Charged £600 out of the blue for my Gas/Electric??

BooJewels

Robin9 wrote: »

4874 gives rise to a very big bill; 6844 gives a very small bill. Could both be wrongly read by the OP ?

I'd concur. Realistically, you'd expect it to be somewhere between them. There's also an odd interval of use between the gas numbers too, as I mention in my previous post.

mr_accountant

The gas can't be correct, far to low usage, would expect 4-5 times that usage

hannahjames1985

Hi all,


Thanks very much for your help. I've learnt a lot from this already.


I've got a revised bill through now (all based on actual up to date readings) with a 'New Account balance of £62.60'


This was saying £600 odd before.



It seems the initial gas reading was wrong (just based on the reading i checked initial, which has now changed on the bill). However i gave them this reading at the start of my contract and told them nothing since about it. When I queried the bill amount it seems to have just changed it?


FYI Ive been payin £47 a month and live alone and not in during the day, I have a friend nearby and they pay £40 a month for both gas and electric so it sounds about right.



This seems much more reasonable now, but still doesnt explain why this was so 'off' before. Their bills are as clear as mud?? I'm definately going to be moving from them.

grumpycrab

hannahjames1985 wrote: »

I've got a revised bill through now (all based on actual up to date readings) with a 'New Account balance of £62.60'


This was saying £600 odd before.

The £600 (post #37) was total charges (not taking your Direct Debits in to account). If the latest bill still has the opening gas reading (11/4/17) of 6844 (we don't know how this was derived), I'd give Green Star your latest numbers and get away from them quick before they change their mind! (assuming from a moral standpoint that you're happy with this).

BooJewels

hannahjames1985 wrote: »

I've got a revised bill through now (all based on actual up to date readings) with a 'New Account balance of £62.60'

That's in-line with my calculation in post #41 where I said the account balance would be around £65-ish - for the meter readings on that screen grab grumpycrab posted for you. But I have issues with the idea that those numbers are actually correct.

I would however suggest, no matter what your neighbour claims to be paying, that around the £40-£50 mark for both fuels, sounds rather too low. Your gas usage in particular sounds too little and your electricity is probably about right. If you put the gas figure closer to the electricity one, I think that would perhaps be more realistic.

But it's difficult to do comparisons with anyone else on the size of a property as you've not given us any clues as to how you use those fuels - gas central heating, combi boiler, what fuel for cooking etc.?

If you take nothing else away from this, at least learn how to read your own meter, do so every month and keep a record and when it comes time for a bill, work it out yourself in advance to check that what they bill you sounds plausible. You won't get the exact number, but should get within a tenner.

My own gut feeling is that they've made massive errors and you're coming off lightly and as grumpycrab suggested, get out whilst the going is good!

BooJewels

BooJewels wrote: »

If you take nothing else away from this, at least learn how to read your own meter, do so every month and keep a record and when it comes time for a bill, work it out yourself in advance to check that what they bill you sounds plausible. You won't get the exact number, but should get within a tenner.

I'm not sure if it's bad form to quote yourself, but I just got an email that my gas bill was ready to view and I'd already worked it out a couple of days ago when I submitted the reading - I was 2p out! I did work it out long hand to several decimal places, rather than the quick and dirty calcs I used for yours, but I've never got quite that close before. Back of the net!