Greedy Gas

Ms_Px

Hey everyone i am new to these forums and i am looking for some advice please.

It's the " gas" i have a gas pre-payment meter in my home -( it was already in when moved here). It uses £5 everyday and it's not like i have it on constant because, i cant afford to. It gets turned on at 7am for a hour to warm my boys up and will be turned on again " if the tempreture is cold" at around 6pm untill 8pm ( once my boys are in bed i turn it off and use extra layers for myself). Every single day it wants £5.00 and im so fedup of it. I phoned the energy supplier which is E'on and they said i am paying the correct amount -( i am not in debt with them either). What also confuses me is my mum lives on the same street in the same style home and she pays £50 mth for her gas and she is able to have it on constant in winter. I asked them about this and they said " it goes on individual houses". If i was on my own i would refuse to even use it but, with my children being under 6yrs i obviously need to keep some warmth about for them. I have checked the bill and it says i use 41.4 kwh a day and their yearly estimate is for £922.00 but, i know it's alot more than that amount per year. If you need the Khw details i have my bill papers handy. Any advice would be most welcome as everytime i phone the supplier they dont seem to want to help and say they cant take the meter out. It is becoming impossible. Thankyou

HappyMJ

You cannot compare daily winter amount with someone elses monthly direct debit. In summer you will not be topping up £5 per day. It will be more like £1 per day yet your mum will still be paying £50 per month.

41.4kWh per day is quite normal. However £922 implies a per unit charge of 6.1p/kWh. You need to shop around and switch. If you switched to Ebico for example they charge 4.573p/kWh for all units.....and that's not even a very competitive rate.

SwanJon

To help get on top of this you could try recording your top ups and consumption. It means you have more to go on when discussing things with the supplier
E.g.
Saturday- £10 top up - credit now £10.72 - reading 01245
Monday - £10 top up - credit now £11.54 - reading 01267
Wednesday - SNOW! - Used Emergency credit - reading 01293
Thursday - £10 top up - credit now £6.25 - reading 01301

You can also check what price your meter has programed on it (screens 9 & 10) and check this matches the statement.

Ms_Px

HappyMJ wrote: »

You cannot compare daily winter amount with someone elses monthly direct debit. In summer you will not be topping up £5 per day. It will be more like £1 per day yet your mum will still be paying £50 per month.

41.4kWh per day is quite normal. However £922 implies a per unit charge of 6.1p/kWh. You need to shop around and switch. If you switched to Ebico for example they charge 4.573p/kWh for all units.....and that's not even a very competitive rate.

Hey hun Thankyou for your reply. I have looked on the bill for the unit and It's saying 6.914p each and secondary units at 3.008p. The only gas in the house is the combi boiler i dont even have a gas fire. Also the £922 price they have put on the bill works out at £79 a month but, adding my reciepts up for a 12mth period works out at £1540 which is £140 per month just for gas. It's like i am being double priced, it's strange. When looking at switching suppliers do i check the units they charge rather than the amount in money?? I am new to looking into the units part thanks again for your help.

spiro

Have you checked there is no debt on the meter from a previous tenant?

If the annual statement says you used £922 in the last year and you have 40-50 receipts giving a total of £1540 in the same period then something sounds wrong.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Ms Px

How long have you been in the property?

If you've just moved in, as spiro says, make sure there's no debt belonging to the previous occupier remaining on the meter.

You'll be able to see this by going through the different displays on the meter. Any debt will be on screen 27.

If there is, we'll need to clear this by arranging what's known as a Decomm/Recomm appointment. If this is booked before 3pm, an engineer will call the same day to do this.

Also, any money paid against a debt which isn't yours will be refunded.

Have you used the emergency credit at all? If you have, the amount used plus any tier one (primary) units that may have built up will be taken back immediately.

This is split, though. 70 per cent of the amount topped up goes towards repaying the emergency credit and 30 per cent towards ongoing gas usage.

Where the 70 per cent doesn't fully clear amounts built up whilst in emergency credit, the remainder will be stored and reclaimed at the next top up.

This can sometimes give a false impression of what you're using. Not saying this is the case here Ms Px; just something to be aware of.

Hope this is useful. Give me a shout if you need any more info. Will be happy to help.

Malc

Ms_Px

My apologies for my late reply awfull flue caught me but, it's on it's way out now. Thank you for your all your advice and help with this matter i really appreciate it. @ Spiro no hun, there is no debt that i know of on this meter. I have checked it and no debt is showing up if there is any. @ Malc thankyou for your time i have been at this property 2 years the first winter was a shock and i thought " must cut down on gas next winter" but, this winter as been so cold and lasted much longer that i really do need to do something about it. I understand what you mentioned about the emergancy credit as, i do endup having to turn it on if the £5 runs out at a inconvenient time and so, i will turn it on but, as soon as i will go and put the money back on to the card. When i have to use emergancy i will use at most about £1- £2 of it but, when i go to top up i will put £6 -£7 back to replace what i have borrowed from emergancy. This machine defiantely uses £5. everyday with out being on constant either. Im so fedup of feeling the cold / catching cold and not being able to keep it on for longer than i can because, of the price consequence. I dont expect my gas for free and i know prices go up but, surley this is a little on the high price. Any advice you have is welcome and i Thankyou for your time. Ms.Px