Think i am being overcharged by Scottish Power

Digitalfaze

We have a combi boiler, we dont use any electric heaters or heat lamps, we use to have an iguana in our old house and even with that we were nothing close to what we are using now in electric and that was keeping 3 100w heat lamps on for 12hours a day and electric heaters at night, that was also a larger flat in scotland.

we use the tumble dryer(has been used for around 4 hours between those 2 readings), washing machine, fridge, freezer, kids have a small tv and xbox in there room which is only on for a couple of hours a day, internet router and a laptop, just an average family usage which most of the time is spent in the livingroom watching the television.

Digitalfaze

Wolf3 wrote: »

doing a quick calculation based on your current reads and estimated reads from a year ago i'd suggest your electric usage to be 6744 kWh and gas usage 26456 kWh. Going on comparison figures as a guideline you would be paying £960 per year for electric and £1180 for your gas on a Standard tariff without discounts.

Going off OFGEM guidelines of 3300 kWh electric and 16000 kWh gas you can see your energy usage is quite large for a 2 bed flat. Whilst its reasonably high usage its not unheard of and last years weather certainly made most people use a fair amount of energy.

You say your on a fixed price tariff till next year, did you sign up to this before last years price rises or afterwards.

we are on online standard tarriff the tarriffs have changed quite alot as we have missed a few payments on our bill, i just cant understand why they have slammed us with near 1500 in a space of 4 months, i was told £130 per month would cover both bills and cover some debt aswell then that changed to £185 permonth to cover both and some debt then they have thrown all this on us

i dont think the tarriff mattered as when i had problems with them i was on a fixed tarriff and they said that the price was going to rise and i said but im on a fixed tarriff, and they replied yes but the prices are going to rise which means your bill will go up, i said it wasnt a fixed tarriff if thats the case.

Kimbobaggins

I've been searching online for advice on a similar problem and stumbled across your post on this forum! I'm also with scottish power and think i've been overcharged....a hell of alot! Im in a 1 bedroom flat with my partner, and we also use basic electricals - xbox, tv, washing machine, occasionally dishwasher and other basics with not much usage of heating and missed a few bills also, but we have all of a sudden received a huge bill covering us from January, charging us over £180 a month in total.

(Im on a stamdard monthly cash plan of £85 a month which I had no problems with until Jan 2013)

I tried speaking to scottish power about this and asked for a meter reading, which they finally offered me after over an hour on the phone and then charged me a £25 "debt advice service" fee!

Have you had any luck trying to figure out why your bill is so high?
It seems these problems are quite frequent with scottish power!

Kim

Wolf3

What is the name of your actual tariff now ?? Just Online Standard ?? a fixed price tariff guarantees the unit prices don't change not the monthly DD payments. I'd suggest they have underestimated your energy usage and are trying to "catch up" with a DD to cover your debt. a £1500 balance would mean you having to pay over £100 a month to cover your debt.

I cant see from the appliances you spoke of what would be using that amount of energy. It may be worthwhile purchasing an energy monitor to see if you can make savings or identify the culprits.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/free-cheap-energy-monitors

Potentially you could have a faulty meter that is "running fast" however the energy companies generally ask for an up front fee to fit a check meter (about £100, the cost of the engineer turning up to fit the check meter) which is refunded if the meter is found to be faulty. However i would exhaust the other avenues first to see if you can identify.

My annual electric usage is relatively high over 5,000 kWh per annum but i know which appliances are using this energy and if i need to save more money i can