British/Scottish Gas Bill ....shock!!

French_2

We used to have a prepayment meter but this was taken out on October 2006.

We recieved a bill for our Electricity in Jan for around £140ish... that was fine ..paid and awaiting Gas bill.

Gas bill still not arrived so phoned them up after another month of waiting. They say they will send it out but expect it to be slightly higher than usual. Got it this morning... bill from Oct 4 to May 5.... £916 !!!!

How can this be?? Surely I could'nt have used this much gas in 7 months.

It even says on the bill I used £22.48 in the last 10 days before the bill....and £143.39 the 45days before that...!!!

We have hardly been using the heating the last few months (about 4 hours a day...2 at night & 2 in the morning). And cooking has been relativly low as we use the electric oven mostly.

Can there be a mistake here..... do they allow the payment to be paid in 3 or 4 payments as this will put us into heavy debt/trouble!!

Cardew

I suspect that the reason involves an Estimated reading at the start of the period, or the end of the period. Or a debit balance carried over.

Can you post more details readings etc.

French_2

Meter readings are

Date________Reading________Units________PRICE
04 Cct 06________99999
12 March 07______2139_______2140_______£719.57
26 Apr 07________2658________519________£143.39
05 May 07________2739________81________£22.48

The 12th and 26th are Estimated readings. I'm sure I gave them a reading when I phoned querying where my bills were....

There must be a mistake somewhere.....

tripled

The 12th and 26th are price change readings.

With regards to paying, you would only be allowed to go on a 12 month payment scheme which the balance would be included in. However, there is nothing stopping you from making overpayments then cancelling the scheme when you are up to date.

French_2

I have added the kWh usage to see if anyone can tell me if this is high for the time periods. We have not used a lot of gas since Jan/feb and the timer has been on approx 4 hours a day since..

Can anyone help me with this regarding the kWh details??


Date________Reading________Units________PRICE______kWh
04 Cct 06________99999
12 March 07______2139_______2140_______£719.57______24155.02
26 Apr 07________2658________519________£143.39______5858.15
05 May 07________2739________81________£22.48______914.27

tripled

Depends, you haven't said if you live in a ten bedroom house or a 1 bed flat. The average national annual consumption is 20,500 kwh, so your usage so far seems significantly higher than average (you are on course to be more than double the average per year).

French_2

3 Bedroom end terrace with dining-room. Family of 5. (3 young children)

Thanks for everyones help.

French_2

I just phoned my wife to give me the current reading on the meter....

She said it's 01332 301m3

From what I gather from the Brittsh gas website on how to read a meter ...I take the first 5 numbers. Would this mean the reading that I should be billed on should be 1332 and Not 2729???

Cardew

As tripled says your consumption is way above anything you would normally expect for a 3 bed terrace.

If your reading really is 1332 it means that the 2739 must have been an estimate as well, and explains everything.

It means that you will have used 15,046kWh in the period 4 Oct 06 to today well under half of the amount for which you have been billed.

By the way you are on BG's Standard rate, which although it has been reduced twice is still quite a bit more than BG's Click Energy 2 tariff(this is an on-line account) I would look to changing tariff and electricity as well if that is BG's standard tariff.

tripled

Cardew wrote: »

If your reading really is 1332 it means that the 2739 must have been an estimate as well, and explains everything.

Yup, your latest bill should have a little E or say estimated after the 2739. If not, check the serial numbers match up and double check the reading, then call it through to BG.

poppie,s_dream

gosh french we are having the same problems as you with british gas
we got a bil for £1000 in debit in jan, after numerous calls and in between our meter was read in march the meter reader was concerned that when he put our reading in his machine it kept reading fault he wrote the reading down and told me to do so too which i did in my diary. with the time too a few days later we had a call from british gas to say a fault had been recorded on our meter and they were coming to access or replace the meter. this they did on 1st may a brand new meter was installed and the old one taken away, i was told by the installer to contact gas board within two weeks to find out the out come. after a weekend away we arrived home 14/05/07 to a new gas bill totalling £1444 in debit and they will take £304 out of the bank 18/05/07 to cover our arrears!!!! husband phoned gas board gave customer number and the girl on the phone said oh you're the customer with the faulty meter that was replaced we found a fault that meant the readings were being times by 3. at the moment my new meter reads 58 so considering it was fitted 01/05/07 to todays date i have only used 3 units of gas a day. now the gas board are disputing at what point did the meter become faulty!!!!! sheesh words fail me and yes they have took my money too. i live in a two bed semi work shifts as does hubby so heating is hardly on. in put on what you guys think much appreciated.