First Utility's HUGE bills

janopher

We waited six months for a decision from the energy ombudsman. They found in favour of firstutility despite our bills being more than twice the amount we had been quoted, so we had to pay up £2300 for a year's service rather than the £996 we'd been quoted. It would have been better had we switched company six months earlier. Our new company's charges are under half and I wish we'd changed earlier and never gone to the energy ombudsman. The old utility company firstutility are still demanding even more money from us!

Janopher

keith1950

Hi, you are not telling the WHOLE story , what was your usage in kwh's while you were with First Utility ?

No supplier charges double what another charges !

The most common scenario is that you sign up with a supplier and from information you give they set a direct debit. You then use more energy ( cold winter etc. ) but don't adjust you direct debit to account for it.

If you enter meter reading monthly they usually adjust your direct debit so this doesn't happen

You might have been on a fixed tariff and been quoted a figure for your direct debit but it is a fixed rate per unit, if you use more energy you still pay more.

If you want advice post you usage figures in kwh's for the last twelve months.

Nada666

Welcome to the forum but I think you need to look again at what your current supplier is charging and have a look at your meters and check your ongoing consumption. You need to get your head round what your annual consumption is and what that costs and what monthly instalments are.

It is simply not possible that First Utility were charging you twice as much for a certain consumption of kWhs. 20%, 40% difference perhaps - 100% no (not unless your consumption is minuscule and certainly not at the thousand pounds and more mark.)

When getting a quote from a supplier or comparison site it is important to use a fixed typical annual consumption as a benchmark. Use this benchmark to check prices every now and again rather than varying it from quote to quote (and when reading a quote make sure it includes that consumption - check it hasn't calculated for a different usage).

Note that when underpayments have been set up repayments can quickly build up to be double or triple what is expected - you have to pay for ongoing consumption plus you have to pay for the difference for ongoing consumption plus you have to pay back the arrears plus you have to pay for a price increase. Let's say you were quoted £75 per month but it turns out you used £100 over a long winter. Say the arrears are to be taken back over six months and prices increase by 20% - that results in payments going up from £75 per month to £170 per month for six months - and that is for just a £25 shortfall.

Anyway, in summary, what did you use over the last couple of years? What will that cost you with your current supplier? Are you sure your payments cover that usage?

yangptangkipperbang

janopher wrote: »

despite our bills being more than twice the amount we had been quoted, so we had to pay up £2300 for a year's service rather than the £996 we'd been quoted.
Janopher

NO energy company is going to quote you for the amount of energy that you are going to use, they will give a price per unit and
they probably quoted you a monthly DD figure which you naively assumed would be your total monthly bill !!!

dogshome

As posted by others, what a supplier estimates your annual bill be is based on the information you give them, BUT with the reality that you have had bills from FU that total over £2,300, ( 2 years supply for the average home ! ) something is very wrong with either the meter readings or the billing

FU's reputation for accurate billing isn't good - You need to look at and post what the Gas/Elec Meter readings were when FU took over, and what they were when you left FU

matelodave

You have the meter in your house and should therefore be able to read it and work out how much electricty you use and how much it should cost you. If your direct debit was set too low, then you've got arrears to pay back.

I've been offered many a deal based on incorrect assumptions or even offering to save me £XXX a year, but when I tell them exactly how much I use and the tariff that I'm on then no one has been able to beat it. I know within about £10 what my electricty bill will be over the year and so know how much the DD should be - it's simple

It isn't rocket science to read a meter and work out how much it should cost and I find it hard to have sympathy with people who end up with a ginormous bill at the end of the year when they've not kept an eye on what they are using.

If you get an estimated bill, go and read the meter to see if it tallies - if it doesn't, then give the supply company a reading. There is no advantage is thinking you've got one over on them if they've underestimated - you'll have to pay in the end.
Even better send them a reading once a month and get it right all the time