Bill shock

jamint

Hi all,

Me and my girlfriend bought and moved into our new house on the final day of October.

We were put on the old owner's British Gas contract, but I immediately sought a new supplier for both gas & electric, and that switched over for electricity on 18th Nov, and Gas on 23rd Nov.

Now we received through email today our Gas bill from British Gas from the dates 30th October - 22nd November and were shocked that it was £88! For not even a full month!

The electricity bill (from SSE) for those weeks was a more expected £30.

Does this gas bill sound normal for a 2-bedroom end-terrace house?

If so, might it to be to do with the fact that we were on an emergency-ish package with BG and therefore this interim period would be more expensive?

I'm worried now, because I switched to EDF on a gas/elec combi-deal, and the details I gave them they estimated we'd use around £85 a month. So I'm worried our first bill from them will be much more than that.

Anyone been in a similar positions have any suggestions?

sniggings

jamint wrote: »

Hi all,

Me and my girlfriend bought and moved into our new house on the final day of October.

We were put on the old owner's British Gas contract, but I immediately sought a new supplier for both gas & electric, and that switched over for electricity on 18th Nov, and Gas on 23rd Nov.

Now we received through email today our Gas bill from British Gas from the dates 30th October - 22nd November and were shocked that it was £88! For not even a full month!

The electricity bill (from SSE) for those weeks was a more expected £30.

Does this gas bill sound normal for a 2-bedroom end-terrace house?

If so, might it to be to do with the fact that we were on an emergency-ish package with BG and therefore this interim period would be more expensive?

I'm worried now, because I switched to EDF on a gas/elec combi-deal, and the details I gave them they estimated we'd use around £85 a month. So I'm worried our first bill from them will be much more than that.

Anyone been in a similar positions have any suggestions?

if you know for sure that you were not paying some of the last owners bill, that you had a new account, then yes £88 could well be correct, you do not say what your usage was, so it's hard to say but it's very easy to use £5 a day or even more on heating/cooking/water depending the length of time you have these on for, add in nearly £2 a week standing charge and if you have a pilot light on the boiler, that could use another £2 a week, it doesn't take long to get to £88 in the winter.

As for the "emergency" tariff you refer to, no such thing really, even if you were on a prepayment meter the cost would be only a matter of maybe 1p more a unit, the bigger(not that big) savings come in when you pay by direct debit and have duel fuel, which you would not have had time to have the direct debit set up and I doubt you were on the duel fuel discount either (maybe you were as I don't think you have to request to get the discount, not much savings anyway) but even then the savings would be a couple of pounds, we are not taking tens of pounds on an £88 bill.

So as said yeah it could be correct if you had the heating/water on, or you could be paying some of the previous owner bill if you hadn't started a total new account.

My suggestions, check it was a new account...also start taking a reading of you meter every 24 hours, you will get to know where your usage is going, then if you want to save on gas, you will see within 24 hours the effect of any changes you make, for example if you see in 24 hours you use 10 units, you can work out your likely monthly/quarterly bill from that 10x31days at unit rate (likely to be around 5p depending on tariff), remember to add the standing charge which is probably 26p a day, if the cost is too high, try turning the heating down a degree or 2, or off an hour earlier, then see the effect this has on the units used.

This is of course after you have made sure your home is insulated correctly.

notbritishgas

jamint wrote: »

Hi all,


I'm worried now, because I switched to EDF on a gas/elec combi-deal, and the details I gave them they estimated we'd use around £85 a month. So I'm worried our first bill from them will be much more than that.

Don't forget the £85 estimate was based on 12 months payment, in winter you use more than the monthly payment and in summer significantly less.
Having said that, the estimate of £85 could be on the high side but as sniggings has said it is quite possible to run up a £88 bill in a month with gas CH especially on the standard tariff which you would have been put on.
You did give them readings on move in day? Take daily/weekly readings now so you can tell current usage.

macman

You weren't put on the old owner's BG account. You were in a deemed contract with BG and a new account was opened in your name. Unless you specified otherwise, it would have been on Standard tariff-there is no 'emergency tariff'.
If the opening and closing reads are correct, and so is the billing calculation, then that is what you owe.

Nada666

6 x £88 + 6 x £20 + 12 x £30 is less than 12 x £85

Why are you shocked at spending £88 on gas? Were you cold and did not have the heating on?

daveyjp

How much a bill is depends entirely on how much you have used, subject of course to you providing accurate readings when you took occupation and when the bill was due.

If the number of units you have used is correct, the unit charge is correct the bill will be correct. If it is a shock you need to reduce comsumption. If you want the property at 21 degrees all the time you will need to pay for it. Our last quarterly bill for gas has just arrived, its overestimated and is £90, less than £1 a day, but we are out a lot and it has been a very mild autumn so not much need for CH.

[Deleted User]

I wish our bill was only £88 a month!

geet

hello jamint - like you we moved into a new flat and our first shocker bill was £225 for 47 days - around 175 for gas and 50 for elec (had posted a thread on it) and we were not around for 13 days. i still can't figure it out:-(
we are just two of us and we are careful and we used to pay £50 DD in our previous flat!

sniggings

geet wrote: »

hello jamint - like you we moved into a new flat and our first shocker bill was £225 for 47 days - around 175 for gas and 50 for elec (had posted a thread on it) and we were not around for 13 days. i still can't figure it out:-(
we are just two of us and we are careful and we used to pay £50 DD in our previous flat!

hang on I thought you were getting it over on your thread :rotfl:

You were not paying only £50 a month, you were paying £50 a load of months before winter, for gas you were not using, so you would have a credit on your bill, so come winter you could carry on paying your £50.

geet

ok ok ok got that :-( still...

and £88 will look good compared to £225 - so am spreading some cheer:-)

sniggings

geet wrote: »

ok ok ok got that :-( still...

and £88 will look good compared to £225 - so am spreading some cheer:-)

oh sorry...in that case carry on