British Gas bill too high

Marleynme

Hello,
I moved in to a little studio flat last year and set up an account with British Gas to pay for my electricity. I explained at the time that i was on Benefits and would prefer to pay monthly and for exactly what i'm using as it would be easier for me to keep up with payments. Three months went by with me giving meter readings and constantly checking online for my first bill, but with no sign. I got in touch with them a few times and was told i'd be given a bill shortly. When i finally received my first bill it was so high at £199, obviously being so many months worth of useage, that i instantly couldn't pay it off. I was told that it was so high because part of it was an estimate, due to a mix up with my meter reading when i first moved in, and because of the £199 debt i was now expected to pay around £80 a month for my electricity. Struggling to get by on benefits, this was too much for me to afford monthly and i constantly worried about it, so again i got in touch with British Gas. Finally in November, we agreed to a £45 per month payment plan which included the debt from before and the useage now. I could just about afford this and did infact keep up with payments from November till January, only to receive a letter in the post stating that i should expect debt collectors any day due to the debt i owe them. Quite shocked and again worried i contacted British Gas asking for an explanation and was told that although i'd been paying the payment plan, it actually hadn't been set up properly by the person i'd spoken to and all of this time my bills had been getting even higher!:mad: I couldn't believe it! On top of this i was also told that i should never have been told that £45 a month was ok because my useage alone was £52 a month! When they tried to set up my payment plan (again), because the debt had gotten higher(despite me sticking to the payment plan that hadn't even been set up)they now wanted me to pay £76 a month. I honestly believe i only have this debt in the first place because of British Gas's incompetence to firstly give me a bill and secondly telling me my payment plan was set up when it wasn't. Everyone i speak to says my useage alone at £52 seems way too high, considering it's just me, in a tiny studio flat that consists of a bathroom and one room where i live, sleep, and cook. I hardy even use my heating and sit in the cold worried my bill will cost even more if i do. I don't have access to my meter, i have to ask the caretaker to take a reading for me, so i can't even have a pay as you go meter fitted. I'm currently £286 in debt and i have a payment plan of £55 a month (hopefully properly set up this time) but i've been told to expect my payments to be even higher in 6 months time, possibly over £90. I'm still on benefits, ESA precisely, and was curious if there's any help out there? Also any advice would be welcome, does this seem as expensive as i think? Is it right that British Gas can tell me my payment plan was set up when it wasn't?

HappyMJ

Seems quite a reasonable amount to use.

As you can't have a prepayment meter fitted you can make any offer you think is reasonable. The offer you make has got to cover your usage and get the arrears paid off in 12 months.

As you're on income based ESA have you applied for the Warm Home discount which gives you £140 off your bill before the end of March. Applications have now closed for this year but that credit will certainly help you get back in credit. By the way they don't tell you about it. They assume you should already know what it is and how to claim it. Stupid isn't it....

CashStrapped

Your block of text is quite difficult to read. Some paragraph structure would help. I think I have understood the gist of your issue though.

However, before we get a raft of repeat posts can you please do the following.

1. Give us all the meter readings you took and the dates you took them since you moved in.

Ignore any estimated readings, just give use the once you recorded yourself. If you don't have a copy to hand they should be on your bills.

2. What British Gas tariff are you on?

Do those two things and we can go from there.

Thank you!

Marleynme

Thank you for your replies. I'm sorry, i'm new to the forum and so much has happened since signing up to them that it's really hard to explain everything in one go, so apologies if my text is quite difficult to understand.

I believe my tariff is 'Electricity Fix & Fall June 2016' if that makes any sense?

My meter readings are as followed (starting with the most recent, sorry) :

07 Jan 2016 Night/Customer read 40762 112.0
07 Jan 2016 Day/Customer read 11471 338.0
07 Dec 2015 Night/Estimated 40650 141.0
07 Dec 2015 Day/Estimated 11133 190.0
09 Nov 2015 Night/Estimated 40509 93.0
09 Nov 2015 Day/Estimated 10943 124.0
20 Oct 2015 Night/Customer read 40416 26.0
20 Oct 2015 Day/Customer read 10819 51.0
13 Oct 2015 Night/Customer read 40390 233.0
13 Oct 2015 Day/Customer read 10768 297.0
17 Aug 2015 Night/Meter Reader 40157 170.0
17 Aug 2015 Day/Meter Reader 10471 118.0
08 Jul 2015 Night/Meter Reader 39987 234.0
08 Jul 2015 Day/Meter Reader 10353 162.0
14 May 2015 Night/Meter Reader 39753 39753.0
14 May 2015 Day/Meter Reader 10191 10191.0

Hope this helps, and again, sorry if i'm not making much sense here haha!

