£200 British Gas Bill??

roberts100

I moved into a new flat last month and I submitted my readings to British Gas and set up an account. Now I've got a bill of £200...which seems very high for a 1 bed flat that I live in with just my partner. I also noticed that my British gas account had put my evening reading (I'm on economy 7) as 9999 instead of 964 that I gave them over the phone when I set my account up.

Is my bill that high because my first reading was done incorrectly? Or am I accidentally using way more fuel? I have storage heaters which I turn down overnight so they 'charge' up in the day. I also had a man come over and switch on my water heater which is apparently okay to leave on permanently as it takes an entire night to heat up. So I can't really turn it on only when I need it due to how long it takes to actually heat the water.

I've never paid electric this way before and I don't know how much I should realistically be paying but £200 seems like a huge amount after only a month. What can I do?

molerat

If they have used an incorrect opening reading then of course the bill is incorrect. You need to contact them and get it corrected. Post all the figures from the bill here and someone will look through them.

Storage heaters that charge during the day ? Storage heaters charge overnight so the input should be on high(ish) and output on low overnight.

D_M_E

Something's got to be wrong with that bill - £200 for a month.

Even allowing for the standing charge daily, it means an average daily use of around 25 units.

You need to check what tariff you are on - probably the supplier's most expensive standard tariff which you need to get off as fast as possible, and ignore the advice to leave the water heater permanently on - doing this will cost you a fortune.

If you are on your own and don't use or need a lot of hot water, then just turn on the top heater in the water tank for 20 minutes before you have a shower then turn it off immediately.

Editv- even with a partner living with you I would still make the same comments.

Also, you need to get on to BG and ask what tariff you are on and complain about the incorrect start readings used and you also need to check that they have not got the day rate being charged for the E7 usage and vice versa.


Doing this will save a lot of money - you only need to heat the whole tank when having a bath and even then the whole tank does not need to be heated.

Storage heaters should be turned on overnight on E7 cheap rate and should not be turned on in the daytime. - are they charging up in the day, if so then there is something wrong with their setup.

roberts100

Sorry I meant charging up in the night, I have output off during the night and input on. I can't remember my tariff but they told me that there was a limited cooling off period, and that I could be billed before or after that. So I don't think I can change now. I think I chose the cheapest tariff but they said it was fixed and about £1,000 something for the year so obviously £200 per month would be much higher.

roberts100

I checked my account with British Gas and it actually says the reading is 00999, I told them it was 00964. Here are the readings on my online account:

Date Rate/Reading Type Meter Read Consumption (kWh)
23 Dec 2016 Day/Meter Reader 03344 224.0
23 Dec 2016 Night/Meter Reader 02019 1020.0
07 Nov 2016 Day/Estimated 03120 0.0
07 Nov 2016 Night/Estimated 00999 0.0

So the meter reading isnt actually that far off...would the 35 difference be enough for such a high bill? If it is because my water heater has been on then do I have grounds to complain to my housing association? They didn't even tell me how to use it and they sent a maintenance man over because I thought it was broken as my water wasn't fully heating - but it hadn't been turned on and nobody mentioned it. The maintenance guy also didn't say anything about how long I should leave it on. I also have a little button outside the heater that says WATER on it so I always assumed thats how the water got heated. I was just told not to leave that on all day, which I didn't anyway.

System

roberts100 wrote: »

Sorry I meant charging up in the night, I have output off during the night and input on. I can't remember my tariff but they told me that there was a limited cooling off period, and that I could be billed before or after that. So I don't think I can change now. I think I chose the cheapest tariff but they said it was fixed and about £1,000 something for the year so obviously £200 per month would be much higher.

Not necessarily. You will use c.70% of your annual projected consumption during the Winter months. When you turn off your heating, monthly usage will fall. Your monthly DD should be 1/12 of your annual costs. Bills are based on usage.

molerat

The bill is not for a month, it is around 6.5 weeks. The 999 reading works in your favour reducing the actual bill. Where did the new reads come from, are they correct ? What are your unit rates and daily charge, that sort of consumption looks about right for £200. And, importantly, does the meter serial tally with the one on the bill and are you sure the meter is actually yours ?

roberts100

How do I find out the unit rate and daily charge? The new reads are just from my online account..I never sent them anything except the initial readings.

D_M_E

Somewhere in your online account there will be a section for bills.

In this there will be your bill which you must have seen because you say it is for 200 quid.

Somwhere on the bill it will give you how the bill has been calculated.

Check that the 1020 units have been charged at the lowest rate which will be your night rate tariff and that the other higher rate has been charged for the lowest number of units which will be your day rate or expensive rate tariff.

There should also be a calculatioon for the daily standing charge and a total which is all 3 added together then possibly the addition of vat.

Also, your 200 quid bill is for about 6 weeks not a month so it is really about 135 quid a month which is not too bad for all electric in the current cool period.

You really need to check what tariff you have been stuck with and switch to something cheaper as it looks like you are on an expensive tariff.

roberts100

I downloaded the bill and this is the breakdown:
Your electricity use in detail
Meter number: H15D00976
7 Nov 2016 - we estimated your first meter reading 03120
23 Dec 2016 - we read your meter 03344
Actual kWh used over 47 days 224.00
7 Nov 2016 - estimated meter reading 00999
23 Dec 2016 - we read your meter 02019
Actual kWh used over 47 days 1020.00
1244 kWh x 13.710p £170.55
Cost of electricity used this period £170.55
Standing charge
7 Nov 16 - 23 Dec 16
47 days at 24.770p per day
£11.64
Total electricity used £182.19
VAT at 5.00% £9.10
Total electricity including VAT £191.29
Your previous balance £0.00
Total to pay £191.29


There's a 'could you pay less section' but it says the cheaper tariff is only available on direct debit. I usually pay my bills in portions so I'm worried about being able to afford a direct debit if I can change tariff.

System

I don t know what sort of timer switch you have but the old ones, the circular 24 hour analogue type are notorious for being set at the wrong time and only Scottish Power are bothered about it. That means your cheap rate 7 hours could be coming on in the middle of the afternoon etc.Digital ones built into the meters are starting to drift a few hours .Only Radioteleswitch timers are accurate all the time. Meter readers,and customers ,will also get the day and night reads mixed up by imputting rate 1 and rate 2 into the wrong fields so make sure you get the night and day rates correctly billed