British gas and pre pay meter - jump in price??

craigyk

Hi

Just registered to post on this forum with a concern that I'm paying too much for my gas supply.

My wife and I live in an end terrace property that admittedly takes a while to heat up in the winter.

Our current supplier is British Gas for both electricity and gas. We have a dual fuel discount. The electricity is paid by direct debit, and the gas is topped up on a pre pay meter. We are on the standard tarrif (whatever that is)

Over the last cold spell, we were spending on average £90/month on the gas meter, topping it up so we would never be caught short.
During the year, we top up between 80 and 90. This was the main reason for having the gas pre pay meter installed so we would always know what money was spent /left for gas.

Last Saturday, our meter reading dropped from £332.00 in December (the last time we topped up) to £17.47!!!!

Prior to the last top up in November, the balance was at £360.00.

Now my calculations suggests that we used £28.00 in gas between November and December, followed by £315.00 between December and last Saturday. last Saturday, £100.00 was topped up to the meter, bringing the total up to 117.47.

This morning, I checked the meter which has already dropped to 105.36, suggesting that we have already used around 12 quid over the weekend.

Tonight, I thought I'd better double check the reading, the price is now at 99.16. Both of us have been at work and out the house most of the day, so the central heating is on first thing and early afternoon.

My wife has called British gas raising the concern for the high usage and apparently, based on our usage, the figures are correct.

Now, I'm not an expert with reading the gas bill, but I have found last years annual gas statement and we used 19,857.22kWh of gas which ran a bill of 785.20.

I have logged the meter readings for just today (and i will be checking daily) and have listed below.

07/03/11 07:15 05868.000
07/03/11 19:50 05884.339
07/03/11 20:12 05884.384

At the time of posting this, the heating has been switched off for nearly an hour and the meter reading hasn't moved which tells me that there is no leak in the house ( I hope not anyway). The boiler itself is less than 3 years old and is a Worcester condensing boiler.

So , if anyone is still reading my post, my question is this...
Has anyone else on this forum experienced an unusually high usage in metered gas payments? Can anyone recommend another provider or tariff?

Thanks in advance

Craig

KimYeovil

You aren't very clear with the time periods - are the top ups in November and December the beginning, end or middle?

£6 per day is expensive but not unreasonable for a weekend with the heating on. If the £315 is from beginning of December then that is £105 per month - not unusual for winter.

You do know that if you got rid of your prepayment meter and paid by direct debit you could knock 20% or more off your bill?

And if monitoring your meter on a session to session or day to day basis you should just concentrate on the meter readings (in kWh or meter units) and not bother with the balance.

craigyk

Thanks for the feedback.

I have then dates written down, but not to hand. December top up was on the 24th. I think the November top up was on the 20th

I'm getting into the habit now to record the meter first thing in the morning (7:30) and late in the evening (10:30)

But at the time of this post, £5 was used overnight. I realise you said to concentrate on the units but I'm typing this in the office.

As a test, we have switched off the boiler for the day to see if there is a drop in balance / increase in units.

As mentioned in the original post, the main reason for the meter was to know what we are actually using in gas rather than being stung with a hefty bill and not having money aside to pay it. I realise the increase in price for a pre payment meter.

I'll update this post with meter readings as a record to see if anyone else can see a pattern

macman

You don't need a pre-pay meter to monitor how much gas you are using and what your bill will be-you can just read the meter and do the same calculations that you are doing at present. Almost all the cheapest tariffs are the online discount ones where you pay by fixed monthly DD-that method will ensure that you are not 'stung with a hefty bill'-your payments will be the same all year round. All you have to do is submit regular readings.
Little point in complaining about high bills and then opting to pay a huge premium for pre-pay.

craigyk

thanks for the feedback

Just an update really.


In order to cut out any doubts, we called a plumber to check if there were any leaks on the gas pipes and to my relief its all ok.

He advised us to get onto the gas board and have the meter looked at, to which we did and they came out and replaced the meter within a matter of hours.

Since then we have monitored the overnight usage (in money this time as the units were now all reset)

Just to recap:
Monday night - tuesday morning (old meter) we used around £7.00

Tuesday night - Wednesday Morning (new meter) we used over £1.00

Now. I know this is not rock solid conclusive evidence, but to me, i think there has been a problem with the meter. On average we use £90.00 / month in gas and the rate that the old meter was working, we would be up to £210.00 for this month!

I'm convinced the meter was faulty, but how do I prove this to British Gas to be reimbursed for some (if not all) of the money?

macman

The supplier will have taken your old meter away to be tested, it can't be done in situ. If the test shows that it's reading wrongly, you will be reimbursed.
If not, you will be charged for the replacement meter and testing.

craigyk

What make you think that i will be charged if the meter is without fault?

When the engineer switched the meter, nothing was said regarding a test. I hope that this is the case and that british gas will be in touch with the results.


I am going to contact British gas for a statement for the end of the last period (december) up to now.

When I first contacted them querying the readings and th amounts I topped up, they could not give me a reading for January, which, to me says that there could be an issue with there system.

Any thoughts?

macman

craigyk wrote: »

What make you think that i will be charged if the meter is without fault?

When the engineer switched the meter, nothing was said regarding a test. I hope that this is the case and that british gas will be in touch with the results.


I am going to contact British gas for a statement for the end of the last period (december) up to now.

When I first contacted them querying the readings and th amounts I topped up, they could not give me a reading for January, which, to me says that there could be an issue with there system.

Any thoughts?

Because that is the way it's done. They have incurred a cost and will expect you to pay if no fault is found-what is unreasonable about that?

craigyk

if this is the case, i was never told that i may be charged.

Anyway, i think my best route now is to ask for statement for the last months usage and compare that against last years annual usage to see if i am well over in consumption.

Joyful

It sounds like you have just had a meter exchange. If it was to be tested you would have been sent a letter to agree payment of charges if it was not faulty.

mattcanary

Yeah, no guaranteethe old meter will be tested if a meter exchange was done. It sounds to me it was aroutine change, rather than being changed because of a possible fault with the old meter.