British Gas Bill Quadrupled - Advice needed please for newbie

Paul_S_7

Just received a letter from British Gas, “recent review of account, blah, blah, adjusting monthly direct debit payments, blah, blah”

We were paying approximately £40 per month, an amount BG estimated based on our previous gas suppliers bills, now they are saying our new monthly payments will be £169 per month. :eek:

My wife rang BG and was told we were in arrears for over £900, a bit shocked she did not quiz them further and they simply gave her the option to continue the direct debit at the new increased amount or pay £40 weekly which isn't that much better off.
We are at a loss as to how they come to such a figure when they take regular meter readings and we have been making regular payments as to what we thought the payments should be. Beside all this we only returned to them just over a year ago......£900 plus all our monthly payments seems extraordinarily high.

We are a bit stunned by this and just wondering where we stand. Can we ask BG to justify and prove the amount they are charging?
Any advice would be appreciated.

tripled

I would recommend checking the meter reading from when you switched to BG is correct, also that the current bill is to a reading an not an estimate, and also that the meter details on your bill match up with your meter.

melancholly

can only echo tripled and say check your meter asap! i pay monthly by cheque rather than direct debit, but npower still manage to overestimate every single bill by 30-60% :eek:. we're pretty stingy with putting the heating on but it would still be an annual overestimate in the order of £400 if we didn't always ring up with a meter reading!

you say that they take regular meter readings but that you've only been with them just over a year - have they been more than once, or is there a chance an electricty meter reading has happened instead?

Ches

check that they have not taken the reading from the time you left them to the time you went back as they may be charging you for the fuel you have already paid for to the other supplier. They should be basing it on the meter reading showing on the last statement from the other supplier until now. Hope this makes sense.

pdrskint

Hi paul s
Its just happened to me BG have reconstructed my account leaving me owing them £1600 ,
I have just got off the phone and they finally agree that something is not right.
I have all my previous bills, they reconstructed my account to a estimated reading wich was a year earlier.
i have had 3 official readings since this reading which they say they have cancelled.bearing in mind electricity prices have risen so if they can back date readings and charge them at the new rate , it seems a big con.
so double check your readings and also the rates charged,
the fight goes on.

discobaby

This happens quite alot, often its to do with the start read when you change supplier, sometimes the start read is estimated if they haven't obtained one and can often be too low and therefore create a high bill, you can dispute the start reading but I would get on the blower yourself its probably that

Cardew

discobaby wrote: »

This happens quite alot, often its to do with the start read when you change supplier, sometimes the start read is estimated if they haven't obtained one and can often be too low and therefore create a high bill, you can dispute the start reading but I would get on the blower yourself its probably that

Agree with the first part; but not about "getting on the blower".

Telephoning is next to useless. Write them a letter if you feel you have any grounds for complaint re estimated readings.

The computer I believe sometimes rejects meter readings if it 'thinks' they are wrong.

3011gillian

i'm in the same situation.

£68 pm for 3 years then a letter upping payments to £242pm and an apparent deficit of £600 owed!!!:eek:

tried the phone route, useless!!! wrote to them giving 10days to respond, no response! wrote to energy watch, who then wrote to BG. after another 2 weeks got a letter saying 'oh yes we really should have informed you that your payaments weren't covering usage and not kept your payments at that level....but nothing about what they are going to do about it!!' just referring it back to energy watch...another few weeks wait, in the meatime we're paying £135pm until it's sorted.

misswig

Paul_S wrote: »

Just received a letter from British Gas, “recent review of account, blah, blah, adjusting monthly direct debit payments, blah, blah”

We were paying approximately £40 per month, an amount BG estimated based on our previous gas suppliers bills, now they are saying our new monthly payments will be £169 per month. :eek:

My wife rang BG and was told we were in arrears for over £900, a bit shocked she did not quiz them further and they simply gave her the option to continue the direct debit at the new increased amount or pay £40 weekly which isn't that much better off.
We are at a loss as to how they come to such a figure when they take regular meter readings and we have been making regular payments as to what we thought the payments should be. Beside all this we only returned to them just over a year ago......£900 plus all our monthly payments seems extraordinarily high.

We are a bit stunned by this and just wondering where we stand. Can we ask BG to justify and prove the amount they are charging?
Any advice would be appreciated.

Same thing happened to me. Paying 35£ month and letter through to say was £327 in arrears ad monthly DD gone up to £127. Took meter reading as previously had been estimated and called to give correct reading which was actually below what they had estimated when i first moived to the property 7 months previously. That was 6 weeks agoand still havn't recieved any reply or updated bill despite calling them several times:eek:

Ken68

The name 'British' should be taken away from British Gas, until they get their act together.

Stompa

Makes me glad I still pay quarterly for what I've actually used. It may cost slightly more, but at least you always know precisely where you stand.