MERGED: Huge / crazy Utility Bills - Help & Advice

Wig

simon23 wrote:

Hi
i'm a student living in a large house with 7 other people, our latest bill for electricity and gas scared us quite a lot! :eek: its for the last five months and came originally to just over £800 which we thought was rather a lot leading us to call powergen to question it, they then took another reading and put the amount up to £1500! i know we probably use quite a bit power being students using computers and things but i was wondering if the amount seemed accurate or whether we're being screwed, and also if we are is there anything we can do to challenge the company.....thanks people :beer:

Lets get back on topic shall we? No more talk about DIY.

Simon, That bill sounds horrendous and I'd be surprised if it is all your use, unless you have electric heating. Whenever you move into a new house ...ALWAYS read the meters and ask the suppliers for a new bill to be issued to that reading....which is NOT going to be your responsibility. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS.

What you need to do is check if this was done when you moved in, and check if the bill has been estimated for a long time before it was finally read and landed you with the big bill. If this is the case you won't be able to do much about it...I suspect but you might be able to get your landlord to helpout.

If all is ok and you don't think you used this amount...and this goes for all other people with high electric bills, like the guy at the start of the thread with a new house who we never heard from again....It is perfectly possible to check your own meter for accuracy.

I'll do some thinking and calculations but I'm positive it won't be a difficult thing to do.

Testing your own gas meter is probably impossible.

WalR

Hi Folks

Total newbie here (have been reading for years, but not posting). Hope you don't mind me hijacking this thread, but it seems to be the right place as I have a huge electricity bill of £341.29 for the period 17 January-21 April. Part of that is my own fault as I only paid the estimated bill for previous period (20 Oct-16 January).

My question really (and it may be colossally stupid) is about units. Where it says Units on my bill, is that kwh? It says Units = 3924, price of each unit = 8.09p.

Thank you.

Cardew

WalR wrote:

Hi Folks

My question really (and it may be colossally stupid) is about units. Where it says Units on my bill, is that kwh? It says Units = 3924, price of each unit = 8.09p.

Thank you.

Yes for all electricity bills a 'Unit' is a kWh and the meter measures in kWh.
i.e. it is the amount of electricity used to power an electrical device of 1,000 watts(1 kW) for 1 hour. So a 100 Watt bulb could be on for 10 hours and use 1kWh.

Gas bills are different in that a 'Unit' measured on your meter could be approx 11kWh or 30kWh depending if you have a Metric(cubic metre) or Imperial(cubic feet) meter. Those figures can vary a little.

joannec_3

Oh boy do I need help!!!!

I've just had a bill which has replaced bills for the last three years. It is a gas bill from npower. It is for £1,231.65!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The bills have previously been estimated. The meter is tucked behind the cooker and washing machine and we've always let them in to read the meter and they've always refused to read it.

I've just checked the meter reading and the new bill is right. I can, however, see on the bill that there was an actual meter reading done about 18 months ago which reads at 7278 but my last bill in June had an estimated meter reading of 5997??? How can they get it so wrong?

Any advice on what to do now. Yes, I know we've used the gas and have to pay for it but I do not have that kind of money! We were thinking of switching supplies anyway as I think npower are now one of the dearer ones but I don't suppose I can switch with this debt outstanding.

Crumbs!

cdon

Have you been paying the estimated bills during the previous 3 years, or are you on a monthly direct debit scheme? If you have then you should have a credit against the bill amount. Check that they have applied any payments that you have made.

joannec_3

cdon wrote:

Have you been paying the estimated bills during the previous 3 years, or are you on a monthly direct debit scheme? If you have then you should have a credit against the bill amount. Check that they have applied any payments that you have made.

No, I've been paying quarterly. The new bill shows all the payments made.

I'm so ticked off because they read the meter 2 years ago but didn't apply that meter reading because it was higher than the previous estimates. I wouldn't be in this mess now if they had done that!

I'm waiting for a call back from them with an installment figure. I don't think I can pay as much as they want.

fbrj

joannec wrote:

Oh boy do I need help!!!!

