Bills Gone up considerably, cheapest on comparison, what to do?

Chick_Loves_Thrift

When we moved into our house, British Gas were our supplier. After doing a price comparison after we'd moved in, npower came up as the cheapest so we switched to them. We were only paying £17 per month dual fuel. When my husband spoke to a customer service rep on the phone about switching, he didn't express any concern about the price being too low (Jan 2011) so we assumed everything was ok and went with them as we has paid this price on gas and electric in a previous home (2009).
We received a letter from npower a few days ago saying that we were £235.52 in debt with them and that our annual usage was over £900. We were shocked by this as we knew we hadn't been as sparing with the electricity as last time but we didn't think it was this bad!
So, we called up npower and asked why they hadn't got in touch with us about this and they simply apologised, and told us that the cheapest they could bring our payments in at was £79 to reduce the debt or if we were able to pay the debt off, £60. We told them that as we are both jobless on benefits at the moment and we said that the most we could stretch to is £30. We paid the debt off and they said that we can pay £30 on a "trial period" - I don't know what this was about, all we knew was that it ends in July to see if our energy consumption can come down (which we have already started reducing).

Does this seem realistic or are we fooling ourselves in thinking we will be able to live on £30pm dual? We are a couple in a 2 bed home and our gas is usually very minimal so it's the electricity we have to cut down. We have taken drastic measures of not watching tv, only going on the computer to check the bank, emails and spreadsheets or on the phone, stopped using the tumble drier and dishwasher etc.

We have an energy monitor going and so far we have used 3.18kwh today which is apparently 48p but I'm not quite sure if we set the numbers up right so a little help on that area would be great too - its a British gas one.


Sorry if this is hard to read, I'm on my phone!

Thanks all!

Terrylw1

Are your bills to estimates or actual readings? Always get actuals in so your bills are accurate and it will knock on to your DD's. It can take some time to be one accurate in terms of DD's but it will help you control that side.

spiro

£30pm for dual fuel is only £360pa, the average for the UK is around £1000 so I think you are being unrealistic unless you live like hermits.

Caz3121

Chick_Loves_Thrift wrote: »

We received a letter from npower a few days ago saying that we were £235.52 in debt with them and that our annual usage was over £900.

Can you just confirm some figures
For the past 14 months you have been paying £17 per month = £238
npower have told you are in debt £235

this sounds like for the 14 months your total bill 'should' have been £473

I am confused about the £900 as if your usage is £900 worth and you have paid £238...would you not owe them more?

notbritishgas

One thing does not seem right, if you were only paying £17 per month, that is £204 per year and Npower said your usage was £900 per year why are you only £235 in debt?

Edit: must type/think faster!

Chick_Loves_Thrift

This is the problem we haven't been giving frequent readings so they may be estimated. We have set reminders so we don't forget from now on. After reading through the letter again we have realised that the £900 annual usage IS based on estimates.

I know £30 sounds unrealistic but as others have pointed out our usage for the past 14 months has been £470ish which is roughly £33 per month and that was without us trying to limit our usage. This is if everything on npowers end is correct.

Thanks all for your input, it has helped us understand our situation more. The confusing part is that they have told us that we would have had to pay £79 per month which more like adds up to the £900ish estimate annually that was on our bill... Which as we know now, isn't applicable for us! Glad we pushed for the £30 a month and they allowed it, but would you say that we need to update the meter readings regularly and cut down on our energy usage to match that?

Yesterday whilst trying to cut on energy we spent 53p/3.56kwh of electricity (and not much gas as npower have confirmed themselves). We feel like this has been very restrictive for us as we havent been watching tv, using the tumble drier.. Big differences to how we live. Would you say we could live each day on more than what we spent yesterday to enable us to be under the £20 elec/£10 gas target?

Thanks!