Helping relative with utilities

charlieann

Hi,
We've received a phone call tonight from a relative who wants help with switching suppliers. She's a pensioner who pays cash payments every quarter. It's difficult to get all the information we need to do comparisons on-line when speaking to her on the phone so we plan on going over tomorrow.
She has not received a bill for 5 months and then received one for £500. A month or so later she received another bill for £400 and then another for £17. I'm not sure if the billing is for just one quarter, or two, or if she has arrears on her account. She could not tell us the amount she usually uses per month/quarter or even how much she has paid previously, although she deems the current bills as too high.
I intend to check her meter readings and compare that to what is on the bill to check the billings are not over estimated as I'm hoping this is the case. From the billings and hopefully previous if she has them work out her average consumptions and current tariff to compare with other companies.

I'm not sure if she has paid the bills in full yet. If she hasn't would she be allowed to change supplier or does she need a zero balance on the account?
As she's a pensioner is it correct they can not cut off her gas or electric if she can not pay straight away?

t0rt0ise

They don't cut people off any more. They get a court order to put a prepayment meter in instead but for elderly people who can't get to the shops to put money on the cards or just couldn't cope with it, they tend not to do that either.

She will need to pay off any debt before moving supplier. You may find that one of the bills was a replacement bill rather than an additional one and any of them might be estimated, so you will have to check it all out before you can advise her.

dogshome

Hi charlieann - From your post it seems that your relative lives some way away and you don't have quick access to the paperwork.

You should ask her to send you all her previous bills by post - As she is not reporting her meter readings to the supplier, the chances are that the majority of the bills have been issued on ESTIMATED readings and the true position could be either Debt or Credit on the account.
When you have the bills ask her for the meter reading and work it out from there.

charlieann

Thanks for the replies.
She lives near my work so I went over tonight. Found out she switched suppliers in November after a cold caller told her they were cheaper. She was previously used to billing every 3 months with someone reading her meter regularly. With the new company she had to chase them up for bills.
They had taken meter readings up to a week before issuing the bill and had an estimated amount on it as well. The billings were together for gas and electric but broken down into itemised sections. She gave me the meter reading for the electric and it tallied with the estimate on the bill. She said they had been round today to read her meter. As she had the meter reading written down I didn't think to check the gas reading and compare.
The bills showed she was using per month:
approx 135kWh electric and
approx 930kWh gas.
In a 4 or 5 month period her electric bill was just over £100 and her gas bill was over £400. I've compared it with my gas bills and it seems her gas bill is way too high as during the same time frame we used more gas then her and paid less than half. My bill shows it as a metric reading and then converts that into kWh.
I'm sure I've read on here before about meters reading in either metric or imperial others getting billed wrong. Could her supplier be reading her meter wrong and how can I check?
She has paid all her bills up to date so I'm going to compare companies for her but I also wanted to check they were not billing her wrong.

Edit:
While searching the homepage of MSE I noticed in FAQ it said utility companies can lock you into contract for a year. She is on E.On's Energy Plan. How can I find out if she is locked into this? She showed me the brochure which the salesman had filled in info about her previous supplier and a discount rate she would get for switching but couldn't see any info about a contract (although it was difficult to read the salesman's handwriting).

dogshome

Hi charlieann - Metric or Imperial meter v Metric/Imperial Bills?
The front of the meter will be marked either m3 for Metric or ft3 for Imperial - Having established which it is, look at the bill

On the line that gives the meter units used and Kwh hours charged, divide the units used into the Kwh charged - If the answer is appx 11 you are being charged for Metric meter - If the answer is appx 31 you are being charged for an Imperial meter.
If the meter type does not match the billing method, Get onto the supplier imediately