Gas Bill

G.Davies

I am a British Gas customer, having returned from holiday to my latest bill, which is £99 in debit. I currently pay £50 pm direct debit, and they now want £100 a month. I have contacted them, they said my bill has increased by 60% due to a 5 yr agreed freeze on price. But £1200 alone on Gas is ridiculous, there's only two of us in the house, we both work, i work shifts and my wife works office hours, so it's not like it's constantly on!. Any Advice would be welcome,

macman

Did you mean £99 in credit? You should enter the cold winter months with a lot more than £99 credit, as this has to cover the greatly increased consumption now that the heating has gone on.
Your monthly DD spend is irrelevant, what matters is your annual kWh consumption. Check that, work out the approx cost, divide by 12 and that should be your correct DD figure.
Is your current billing based on actual or estimated readings?

dogshome

Hi G. Davies - I wasn't aware that BG ever offered a Domestic tariff with a 5 year Price Freeze, but if that is what you were on, you did well

However all good things come to an end, and with the demise of your 5 year Fixed tariff it's a fair bet that BG have dropped you onto an expensive 'Standard' tariff.
Maybe you were lulled into a false sense of security with this 5 year deal, but now it's ended you must do the homework to establish just how many Kw of Gas & Elec you are using a year.
Phone BG and ask, or it may even be listed on your latest bill.

Armed with this information visit a few Switch sites - I always start with 'switchwithwhich' which not only shows the prices from all the other suppliers, but will show them side-by-side with your present tariff

G.Davies

Thanks for the replies. No Unfortunately i am 99 quid in DEBIT ( balance onto oncoming bill)! I know we had a really bad winter last year, but we only have the heating and water on for 1 hour in a morning and 3-4 hours in the evening, and occasionally a couple of hrs during the day to take the chill off if at home. Apart from the water heating, the central heating has not been on since May!. I will dig out the old bills and check. Many Thanks

G.Davies

Thanks for your reply dogshome, yes it would appear we've had our cake and ate it..! but for the amount we have it on and forecasting £1200 a year for just gas!!, thats absolutely bonkers. I did phone them and they said they wouldn't reduce it as they perceive the usage to be correct, i said i would be looking for another provider, they just said, " I think you'll find us very competitive". No Joy there then.
I have my electric with Eon, and was considering them, but I will look at " switchwithwhich". many thanks.

macman

G.Davies wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. No Unfortunately i am 99 quid in DEBIT ( balance onto oncoming bill)! I know we had a really bad winter last year, but we only have the heating and water on for 1 hour in a morning and 3-4 hours in the evening, and occasionally a couple of hrs during the day to take the chill off if at home. Apart from the water heating, the central heating has not been on since May!. I will dig out the old bills and check. Many Thanks

Exactly. You will hardly have used much gas over the warmer months, yet your £50pm is not sufficient to cover that now, as you owe them nearly £100 (assuming actual readings not estimated). Now the heating is on, your usage will soar, so £50pm is nowhere near enough to get you through the winter unless you want to emerge in the spring massively in debt.

KimYeovil

G.Davies wrote: »

but we only have the heating and water on for 1 hour in a morning and 3-4 hours in the evening, and occasionally a couple of hrs during the day to take the chill off

Why on earth do posters keep saying 'only' when referring to such a useage pattern?

macman

Sounds like a fairly typical pattern of usage to me if you are out working in the day. It would save a lot of time on here if people would look at their actual metered consumption before complaining about their bills.
On how many occasions have people claimed to have impossibly huge bills and then found that the meters are actually over-reading? Very rare. Almost every time it's down to high usage and/or estimated readings catching up and biting them on the bum.

Joyful

Sounds like you were on fixed price 2010 which ended in April. If you did nothing when it ended you will have been put onto another tariff so check this out. I deliberately changed my DD's months before the fixed price ended to get used to more leaving my bank as it was a fantastic deal we were on. I also chose not to go onto the deal suggested and did my home work and chose another.

G.Davies

Thanks for all replies. I don't personally think that we are in the high user category. Our boiler has just been serviced and is "A" rated!

I do however think the majority of our reading have been estimated due to the location of the meter not being readily accessible, especially during the day.

Our neighbours have the same house,and are with BG, with more occupants and tend to be at home more, and i know for a fact they have the same time settings as we do, yet their dd is £60 pm which is ample?

I'm just struggling to comprehend that they project / justify a £1200 usage, and a £100 pm dd for what i believe to be average usage. even paying off the £99 they will not reduce it? !!!!!!

macman

Work out your actual consumption as already advised and then you will know if it is justified or not. How can you compare with a neighbour who may have better insulation and be on a much more competitive tariff?
To reprise, it is your usage that matters, not your DD level.