Gas Payments - Is This Right?

smj43

I live in a 2 bedroom flat and British Gas currently supply my gas. When I moved in (September 11), they put me on a £45 a month DD. The first couple of months, the bill was about £30-£35, leaving my account in credit. Though as it has been a lot colder these past few months, it has been £80-£90 a month. Now, British Gas have told me that they are putting up my DD to £71 a month starting next month. Is this right? I thought they were only meant to review once a year and that summer credit should make up the winter debit? I've only had 3 bills and it's gone up so much. £71 sounds a lot for a 2 bedroom flat to me? But it's my first property so I don't know.

spiro

They dont just review once per year. You have been using about £30 in the autumn and paying a DD of £45. Given that in the winter your useage will increase to about £90-£150 a month (depending on weather and how hot you like it) £45 is nowhere near enought. As you say your bill is already about £85pm and its not the coldest months yet. £71 sounds a lot nearer the correct amount.

macman

Since you moved in in September, you won't have built any summer credit. Your initial DD was set far too low, unless you expect your annual bill to be only £540pa-dream on.

Yolina

Why dream on? I'm in a 2 bed flat, not sandwiched in on the sides so 4 external walls, huge windows, boiler from when the place was built 20-something years ago, in most of the day and at current prices my annual gas bill is £350 with Ebico on a quarterly variable DD (7700 kwh). I could save a tad (about £25 last time I checked) by going with NPower but I really don't want to play all the silly games with monthly DD for my gas as usage can vary so much depending on winter temperatures.

OP: what temp are you heating your flat at and where are you in the country?

molerat

How many kWh are you using each month / week ?

macman

Dream on because the OP said that even in September he was using £30-35 of gas per month (so that's just for hot water and cooking maybe). That's before the heating is on. Once it is on, you can expect the usage to at least triple.
Your annual usage of 7,700kWH is extremely low even for a 2 b/r flat.

Yolina

7700kwh was last year's usage, I expect this year to be below that I used 730kwh for the whole of January :rotfl: that's for HW, heating and gas hob.

Edit: and before anyone asks, no, I'm not wearing a hat, scarf or gloves indoors...

macman

That's very good for you. But it's certainly not typical.

smj43

I was just asking to confirm if it sounds correct. Judging from all of your replies, British Gas must have got it right. I didn't think I used a lot of gas personally and £71 per month seems a lot to me, but I have nothing to compare it to since I have never paid for gas before.

HappyMJ

smj43 wrote: »

I was just asking to confirm if it sounds correct. Judging from all of your replies, British Gas must have got it right. I didn't think I used a lot of gas personally and £71 per month seems a lot to me, but I have nothing to compare it to since I have never paid for gas before.

I think it is a lot for a 2 bedroom flat so I would get onto BG and ask for it to be reduced to a much lower amount. With my supplier Npower I pay £10 a month and clear the bills as they arrive so I can keep the DD at £10 a month.

macman

smj43 wrote: »

I was just asking to confirm if it sounds correct. Judging from all of your replies, British Gas must have got it right. I didn't think I used a lot of gas personally and £71 per month seems a lot to me, but I have nothing to compare it to since I have never paid for gas before.

We still have no idea, unless you post your actual kWh consumption figures.