Crazy bills from British Gas!

charlotte289

Nicklt wrote: »

We have economy 7.

@Macman

£20 is realistic seeing as this is what we paid in our last property. If you look in the low users thread that has just started there is one person there that is paying £25 a month for Gas & Electric so it is possible.

Im going to see what my bill comes out at the month and if it is again £160 im going to dispute it. I begruge paying £160 when we use such little electric.

But gas is cheaper than electricity - about two thirds, in fact!
Still, whatever you think...

edit: Wait, you have E7? Are you using more units at night than during the day, out of interest?

Nicklt

Yes, i would say 60-70% of usage is at night.

charlotte289

Nicklt wrote: »

Yes, i would say 60-70% of usage is at night.

OK I take it your bill reflects this - and doesn't have the reverse, or something like that? (Sometimes the energy companies mix up the day and night readings...)

macman

Nicklt wrote: »

We have economy 7.

@Macman

£20 is realistic seeing as this is what we paid in our last property. If you look in the low users thread that has just started there is one person there that is paying £25 a month for Gas & Electric so it is possible.

Im going to see what my bill comes out at the month and if it is again £160 im going to dispute it. I begruge paying £160 when we use such little electric.

You really don't get it, do you? You are not 'using' £160 worth every month. Even if your ongoing consumption is only £25pm (which it clearly isn't), you still have £700 debt to pay off over about 6 months. That adds about £102 to your monthly DD-on top of your ongoing consumption. Which, as Cardew explained, is about £58pm (£700pa). £102+58=£160pm.
Once you've cleared that debt, your DD can drop back to £58.
If you want to have a sensible debate about this, please post your annual kWh consumption for each tier (peak and off-peak) of your annual E7 billing.

peakoil_2

Nicklt wrote: »

We have economy 7.

@Macman

£20 is realistic seeing as this is what we paid in our last property. If you look in the low users thread that has just started there is one person there that is paying £25 a month for Gas & Electric so it is possible.

Im going to see what my bill comes out at the month and if it is again £160 im going to dispute it. I begruge paying £160 when we use such little electric.

to understand your bill, why not breakdown your electricity useage? It gives you a better idea of where the money has been spent. as peole have already said the cost isnt in light bulbs its in water and space heating

to get you started, I'll list our electricity useage

shower
hob & oven
fridge freezer going all day and night
washine machine & dryer
tv/dvd/satellite receive
computer, screen and printer
lights

luckily we have gas central heating so this saves us a few quid

Nicklt

Ok, i apologise Macman, i see what you mean now.

Well i cannot pay £160.

I will leave my DD as it is at the moment and then if the Debt amount does not steadily reduce i will up the amount.

peakoil_2

I dont think you have the choice in setting your DD, the utility company will set it for you. I had something similar a couple of months back and opted to pay off my arrears by debit card so that the utility company only raised my DD to cover the new prices (ie to make sure I didn't get into arrears next year) instead of covering the new prices AND the arrears. If you have any cash knocking about, this could be an option.

MrandMrsB

Can't explain your consumption in your previous flat - i would keep quiet about it if I were you! You say you are using 10226 KW and that costs how much???? - £150 per month??? We pay £75 per month for around 8600 units and have a fixed deal until September 2012.

We used to consume much more electricity even though we do not use heating appliances in our house. So we worked out approximately how much each appliance was costing to run. At first we took a reading every day and still check a few times a week. The immersion heater was the culprit! Beware of immersion heaters!

So we decided to limit ourselves to £75 per month which is enough for lights, immersion heater for 2 hours a day, washing machine, computer, re-charging batteries / phones / floor sweeper / etc, radio, hi-hi, cooker, fridge (new), counter top freezer (new).

Hope you sort it out soon.

Nicklt

According to you uswitch out monthly spend is £86 per month. im going to have to pay the debt off a bit at a time. I have a holiday coming up so cannot afford £700 straight off.

macman

Nicklt wrote: »

Ok, i apologise Macman, i see what you mean now.

Well i cannot pay £160.

I will leave my DD as it is at the moment and then if the Debt amount does not steadily reduce i will up the amount.

That won't work I'm afraid. Even if your usage was £25pm (highly doubtful), your DD of £45 would only clear debt at the rate of £20pm. With £700 debt, that would take 3 years to clear-BG will not accept that.
You'll either need to pay off a lump sum or increase your DD now over the summer (or BG will increase it for you). Leaving it simply means that you'll carry that debt into the winter period, when it will get even higher.
Read your meter and submit readings at least every 3 months to get accurate ongoing bills.