Mum's Energy Bill doubled British Gas

pokhara

A newbie to this but needed to vent and ask for help.
My Mums energy bill last year was roughly £740, when doing the comparison this year is £1450 with British Gas and that's with a 13% discount. Am I missing something? has Covid taken my brain away! Other energy suppliers are coming in around £1050. Seriously how are these companies getting away with this.

Are others finding this? 

knightstyle

Never compare £s when working out your energy costs. Often the amount paid is based on out of date estimated meter readings.  You need to get her to read the meter and see what her actual consumption is then look for a good deal.
So was the £740 based on actual meter readings or was some debt rolled over to the next year?

Robin9

What was your Mum's actual energy consumption last year - in kWh's not £.  Are these the figures you are using ?

Don't forget that separate suppliers are often cheaper than dual fuel.

mac.d

As well as making sure your comparisons are correct, don't forget prices have shot up since last year too. My current deal is coming to an end and even the cheapest deals on variable tariffs are a massive hike over what I paid previously. 

Verdigris

And we had a cold winter after a run of relatively warm ones.

pokhara

Thank you for your replies.
This was based on consumption her Elect was 1689 and Gas 23851. Her monthly DD was £49 last year and is in Debit of £160.
I am just annoyed these companies can get away with this, her pension hasn't gone up 50%.
I will look at seeing if separate suppliers works out cheaper.
Much appreciated for your responses.
Thank you.
Be sage in these surreal times.

Gerry1

The DD of £49 per month was unrealistically low.  What annual usage was given when opening the account?  And if it was a fixed tariff it's probably expired, hence she will have ended up on the expensive standard tariff.

Reed_Richards

If prices had remained the same then you mother would need to pay an extra £13.33 per month to pay off the £160 debit over a year and another extra £13.33 per month so she did not build-up any more debit.  So you might expect that the monthly DD would rise to (£49 + £13.33 + £13.33 ) £75.66 for the next 12 months but then drop when the debit has been cleared.  It's likely to be worse than that because of price rises.

Your mother should think herself lucky that she has gas heating, which is cheaper than anything else.  

Robin9

Can your mother clear the debt ? Then she will be free to change suppliers.
She should have been paying about £80 month (gas at 3p is £700 a year alone - she is quite a high user)

molerat

! am on a cheap tariff and for that consumption the gas alone would be £57 per month, electric would be £24 per month so £81 total, an underpayment of £32 per month.  BG are not cheap but similarly priced to all the Big 6 suppliers, your quoted £1050 is not a million miles away from my tariff, and BG comes in 36% more than I am currently paying.  If possible get it paid off then ditch and switch. And yes, separate suppliers are generally cheaper.

macman

Her bill hasn't doubled. her DD has doubled to claw back the arrears that have accrued due to her paying such an unrealistically low amount previously. This is invariably due to the customer not submitting regular readings, and then eventually getting a huge catch-up bill.
Nothing you have told us shows that either her usage or her unit prices have increased, so blaming the supplier is unjustified. You were asked to compare the kWh figures year vs year, which would show if increased usage was a factor? 23,000 kWh of gas annually is at the high end; the UK average would be around 13,000kWh, but we don't know how large the property is.