Need help, are we getting ripped off for our energy?[STUDENTS]

bdumont94

Hi me and my housemates are desperately looking for some help.

We are 4 students living in a fairly small/medium sized house

Note: there has only been three of us here until the last 2 weeks we have had a new housemate moved in.

We have just received our bill from british gas for 29th october - 23 february and it is £635. This is ridiculous considering this is being split between three of us, wouldn't you agree? We barely even have the heating on, only when it is freezing or need to dry clothes.

we have rang them and they said it is right and the guy we spoke to has said we are on the most expensive tariff (how would we know this? we were never told) he has now changed our tariff but we have this huge debt. We are all panicking and really don't have this kind of money.. roughly 4 months energy split between 3 of us is about just over £50 a month each on just energy (gas and electric)

The guy we spoke to just seemed like he was trying to rip us off and tried getting us to set up a direct debit saying it would work out cheaper and we could pay £41 each a month for the next 6 months (we are only here for another 4 months)

Can we dispute this or go to another company

Would desperately love some feedback. Thanks

footyguy

bdumont94 wrote: »

Hi me and my housemates are desperately looking for some help.

We are 4 students living in a fairly small/medium sized house

Note: there has only been three of us here until the last 2 weeks we have had a new housemate moved in.

We have just received our bill from british gas for 29th october - 23 february and it is £635. This is ridiculous considering this is being split between three of us, wouldn't you agree? We barely even have the heating on, only when it is freezing or need to dry clothes.

we have rang them and they said it is right and the guy we spoke to has said we are on the most expensive tariff (how would we know this? we were never told) he has now changed our tariff but we have this huge debt. We are all panicking and really don't have this kind of money.. roughly 4 months energy split between 3 of us is about just over £50 a month each on just energy (gas and electric)

The guy we spoke to just seemed like he was trying to rip us off and tried getting us to set up a direct debit saying it would work out cheaper and we could pay £41 each a month for the next 6 months (we are only here for another 4 months)

Can we dispute this or go to another company

Would desperately love some feedback. Thanks

If you wish to dispute the bill, I would suggest you follow the suppliers complaint procedure.
However, I am puzzled as to what grounds you would dispute the bill especially since the supplier claims it to be correct, and you have given no indication as to why you disbelieve them.

You can change supplier if you wish, but you'll still have to pay the bill ... and it'll be needed to be paid in one go. If you are not quick, and you fail to pay the bill in full, you may find the supplier blocks you from switching because of the debt.

When you transferred tariff, which tariff did you transfer to?
Did it have an early exit fee? Are you now paying monthly by DD as you were advised to do?

If you are paying monthly by DD, then the supplier will probably allow you to split the existing bill over several months if you really are struggling to pay.

bdumont94

footyguy wrote: »

If you wish to dispute the bill, I would suggest you follow the suppliers complaint procedure.
However, I am puzzled as to what grounds you would dispute the bill especially since the supplier claims it to be correct, and you have given no indication as to why you disbelieve them.

You can change supplier if you wish, but you'll still have to pay the bill ... and it'll be needed to be paid in one go. If you are not quick, and you fail to pay the bill in full, you may find the supplier blocks you from switching because of the debt.

When you transferred tariff, which tariff did you transfer to?
Did it have an early exit fee? Are you now paying monthly by DD as you were advised to do?

If you are paying monthly by DD, then the supplier will probably allow you to split the existing bill over several months if you really are struggling to pay.

Well it just seems so expensive.. we asked why it was so high and he said it's because we was on an expensive tariff. He has now changed to a cheaper tariff just by asking him. No we haven't set up anything yet as we wanted to ask around before paying anything.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Did you submit meter readings when you moved in?

bdumont94

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

Did you submit meter readings when you moved in?

No not when we moved in.. we only submitted them like last month

matelodave

If you didn't read the meter when you moved in and give the information to BG then there's a better than even change that you are paying for some of the previous occupants gas.


You must always read the meter yourself (don't rely on others to do it for you) when you move into a new place and set up your own account with the supplier with that new reading - it's the only way to ensure that you only pay for the gas or electricity that you use.


If you've no record of your initial reading then you'll probably have to pay the bill and put this one down to experience. Even now you should read the meter regularly yourselves to monitor what you are using and saving the money rather than waiting for a ginormous bill to drop through the letterbox.

Nada666

£158 per month for four living spaces over winter is not expensive (three bedrooms and one kitchen.) Students have more separate parallel usage than other households.

Did you not check how much you were spending as you went along? Would it not have been sensible to do that? Why don't people do that - who doesn't want to know how much new digs cost?

You can switch to another company if you like - but if it is for only four more months you are probably as well to use those four months to pay off the arrears as you go along. (It will take up to two months to switch plus you have to pay the arrears immediately.)

Separate tariffs for each fuel are usually a good bet for student flats - electricity use will (often) be higher than normal so you can save doing that.

macman

If you didn't specify when you registered, then you will be on Standard tariff-always the most expensive, by default. Similarly, if you didn't immediately register and submit readings, then you will be billed for that period on Standard tariff. That's how it works.
It's your job to register and pick your supplier and tariff, no one else's.
Since you have made no attempt to log your consumption, how do you expect to dispute the billing? As above, the amount does not seem excessive for 4 months use in a cold winter-and students are notoriously wasteful with heating. It's not the tariff that is to blame-you might have saved maybe 7% on a discount online fix vs standard.
And remember that once the heating goes off in a month or two your usage will be much lower, up to 80% less-so your arrears will be reduced more quickly.
So not really a 'rip-off' at all? More a case of you discovering the real cost of energy, and how the system works, the hard way.

spiro

When you moved in and the LL did the inventory with you they will often take meter readings. Check your copy of the inventory and see if the readings are on it. If not you have no grounds to dispute the bill.

macman

Good point above. Once you have the actual readings at start of tenancy, you can easily check the bill calculations. However I doubt that this is incorrect.