Help - British Gas want to charge me £325 a month

jayjay2910

Hi folks, need all your help before i blow my lid at british gas for being compeltey stupid

due to christmas and me losing my wallet just before, i cancelled all my cards and DD as wasnt sure where i had lost it, and didnt want to get any charges, so rang my elec suppiler british gas to set back up my DD which was £65 per month.

only for them to say they had read my meter and my new monthly amount would now be £325 per month as during december my usuage came to nearly £1,000.

Have rang their customer service line, who basically told me that was the meter reading so that's my bill amount. and would i like to make a payment via card.

just got a print out of my bill and they have estimate that between jan 2010 and jan 2011 i have used 12,286khw of elec.

I have a rented one bed flat, everything is elec in my flat, heating is elec via various heaters/ oil filled raditor, old style emerison heater

cooker
fridge
freezer
shower
tv,dvd,sky,ps3
pc
mircowave
dishwasher
washing machine

are everything that i use, work 9-5, usually leave around 7.30 each morning return about 6.30ish so am out the place all day, is this right?

any help or pointer would be greatly appreicated

spiro

You say that they have estimated you bill, but then say its for 12 months. Most bills are 3 months or sometimes 6 months.

The 1st thing to do is check the end reading on your latest bill against the meter and see if it is correct (give or take a few units). If it is not then you need to phone them uop and given them a reading. If you actually reading is lower than the estimate on the bill the bill will be lower if its higher expect a higher bill.

When is the last bill that had an Actual readings as either the start or end reading? As your supplier only has to try and read every 2 years it may be that they have been estimating all along and you are using more/less that they allow in the estimate.

Also by cvalcelling your DD you could loose of your DD discounts and have been put on a standard tariff.

Are you on a single rate or E7 tariff?

KimYeovil

So how much did you actually use in December? How much have you used over the last twelve months? (The annual consumption you mention on a bill was an estimate. What was your actual consumption - do you have any readings from early last year?)

If you did spend £1000 last month then a £325 instalment is fair enough. If it was a catch-up anomaly then you have to dig up readings to back your claim.

KimYeovil

Edit: The December bill must be some sort of catch up - that would mean a minimum of 8000-odd kWhs or more than 11 kWhs PER HOUR night and day if it was for a single month. (And even more than that as that is with a too-expensive unit price estimate).

Dig out an earlier reading and explain reality to them.

jayjay2910

thanks for the replies, where to start, swapped to british gas in september 2009, then in august last year, they figured out that my current meter was bust after trying to charge me nearly £2,500 for the quarter and the meter reading i had suppiled to them where wrong due to this, after getting a very helpful young lady from their complaints department it was sorted and i got a new meter fitted and my revised bill for the year came in at £400 roughly. and i agree £65 on dd from then on.

am planning on ringing them at lunch, and trying to sort. any ideas what an average compustion is?

Premier_2

jayjay2910 wrote: »

Hi folks, need all your help before i blow my lid at british gas for being compeltey stupid

due to christmas and me losing my wallet just before, i cancelled all my cards and DD as wasnt sure where i had lost it, ...

I understand you stopping the cards, but no idea why you opted to cancel your DDIs. :huh:
Anyway you did it, so lets progress.

jayjay2910 wrote: »

... so rang my elec suppiler british gas to set back up my DD which was £65 per month.

only for them to say they had read my meter and my new monthly amount would now be £325 per month as during december my usuage came to nearly £1,000.

Have rang their customer service line, who basically told me that was the meter reading so that's my bill amount. and would i like to make a payment via card.

just got a print out of my bill and they have estimate that between jan 2010 and jan 2011 i have used 12,286khw of elec....

And what does your meter actually say you've used over the year?

You say you've been paying £65 per month. Lets presume say 10 payments - thats £650 paid.
You say BG estimate you used £1000 of energy in the year (so ideally your DD should have been £85 p.m - assuming their estimate was correct)
You now are £350 short for the year. Usually the supplier will agree to collect any shortfall over the period it was accumulated, although they may start with say 3 months.
Doesn't explain why they now want to increase your DD to £325 though :huh: