£300 a month combined bill

wezg78

Hi everyone, after watching martin this morning on TV I have realised that maybe british gas is having my pants down. I am on a fixed rate July 2018 and live in a 3 bed semi. My combined cost every month is £300. Can I change this tariff or at least try to work out why it is so expensive. Any help would be greatly appreciated Thanks.

System

wezg78 wrote: »

Hi everyone, after watching martin this morning on TV I have realised that maybe british gas is having my pants down. I am on a fixed rate July 2018 and live in a 3 bed semi. My combined cost every month is £300. Can I change this tariff or at least try to work out why it is so expensive. Any help would be greatly appreciated Thanks.

Hi - welcome to the forum. A few things to check:

1. Is the DD amount based on an accurate annual usage projection in kWhs/year not £s.

2. Has the DD amount changed recently as the result of a meter reading taken by a meter reader or by yourself?

3. Have you checked your bill to see if you are being billed for the correct type of gas meter (imperial versus metric).

wezg78

Hi hengus, I noticed in march of this year there was a meter reader and it leapt from a reading in January of 398kwh to 3222kwh. That is just electric. The estimates they have done on gas have been significantly higher also than when I have sent them a reading.

PasturesNew

To be frank - it might be "you".

I'm not on any tariff.... I'm on their "regular/probably most expensive one" - it's on the list of "must get round to looking at that"

My combined bill's somewhere in the £40-50/month mark, from memory.

Have you tried using less of it?



Some people "live on £300/month" - e.g. a single adult over 25 on JSA has about that much for EVERYTHING. If they can do it, you can try.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Your DD of £300 monthly is not a reflection of your annual spend - i.e. £3,600pa

You have built up a debit balance, presumably because of incorrect estimated meter readings. The £300 is to cover your monthly consumption and to pay off any arrears. When the arrears are paid off your monthly payments will reduce.

Unless you regularly read your meters, give those readings to BG, and check they have been used on your bills, this will keep happening.

dogshome

2824 KWh used in 3 months !
This is close the average consumption figure for a family home over an entire year.

I'm afraid it's down to you -
1) Read both meters once a fortnight, keep a log and send BG readings every two months
2) Check the condition of both meters by turning off everything in the house and monitoring the meters for 2 hours - Any movement will be due to a house wiring fault or faulty meter on the Elec, or Gas leak/faulty meter for the Gas
3) Buy yourself a "Watt meter" for around £10. - This plugs into a wall socket and any appliance plugs into it - It will show how much power is being used from moment to moment
Mine shows that whilst I'm writing this, my computer set-up is burning 126 watts

Robin9

Read your meters today and let us know the readings ?

Be careful with decimal points and digits in red. !