£400 a month for energy?????

yvonno

I just dont believe this can be correct. I moved into a new home in Sept 19 (5 bed bungalow/20 years old/well insulated etc). It is a smart meter installed so have not required to provide readings. The reading on bills match the meters.

Since then I have been paying British Gas £170 per month (£680 so far). I decided to move supplier following a comparison and have been sent an outstanding bill of £936!!! This means that the average monthly charges should have been £400!!!

So in 4 months I will have paid £1616.

Does anyone pay anything like this??? I have emailed a complaint and cancelled my DD going forward as they now want full payment since i'm switching.

Any advice appreciated. Thankyou

PasturesNew

The only person I know of that pays about that much has a 1900 3 storey 7 bedroom house (double glazed and with gas central heating). It's run as a B&B, although a lot of the time is "empty", so not on full blast all the time, but carefully for 4-5 hours/day.

brookheather

Yes my usage for January was £400 with Pure Planet (6 bed detached house, GCH, part double glazed, 4-5 occupants). I've moved to People's Energy which should reduce to £300 for winter months. Summer months spend last year was closer to £100 with PP.

yvonno

Thank you Gerry for your helpful response to my 1st post on this forum. Such a welcome to someone who is feeling anxious (NOT rage)!!!
To be clear, I have paid every bill I have ever had and never and will never be at risk of have the Bailiffs at my door.
My concern is that there is a problem with this bill and there could be delay in being refunded if that is the case.
Since BG are not answering their calls and will take up to 21 days to reply to emails, I decided to ask for thoughts of people who may have more knowledge on this subject in the meantime.
Please do not respond any further as your tone is not welcome!

Gerry1

You haven't even stated whether you're referring to gas, electricity or dual fuel, let alone the relevant tariff(s).

Given that electricity kWh rates are about five times those of gas, that's a big omission.

Facts, please, not emotion.

Gerry1

yvonno wrote: »

Please do not respond any further as your tone is not welcome!

Why not be constructive and do the sums? Or provide the relevant information so that forumites can help you? If BG have made a mistake then you will have a case, but so far you have provided zero factual evidence.

Sadly if you remain in denial it will all end in tears and that won't help anyone, especially if BG block your switch and / or add a black mark to your credit file because you haven't paid in full.

Talldave

My previous home was a 3/4 bed single glazed cottage that was a struggle to heat but in the year we were there it consumed 54,000kWh of gas and 3400kWh of electricity and cost £2,500. So unless you've been treating your bungalow like a sauna, the BG figures are eye-watering. However, what tariff were you on? And are they definitely billing for actual usage, or has something got garbled somewhere (like they think your smart gas meter is imperial?)?

Robin9

Any bungalow is going to be more expensive than the equivalent house and you should expect big energy bills.

Get some actual facts together - check the opening meter reads that you gave; revisit those bills - have a look at the bottom line and see how the amount you were owing was growing every month.

.

Stopping the DD is futile.

Expect BG to block the switch as you owe so much.

sevenhills

yvonno wrote: »

I just dont believe this can be correct. I moved into a new home in Sept 19 (5 bed bungalow/20 years old/well insulated etc).

What rating does your new house get on its Energy Performance Certificate?

BooJewels

yvonno wrote: »

Thank you Gerry for your helpful response to my 1st post on this forum. Such a welcome to someone who is feeling anxious (NOT rage)!!! [...]
I decided to ask for thoughts of people who may have more knowledge on this subject in the meantime.
Please do not respond any further as your tone is not welcome!

I happened to click on this thread in error, I was aiming for one adjacent, but having read it, I am happy to point out to you that Gerry is one of the most helpful and knowledgeable contributors of this forum and has helped me and many, many others in the past, so please don't shut his considerable help out.

When you frequent these forums over time you see the same nature of questions over and over again and in many cases, the OP doesn't even return to acknowledge the answers they've been given, so those that tend to be most able to help perhaps cut through the chase early on. Frankly, we've seen it all before, many many times.

As requested, if you supply some more information, I'm sure there are many of us that understand enough to assist you further.

Neil_Jones

yvonno wrote: »

I just dont believe this can be correct. I moved into a new home in Sept 19 (5 bed bungalow/20 years old/well insulated etc). It is a smart meter installed so have not required to provide readings. The reading on bills match the meters.

Since then I have been paying British Gas £170 per month (£680 so far). I decided to move supplier following a comparison and have been sent an outstanding bill of £936!!! This means that the average monthly charges should have been £400!!!

So in 4 months I will have paid £1616.

Does anyone pay anything like this??? I have emailed a complaint and cancelled my DD going forward as they now want full payment since i'm switching.

Any advice appreciated. Thankyou

What your bills are and what your direct debit payments are are two entirely different things. Please read this:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/#whatyoupay

The £936 "outstanding" figure seems to imply your direct debit was too low in the first place, but you need to clarify whether this was gas and electric or just electric. If its all-electric then that form of heating isn't particularly cheap in the first place and you can burn through copious units without realising it.

So you need to clarify: what tariff(s) you're on, your units rates, standing charge(s) and some meter readings from the bills.

Without any of this information its going to be impossible to advise properly. I would also suggest not flying off the handle every time somebody else opens their mouth just because you didn't get any sympathy posts.