British Gas huge bills!

Bounty1

I’ve been with British Gas for almost 2 years, I have both electric and gas with them. Had been paying £133 per month for around a year when suddenly after a few estimated bills I sent a reading and I owed £360 that month, I called and spoke to someone who worked out over a year I wasn’t paying enough and £180 per month would cover it (this was arranged mid September this year) I have just sent another reading and got a bill saying my monthly payments need to increase to £438 per month!! I have called them but it’s like talking to a brick wall :mad: I cannot afford this, it’s like another mortgage. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Robin9

Looks like BG are having to play catch up because of the lack of your readings. Are you now giving them regular readings - at least once a month ?

matelodave

The first thing you need to do is start reading your meters a bit more often, at least once a month, preferably once a week so you know exactly how much energy you are using rather than just guessing. You can also see what happens when you change your habits.

You should also be sending in readings to your supplier at least once a month and checking your bills and on-line account to make sure that they are using your readings and not estimates. DO NOT ACCEPT estimates, get the bills corrected. It only needs a couple of estimated bills to get you into a arrears if you dont check them.

You should also have a look on some caomparison sites to see if you can get yourself on a better tariff - I could easily pay £500 a year more, (£42 a month) by getting onto a Standard Variable tariff (SVT) so sort out something better.

Lastly start looking at your energy consumption. Turn stuff off, dont waste hot water - spend less time in the shower or have shallower baths and fewer of them. Adjust your thermostats to make sure that you aren't wasting energy. Dont run washing machines, dishwashers or tumble dryers with part loads, they cost the same to run them half empty as when they are full.

You'll see how well you are doing by keeping a weekly or monthly record of your consumption and making sure that it decreases.

Non of it is rocket science but being a bit pro-active, rather than letting it all happen around you can save you a lot of money and is quite satisfying when you can see how much you are saving.

HampshireH

What do you have running at home to cause such high bills?

Start looking at what you have consuming so much power and as above submit regular readings.

House_Martin

Switch NOW over the phone to BGs dual fuel "All online Jan 2019 " to lower your tariff. So you need to get the electricity moved over to BG asap
To qualify for this you would have to allow BG to fit smart meters in 2018.
That would be a good idea as you appear to lead a busy life if you haven`t been able to submit monthly readings lately.
Suppliers cannot make anything like a good guess on your consumption without regular reads especially with gas in the winter months where the most of the usage occurs
Please do not bear a grudge against BG, all suppliers work the same systems relying on estimates and most small suppliers barely read the meters once a decade.
BG do send out teams of meter readers who should leave a card for you to display the readings if you are not available.
Your predicament is an advertisement for smart meters . This problem is so widespread throughout the country bringing in severe distress to countless occupiers which leads to debts and expensive prepayment meters being installed and credit history blackened.

Cardew

Without going into computer algorithms, you should be aware that your bills are produced automatically by a computer.

If you have not queried estimated meter readings on your bills, when a reading is finally submitted(by you or meter reader) if it is outside a certain tolerance the computer will reject that reading as it 'thinks' it is a mistake. It is not until a real live human intervenes will it accept the correct reading and, as stated above, you will then get a 'catch up' bill and your DD increased to pay off the arrears.

Bounty1

Thank you for your replies. I thought I had caught up with what I owed in September when I payed £360 over my bill? I know I might sound stupid but I don’t understand why they are saying from September to October I owe a huge amount again. I think I will get in the phone to them again today and see if I can get something sorted. I have a smart meter being fitted, they have already been to try fit one but it’s been put off due to a problem with wires

badmemory

It would however be interesting to know how an underpayment which only needed an increased DD to £180 in mid Sept after a reading, suddenly became an underpayment requiring an increased DD to £438 in early November after another reading.

When does your fix end? Are they trying to get all the underpayment back in the couple of months left of the fix? Have you checked that the readings on the bill are correct, no numbers transposed & no extra numbers included?

Check if you are on a fixed rate, if not sort that out. If your debt is large BG may not let you switch to another provider but you could fix with them.

Bounty1

On on duel standard that’s ends today, I have just gone down my meter readings online and I’ve noticed that they recorded my gas reading in September but estimated the electric even though this is when I called and have my meter readings!

Having spoken to others about how much they pay for gas and electric mine seems very high, we have a 3 bed semi with a small 1 bed annex, we definitely don’t use lots of energy and try to keep things to the minimum.

Thanks again for replies

molerat

If you keep sending readings and the bill keeps going up might suggest something wrong with the readings. Post some readings and dates. From your gas bill post the number of units used and the kWh charged. Look at your meter and see if it shows cu m or cu ft. Has the meter been changed ?

Bounty1

Electric

May 16- 05825 (actual reading)
Aug 16- 08333
Nov 16- 10991
Jan 17 14321 (actual reading )
Feb 17- 15709
May 17- 18489
Aug 17- 21072 (I sent a reading but it’s saying estimated)
Oct 17 - 23440

Gas
May 16- 9110 (actual reading)
Aug 16- 9153
Nov 16- 9239
Jan 17- 9488 (actual reading)
Feb 17- 9603
May 17- 9735
Aug 17- 9844 (actual reading)
Oct 17 - 9914 (actual reading)

Combined kWh used 2016 25446
Combined kWh used 2017 26260

I will check my meter now