huge increases in direct debit costs - faulty meter/supply?

dominicnp

Hi

We have been with co-operative energy for about 3 years now.

We have a 4 bed terraced house in south east london and have gas central heating and an electric hob.

When we were with British Gas we had smart meters fitted but since moving to co-op they no longer function as smart meters but still obviously give readings.

We have had a lot of estimated reading but have generally given accurate readings at least once a year.

Our direct debit has gone up in the last 6 months from £87 per month (for both fuels) then to £187 per month, then last month to £224 and now I've just had a letter putting it up to £312 per month!

I gave an accurate reading a couple of months ago which is why we went up to £224 but to add another £90 in a month or two seems a bit mad.

I also cant believe that a 4 bed house should be using £312 for gas and electricity a month. Having spoken to friends with similar houses and similar energy consumption (there are 2 of us plus a 13 year old in the house) this seems to be way in excess of what everyone else seems to be paying.

My question is I suppose, could there be some sort of fault either with the supply or the meter(s)?

Its the electricity that seems to be the major issue as they are predicting usage of nearly £1900 per year for that and about £800 for gas. They are also adding on an amount as we are now supposedly £1000 in debit with them so they are increasing the DD to compensate for this.

Thanks for your help as we are getting to the stage where it is becoming impossible to afford this - especially if the rate of increase over the last 6 months is replicated over the next 6 months!

Thanks for your help and advice.

dominicnp

Forgot to add that the lastest bill issued at the end of January 2019 has our annual usage as the following:

Electricity : 13,724.8 kWh

Gas : 20,122.0 kWh

This should be pretty accurate as I gave them readings before this bill was produced in January.

Robin9

Look back over your bills and post the last two actual readings you have for both elc and gas. For both bills also give the credit or debit when the bill was produced,

Only giving readings once a year is recipe for disaster - get into the habit of reading at least monthly.

Read your meters and post here. Take care some meters are difficult to read - ignore the decimal point and any figures after it. Include the leading zeros.

dunstonh

I also cant believe that a 4 bed house should be using £312 for gas and electricity a month.

We have a 4 bedroom house that is higher than that. The term "4 bedroom house" doesnt really tell you anything about the house or the usage it should have.

My question is I suppose, could there be some sort of fault either with the supply or the meter(s)?

If you believe that, then buy a meter monitor. Until you understand what in your house is using electricity and how much you wont be in a strong position to talk about your usage.


In most of these cases where people say their bill has gone up, it is because of an over-reliance on estimated readings and then doing an actual reading. You not only get your amount increased to reflect the correct usage, it also gets further increased to recover the amount you haven't paid.

In your case, you have that £1,000 to catch up on. That is nearly £100pm on the increase.