Huge Bill out of nowhere !

Brenster

Hi All


I am hoping someone can help.


We live in a standard 3 Bedroom Semi Detached House, A married Couple with 2 children aged 2 and 1.


What would people suggest a monthly cost for Gas and Electricity should be, I would say we use it an average amount, we don't always have heating / lights it on, but we are not overly cautious about how much energy we use.


Anyway we have been paying £92 / month DD to N Power which we thought would give us a surplus in the summer and pay for the extra usage in the winter.


Until today when we had a call from N Power about a letter they sent in December (we never received this), apparently we owe £580:mad:. We asked why we hadn't been contacted to advise our shortfall earlier so it could be resolved but they said they had a problem with their billing, and apologised for this.


Anyway to cut a long story short, they have reassessed our monthly payment to aprox £140, and an extra £50 month to pay back what we owe them, so our total monthly payment has gone from £92 to £190.


1. Does these charges sound ok or to expensive?
2. Can they do this ?


Thanks Again

vuvuzela

Possibly most importantly - have your bills been based on accruate readins or are they estimated ?
Unfortunately it's not really very easy to give an 'average amount' - depends on insulation of the house and the usage patterns of the occupants.
As you have youngish kids, then the heating will be on more often than that of houses with no kids as a parent and them will be in all day, therefore the heating will have to be on. So personally I would have said a bill of under £100/month would definitely be on the low side.

little_miss_muppet_face

Hmm sounds like it could be right, as we also live in a 3 bed plus boxroom semi detached, 2 adults 2 kids, our gas and electric is £245 monthly, cant remember what the split is but i think its £130 gas and 115 electric. so not far from you (minus your £50 to payback debit)

CAN1976

im in a 3 bed semi with 2 kids (7 & 2) and we pay about £92 (covers gas & elec) a month. I submit regular meter readings and no changes so I would hope we are paying teh right amoutn

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Brenster wrote: »

Hi All
1. Does these charges sound ok or to expensive?
2. Can they do this ?

1. Impossible to say without knowing your annual usage in KWh. It should be on an annual statement from npower, alternatively they will tell you over the phone. However, average users are now spending £110 a month, so you were almost certainly always behind the 8 ball in terms of payments.

2. Of course. You've used the energy, you have to pay for it.

warwicktiger

1 Check that actual not estimated readings are being used.
2 Go Compare!
3 If the readings are accurate the payments sound reasonable.

I am in a 3 bed terrace and pay £100 pm combined gas and electric, currently with OVO energy who actually pay interest of 5% when you are in credit!

matelodave

You do really need to read the meters regularly & often - at least once a month and to send the readings to your energy supplier.
You should also reconcile your bills with the meter and make sure any estimates are corrected and the bills updated. In this way you can keep an eye on your consumption and you'll know whether you are paying enough or even too much and so avoid the nasty shock that you've just had.


You can't rely on the guesstimates of the energy companies - you have to take charge and monitor your own bills & consumption.


Nowadays an average energy bill (gas & electric) is about £1400 a year = £115 a month although I notice that the industry has reduced the average consumption estimates - either because people live in smaller houses or they've cut back, which isn't helpful if you use more than average (or even just the previous, higher, average)


Another advantage of recording your meter readings is that you can take steps to reduce your consumption and see if they are having the desired effect.

You could also have a look at a couple of comparison sites to see if your tariff is competitive although you won't be allowed to change until or unless you paid off your arrears


I've just had a play on a comparison site and for an average gas consumption of 16500kwh and 3300kwh for electricity on British Gas's standard tariff the bill would be just over £1200. I could save £200 or spend more than £450 more depending who I was with and what tariff I chose - that's a difference of over £650 a year or £54 a month - ridiculous or what? And you could save even more (270) by getting gas and electricity from different suppliers