I've just had a bill which has replaced bills for the last three years. It is a gas bill from npower. It is for £1,231.65!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well if it's any comfort I'm in the same boat as you, except I'm with Powergen. My gas bill for the last quarter (with an actual reading for the end period) is...............over £3000!!
On checking back I found the last actual reading was in Feb 2005 (by me)...since then all the rest were estimated and, like you, I guess you just paid the quartlerly bills as they came in.
The readings are correct but the last bill assumed all of the previously unrecorded usage was during the last quarter at, obviously, the much higher rates that currently prevail.
I called Powergen and explained the position. It was agreed (without any difficulty) that they would reissue the bill, backdated to the last actual reading (ie Feb 2005) and then prorata the actual readings over the 19 months (Feb 05 to Sept 06), taking into account all the price increases over the period, and then crediting the revised amount with the amounts I had actually paid. Once this had been done I was to call back and they would arrange for the outstanding balance to be paid monthly over the next 6 months by DD.
I think this is entirely reasonable seeing I only have myself to blame in the 1st place! I have just received my revised bill and it has been reduced by about £550.

Before you agree any repayment schedule - ask them to recalculate the bill back to the last actual reading that npower have...I think you said 3 years - in which case you should see quite a reduction, bearing in mind all the increases over that period.

Good luck.........

ps...I spent many hours last evening looking at a switch of supplier (including all the relevant threads here) - and, for me, npower SOL (sign on-line) is much the cheapest - essentially because (even taking into account actual/proposed price increases) for the bulk of the units npower charge 2.047p/kWh and Powergen 2.83p/kWh - both pre VAT. Btw standard npower tarriff (ie NOT signing up on-line) is 2.49p/kWh...this may be what you are on? Look before you leap!

joannec_3

I'm waiting for them to come back to me.

If push comes to shove I'll use my bankruptcy last year to write off some of the bill.

Cardew

fbrj wrote:

Well if it's any comfort I'm in the same boat as you, except I'm with Powergen. My gas bill for the last quarter (with an actual reading for the end period) is...............over £3000!!
On checking back I found the last actual reading was in Feb 2005 (by me)...since then all the rest were estimated and, like you, I guess you just paid the quartlerly bills as they came in.
The readings are correct but the last bill assumed all of the previously unrecorded usage was during the last quarter at, obviously, the much higher rates that currently prevail.
I called Powergen and explained the position. It was agreed (without any difficulty) that they would reissue the bill, backdated to the last actual reading (ie Feb 2005) and then prorata the actual readings over the 19 months (Feb 05 to Sept 06), taking into account all the price increases over the period, and then crediting the revised amount with the amounts I had actually paid. Once this had been done I was to call back and they would arrange for the outstanding balance to be paid monthly over the next 6 months by DD.
I think this is entirely reasonable seeing I only have myself to blame in the 1st place! I have just received my revised bill and it has been reduced by about £550.

Before you agree any repayment schedule - ask them to recalculate the bill back to the last actual reading that npower have...I think you said 3 years - in which case you should see quite a reduction, bearing in mind all the increases over that period.

Good luck.........

ps...I spent many hours last evening looking at a switch of supplier (including all the relevant threads here) - and, for me, npower SOL (sign on-line) is much the cheapest - essentially because (even taking into account actual/proposed price increases) for the bulk of the units npower charge 2.047p/kWh and Powergen 2.83p/kWh - both pre VAT. Btw standard npower tarriff (ie NOT signing up on-line) is 2.49p/kWh...this may be what you are on? Look before you leap!

How refreshing to see such a balanced post!

None of the usual “it can’t be my fault/I am being ripped off/my meter must be faulty/how can I get out of paying”

However it is difficult to see how you can run up a £3000+ deficit(less £550) in 19 months (which includes 2 summers) as well as you paying quarterly bills; unless you use huge amounts of gas. You must have a gas bill of well over £2000pa.

fbrj

Cardew wrote:

However it is difficult to see how you can run up a £3000+ deficit(less £550) in 19 months (which includes 2 summers) as well as you paying quarterly bills; unless you use huge amounts of gas. You must have a gas bill of well over £2000pa.

Unfortunately you are right (my pro-rata calculation was £1971 !!).....but we have a largish house (about 3000sq ft) and a pool (about 35000 gallons) - so as soon as the central heating gets switched off....on comes the pool boiler over the summer months. The effect of this is equivalent to have the central heating running 12 months a year.....

My post, as you commented, was not to complain at all but to make sure that joannec, based on my experience, at least tried to get her readings recalculated onto an actual pro-rata basis.....particularly as there have been so many price hikes over the last 3 years. I thought Powergen were being very reasonable with me to a) redo the calculation and b) then let me repay the backlog over 6 months.