Marleynme

This is the first time i've lived alone and been responsible of paying my own bills so i genuinely had no clue as to what was a 'normal' amount to pay, so thanks. I've had friends and relatives who live in 3 bedroom houses who say they don't pay as much as me though. Also, this is the first time i've heard about this 'Warm Home Discount' so thank you. I will certainly look into that.

molerat

Please post your unit and daily charge rates (shown on your bill)[STRIKE] as there is no way that use should be costing £52 per month[/STRIKE] Just checked BG rates- wow !!. The actual use seems reasonable. My last bill was 9.8kWh per day - yours is 9.6 average - and was £40 for 33 days !

How and at what times do you heat the flat ?

CashStrapped

Molerat is correct, your usage is pretty low. Nothing out of the ordinary.

However, there are a number of things you can do to reduce your bill.

First, in the period you gave meter readings you used a total of 2289KWH
over 238 days. As molerat stated this is only around 9.6kwh per day.

As you are on Economy 7, if we break this in to day and night use.

You used 1280KWH Day and 1009 Night.

With an economy 7 tariff, you have an expensive daytime tariff and a very cheap night time tariff. The more usage you shift to night time the cheaper your bills will be.

At the moment you are only using 45% of your total electricity use, at night.

To reduce you bills you need to ensure you use more of your electricity at night. This number should be 65% minimum.

Are you using portable heaters during the day? Are you using your storage heaters correctly? Can you time the washing machine to come on early in the morning? Is your hot water tank heating during the night or are you using a boost to heat it during the expensive day rate.

Based on a yearly usage of 3500kwh, on your current tariff, going from 45% to 65% night time use would save you £70.


The second thing to do is to switch tariff and move away from British gas!

While the tariff is not extortionate, it is not the cheapest. For similar usage Scottish Power and/or EON would have been nearly £100 cheaper for the year. You will have to clear any debit balance before you do this though.

In summary, your electricity use is not that high at all. You can however reduce your bills by tweaking when you use the electricity and changing your tariff to another company.

Furthermore, do not elect to go onto a prepayment meter, the tariffs for prepay are less competitive and therefore more expensive.

Paying by Directdebit and giving meter readings is the cheapest way to pay

Marleynme

So what i'm paying is pretty reasonable. Ok. I thought i'd better check. Although, i'm not sure how i use that exactly. I do have one of those expensive electric heaters in my flat (the ones with the concrete block inside), it didn't work for the first few months after moving in mind, but it was summer anyway and i probably wouldn't have had it on if i could. Over winter i've been putting it on for an hour, two at most, after 5pm. The rest of the time i've been coping with a hot water bottle because it got that cold and i daren't use the heating. The othger things i'm using are the tv, sometimes laptop, electric cooker, fridge, kettle and 1 lamp in the living area in the evenings. Is electric really this pricey?
I can only find the quarterly kWh for some reason:
Quarter Usage (kWh)
Apr - Jun 382.20 [2015]
Jul - Sep 719.09 [2015]
Oct - Dec 1082.87 [2015]
Jan - Mar 254.83 [2016]

None of which makes any sense at all to me, it may as well be in a different language haha, so i have no idea if i'm using a LOT or not.
Many thanks for everyone who's replied.

CashStrapped

Read my post above......

Heating and hot water will make up the largest portion of any electric bill.

You should have storage heaters. These charge at night (on the cheap rate) and give out heat during the day. You should look up the model/make and download the manual to learn how to use them properly.

If they have a boost option to give out immediate heat during the day, you should not use it.

For comparison you are currently charged:

Day rate: 17 pence per KWH

Night rate: 6 pence per KWH

Now do you see why it is best to use as much of your electricity at night. Especially for the storage heaters and the hot water!

Marleynme

Thanks a lot CashStrapped.
I've been doing exactly that with my storage heater, putting it on full to give out immediate heat for an hour, instead of heating it over night to use in the day. Thanks for explaining this!
My hot water tank is on constantly all day and night, but i've been told it'll only warm up when i use it, which will be maybe 7-10 times a day to run a bath, do the washing up, wash hands etc.
I'll definitely take the useage at night into consideration too. You've been a great help. Thanks!

CashStrapped

If your hot water tank is well insulated and large, you may get away with just heating it at night for use the next day.

Try to avoid using the daytime heating switch/immersion unless you really need it.

Like I said, look on the manufacturers website for your storage heater model and download the manual. It will carefully explain how to use it.

Normally you have an input and output control.

You set the input at how much heat to store. The higher it is set, the more electricity it will use and the more heat it will store.

You keep the output dial at zero until you want it to release some heat. Then you turn it up according to how much heat you want.