Atlantic gas & electricity

Ariabetty

Hi everyone!
Been reading couple of threads.... Then I compared the monthly payment that I have been paying to Atlantic, gave me a big shock...

I own a 4 bedroom end-terraced house, 2 adult and one baby,, obviously not using all my bedrooms so only 2 radiators are on.... I use the electric cooker and microwave....

Having said that, been paying £80 for electricity and £40 for gas by direct debit.... It's a lot of money,,, I was told today my outstanding balance for gas is £215... Massive shock.. Somethings wrong definitely.... Please help me out if I can find another supplier or any cash back ... Been trying different comparison website but no help so far..


Thx

NittyGritty

i,m with atlantic and pay £91 a month for electric, as its winter its to be expected you will get a high bill, just double check that its not an estimated bill, if it is , go online and give your meter readings. if you have just compare the readings you gave to the ones on your online/paper bill.

NittyGritty

forgot to mention, before you are allowed to move you will need to pay the final bill with atlantic, so bear that in mind if you do switch. were u in debt with atlantic before this bill? if you were then maybe you need to up the direct debits to keep in credit, if at all possible

macman

If you have a debt of over £200, any switch will normally be blocked by the outgoing supplier.
Forget your monthly DD's: how much energy are you actually using? What you need to post are your annual kWh consumption figures.
Assuming gas CH and DHW, your figures appear to be the wrong way around.

jalexa

macman wrote: »

If you have a debt of over £200, any switch will normally be blocked by the outgoing supplier.

I stand to be corrected but I don't think an account debit balance arising only from an agreed and maintained direct debit plan is a "debt" subject to "debt blocking".

jalexa

Ariabetty wrote: »

I was told today my outstanding balance for gas is £215... Massive shock.. Somethings wrong definitely....

Definately? Why ask unless you mean "is something wrong?"

Atlantic bills are usually quite clear. On the face of it £120 per month should be adequate in a gas heated house. When you say "only 2 radiators are on" do you mean the 2 unused bedroom radiators are off? How many radiators are on? Do you have a roomstat? What temperature is it set to? Do you have a central heating timeclock? What hours is it set to.

What was the account balance on the previous quarterly bill? Did the recent bill announcing the £215 "outstanding balance" (why "outstanding", did you miss any payments?) advise increased monthly payments? If not there may not be a problem and the £215 is a temporary winter deficit. It is not yet obvious you should be looking at switching but you do need to get a handle on your consumption by taking daily readings for a week.

lobbyludd

Hi, not sure what tariff you were on, (obviously), I'm with Atlantic, my fix ended yesterday and ALL the currently available tariffs from other suppliers are more costly than the fix I was on. Atlantic, in general are good value for money.

Having said that, as a comparison..... ours is a 3 bed semi, two children, 1 adult, GCH and water, gas hob, my monthly DD is £46 for gas, and over the past 12 months this has resulted in me paying c.£100 more than I have used, but I manage my account solely on-line and enter in my meter readings at least monthly, I know what my gas and electric consumption is in KWH, my boiler is around 5 years old and pretty efficient, we are out of the house for the majority of each 24hr period and I am very stingy with heating when we are in: REALLY stingy.

unless you suspect there is a gas leak (?do you), then you've used the gas and I've not found a supplier cheaper than Atlantic yet (for my usage and area, your particular circumstances my differ).

Managing it online is great as I can see each time I enter a meter reading where I am against what I've paid. As other's have said if you switched supplier or moved in after the summer then you won't have had time for your DD's to build up a positive balance through the low use summer months to balance out the winter months.

meer53

I'm with Atlantic too, 3 bed semi, me and daughter, gas central heating, electric oven, gas hob.

I pay £85 for electric and £51 for gas. I did get a rebate last year of about £120 for overpayment, i left the DD's high in case we had a bad winter, but as it stands now, will probably be due another one this year ! I don't think what you're paying is too bad really. You need to check out the payment due for the gas though, call them, they're usually really good.

NittyGritty

also if your on the standard tarriff you will get back the 13 month direct debit into your account refunded which is a nice bonus

meer53

NittyGritty wrote: »

also if your on the standard tarriff you will get back the 13 month direct debit into your account refunded which is a nice bonus

I love it when that happens as i always forget about it !