Help needed with understanding final energy bill

[Deleted User]

Hi, is there anyone who could help me with making sense of a Shell energy closing bill ? Despite providing meter readings for the 4 months prior to leaving and payment of direct debits, additional card payments to maintain a £00.00 balance on the account,  they have billed me for 6 weeks of gas and electricity, totalling over £67, I am disabled and struggling with health problems and I would be very grateful for any help,  I have all of the meter readings for 4 months and all payments made. Thank you to anyone who has any experience who might be able to cast an eye over the figures. Many thanks. 

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.  You need to provide all the relevant info (with personal details redacted) to help forumites to assist you.

There seem to be several oddities:-

• If you were on direct debit, why did you top up with card payments?

• Why did they only bill you for six weeks when you provided meter readings for four months?

• Was the opening meter reading estimated?

• Did you move in to a property and fail to register with the existing supplier?

BTW, please don't shout.

Robin9

You need to give us a copy of this final bill please - with your personal details deleted.

First thoughts - it looks like your typical monthly consumption cost about £50. So for 6 weeks perhaps £75 - in which case £67 ties in.  

Was a DD taken in the last 6 weeks ?   If no then the cost is £67.

Neil49

Did the monthly bills from Shell actually use your meter readings or did they simply use an estimate? By the time they make use of your readings a few days will have gone by so it would be almost impossible for you to get down to a zero balance.

Despite your best intentions I have to say that what you were trying to achieve was an impossibility but without specific information there's not a lot for us to go on. 

Next time just run your account in debit and wait for them to tell you how much you owe them. 

Gerry1

Sadly this is what happens when you mess things up by making unnecessary payments.  You need to post photos of the relevant parts of all the bills for anyone to be able to make sense of things, otherwise we'll be equally confused.

[Deleted User]

Sorry to have confused you. 

Robin9

We want to help 

EDIT That Final Bill is essential to our understanding - it will show any credit or debit balances from previous bills, the cost of the energy and the DD's received in that period.

Gerry1

The easiest way is to forget all the shenanigans and just compare how much energy you have used from the meter readings and compare it to what you have paid (the total of your DDs and one-off payments).

For electricity, just subtract the opening meter reading from the final meter reading shown on the bill. Multiply the usage by the kWh price and add on the daily charges for the relevant number of days.  (Note that the opening and closing meter readings may have been tweaked by the mysterious third party, but the old and new companies should both use the same figure.)

For gas it's the same, except that you need to convert the volume measured by the meter to kWh, which is what the bills use. Fortunately, this site will do the conversion for you.  (Ideally you need to allow for the varying calorific value, but the result will be near enough.)  Then add on the daily charges for the relevant number of days.

Add both totals and don't forget the 5% VAT if not already included.  Then compare the total costs with the sum of your DDs and one-off payments.