Help For My Gran?

Rex_Mundi

I've finally (after many years of trying to persuade her to change supplier) talked nan into letting me look at her gas/electric bills. I'm shocked frankly. The amount she is paying (£119 per month) seems far too high for her situation. This is more than I was paying for three of us at home.

She is an 82YO pensioner in a three bed semi. It has just been her+my uncle for a long time (the bills are in her name).

She is with BG, and has been for years. I checked her usage over a year, and have worked out 2850 units of electricity, and 768 units of gas over a year (does this sound correct?).

Any ideas of a good company to check out (maybe taking her age into account)?

Cheers for any ideas.

Poppycat

Rex good to see your back, lol aint seen to around of late hope your well

£119 per month is high we pay £70 a month to Scottish power dual fuel online but I suspect it may have to increase a bit for us, thats 3 bedroom semi, 2 kids 2 adults etc

Scottish power do a online energy saver 4 which is meant to be cheaper than previously ones.

Hope she has all the grants applied for ect for insulation.

Rex_Mundi

Hi Poppycat

Thanks. The council came around last year and insulated all the walls and loft for free (even though she owns the house).

Her bill does seem very high to me.

tripled

2850 units of electricity is below the national average (3300kwh). As to the gas, it would depend if your gran had a metric or imperial meter, however from the amount she is paying I would guess it is a 4 digit and the usage seems quite high - approx 24500 kwh per year, which is around 25% higher than the national average.

BG has cut prices by around 20% this year, so her payments should come down at her next reassessment. Price wise, BG's standard tariff whilst usually not the cheapest it is no longer the most expensive either, so although some savings could be made by switching supplier, she would get a far more significant reduction if she moved to an online tariff either with BG or another provider.

Poppycat

Sadly I an no expert on prices Cardew is the king on here I agree it does seem high though, am I right in saying payments are higher due to previous arrears where she maybe had a high bill and didnt accrue enough credit.

Might be wise to check meters to ie at bed time and day after to see what consumption is

Rex_Mundi

Poppycat wrote: »

Sadly I an no expert on prices Cardew is the king on here I agree it does seem high though, am I right in saying payments are higher due to previous arrears where she maybe had a high bill and didnt accrue enough credit.

She is currently £38 in debt on the leccy, and £141 in credit on the gas. The monthly payments are made up of...... £73 a month Gas, and £46 a month electric. She gets a small discount for dual fuel supply. It is paid for by DD. The latest bill (this week) has reviewed the monthly payments, and are keeping them the same (although they are going to refund the credit on the gas).

The hot water and heating are gas through a combi (new one fitted within the last three years). All cooking (oven/hob) is electric.

tripled wrote: »

2850 units of electricity is below the national average (3300kwh). As to the gas, it would depend if your gran had a metric or imperial meter, however from the amount she is paying I would guess it is a 4 digit and the usage seems quite high - approx 24500 kwh per year, which is around 25% higher than the national average.

The latest reading from the gas meter is 7478. No other digits.

tripled

Based on the information you have provided for gas (standard tariff) she should be paying around £55 per month by direct debit or £60 per month by payment card. If she pays by standing order the figure would come somewhere in the middle.

Also make sure she isn't on price protection 2009 or Fix and Fall, as they are substantially higher than BG's current standard rate. Any other tariff should be okay, but post if in doubt.

BG staff are only usually allowed to reduce payments by up to 10% (in this instance to £66 per month), however new guidlines recently came out meaning in extreme circumstances (ie you go mad and threaten to leave) they can now reduce them by up to 20% (to £59 per month), provided they give dire warnings about how you will meet a sticky end. Your gran will need to go for the second option. However be aware not all staff may be aware of this new criteria yet.

With electricity, I see no obvious reason why payments shouldn't be lowered to £40 per month. If you tell me which region she is in, I can look into it in more detail and give a better figure.

The gas usage is still very high, especially if they have a well insulated property with a newish boiler - your latest post confirms they are using around 25% more than the national average, so I would definately investigate this. Are they setting the boiler too high, or leaving it on too much? If you can't find anything obvious, speak to BG's energy efficiency line, unless they like the property very warm there has to be a way to bring it down a bit somewhere.

As mentioned before, some limited savings could be made by switching supplier (depending on region), or more substantial ones by going for an online tariff either with BG or a competitor.

If your gran does decide to stay with BG on the standard tariff, make them work for that profit margin by ensuring she takes advantage of the free annual gas safety checks on appliances for over 60's and get them to give her £25 free in 12 months too (supposedly a sales/retention offer, but if you ask you should get it). Don't let them be the only reasons for stopping though, as you are probably aware several comparison sites will give just as much cashback for switching and some other companies probably do free boiler checks too.

Gas dd calculations (so people can pick over them in case I have made a mistake):

A small cushion of £5 per month has been added in my recommendations above as last winter was milder than average.

Annual consumption ~ 24500kwh
4572kwh @ 4.479p = £204.78
19928kwh @ 2.282p = £454.76
Total = £659.54 or £55 per month
DD Discount £60.32
Total = £599.22 or £50 per month

milkydrink

Have you been checking her Bills to see if they are "real" or estimated.
If they are estimated & you give them a proper reading next billing you will probably find they owe her loads.
I'm extravigant (sp?) with gas & I don't use anything like that.
Which leads me to my last question, if the bills are not estimated, could there be a gas leak somewhere? You can read the meter, turn off ALL gas & if you are still using gas there is a leak. The person who lived here before me lived with a leak he knew nothing about!

Rex_Mundi

Wow some excellent info here!!!! Thank you tripled!!!

She lives in Middlesex (I think it is Southern Electric region). I didn't know about the free boiler checks (I'll get onto that ASAP). I'll certainly do a check on the comparison sites in the meantime (I've never liked BG because of their past overpricing, and very bad customer service).

kimevans

I'll do a check for leaks (no gas appliances running, and a few readings overnight). The readings I took these figures from were from actual readings, not estimated readings (she keeps all her past bills).

Cheers

Rex

milkydrink

Seems very high for a semi then, something wrong somewhere.

Older people tend to be less wasteful as well.