite hard to get cheap fuel now, i just cut back instead i.e i only tumble dry sheets,towels and jeans everything else gets hung up. don't have all the lights on if your not in a room, turn everything of.

savvykaz

If you cook by gas then it may be about right, if not, then I think the gas is rather high too! My OH puts our leccy on constant every weekend when I am at work and our combined bill is only £83 pcm.
I too can't stress enough - you MUST change from British gas - they are probably the WORST!

joseph_2

Wow,

That gas bill seems high. Im with BG and ive just got my quarterly bill - £34. I had to go and check the meter to see if was right!!

LJD1_2

Thanks for all your replys. We don't have the heating on much. The hob is gas but the oven is electric. I don't use the tumble dryer much either so I think it's time to change. I was thinking of using u switch but forgot about doing it through quidsco so thanks for the reminder.

roswell

take meter readings and call them with the reading each month so they can project your usage better.

North-East_Quine

Reading the above posts I can't believe how cheap everyone's bills are!! We live in a 5-bed modern detached house (although there are only 3 of us now) and the house is always freezing because of heating bills. We pay a whopping £109 per month for Electricity and £104 per month for Gas to Atlantic Elec & Gas. I've changed now to nPower and they will be charging me £60 for Gas and £73 for Electricity.