British Gas huge bills!

badmemory

House_Martin wrote: »

Personally I would trigger prepay mode around the £400 mark of debt

OMG I hope not, a bad March, April & I could very easily go that much in debt & be out again by the end of July. And who said anything about anyone refusing to pay? Whilst you may think we are all thieves we are not.

Robin9

Coolman wrote: »

Hi we are with sainsburys /british gas had the same thing a £6000 bill for no apparent reason

Coolman is also posting on the British Gas Reviews - Give Us Your Feedback thread

Bounty1

Molerat, I was looking at my electric meter for the letters, just checked my gas meter and it has FT on it, is this what I was looking for?

Robin9

FT would indicate cu ft; what does your bill say : M3 or cu ft

molerat

Bounty1 wrote: »

Molerat, I was looking at my electric meter for the letters, just checked my gas meter and it has FT on it, is this what I was looking for?

Which is what I suspected by only having 4 digits. That makes you a high gas user as well then, Nov 16 - Oct 17 21000 kWh.

House_Martin

The OP has an imperial gas meter and according to the readings has used over 675 imperial units in a year from Oct 2016 to Nov 2017. that is at a rough guess 20,000 kwhs a year with the average being 13000 for a three bedder. Big user,? likes it hot all day in winter ?poor insulation ?
You can rule out the old metric/imperial mis billing which the suppliers sometimes do .
Maybe there is a small gas leak somewhere especially if its leaking out in an outside box. I ve found hundreds of leaky meters in outside boxes over the years, one was even coming out at mains pressure when it blew the threads on a nipple.

Robin9

House_Martin wrote: »

The OP has an imperial gas meter and according to the readings has used over 675 imperial units in a year from Oct 2016 to Nov 2017. that is at a rough guess 20,000 kwhs a year with the average being 13000 for a three bedder. Big user,? likes it hot all day in winter ?poor insulation ?
You can rule out the old metric/imperial mis billing which the suppliers sometimes do but why did they change the meter in 2007 and its still an old imperial meter ? All meter exchanges were imperial to metric by then.
Maybe there is a small gas leak somewhere especially if its leaking out in an outside box. I ve found hundreds of leaky meters in outside boxes over the years, one was even coming out at mains pressure when it blew the threads on a nipple.

Gas looks about right for a 1878 house - solid walls, possibly single glazed with little roof insulation.

Lets not get sidelined - the issue is electric, not gas.

Michaelw

House_Martin wrote: »

At the moment hundreds of thousands are getting in large debts up to 2k when suppliers then battle to force fit expensive key meters, over £250, each and possibly a locksmith and police in attendance ,which also go`s on the meter as a £400 extra debt..a very common scenario

The opportunity is appear in court and offer up a replayment plan and block any warrent attemps are lost.This way you keep your credit meter and supply on.With horrendous debt amounts theres a risk of the supply going off under prepayment and arrears mounting daily.Paying say £10 might leave you £1 for supply on a good day.

Your post is a good one.It highlights the benefits of smart meters...for the supplier.

Bounty1 hasn't refused to pay its the circumstances of meter readings.As we know not for decades people recived a quarterly bill sometimes estimated corrected the reading and paid the bill or cleared the amount over a short period,not today in many cases.

Eon told me on the phone when transferred to them from Powergen the day's of cheap energy are over.he was right,bills then began to rise sharply.Bounty1's situation highlights the problem of outrageous costs/direct debits associated with a life necessity.

Bounty1

My house has double glazing but the walls are very cold, it’s a difficult house to heat but it’s my electric that’s the issue.

I haven’t had chance to turn everything off yet and check but the meter seems to be going round quick when all that’s on is the tv. I’ve been taking a daily reading but not sure what I’m looking at!

Robin9

To help you diagnose

Please have a look at your consumer unit next to the meter - what are the circuits labelled eg lights, cooker ....... Are there any other switches ?