Big SSE electric bill

CraigArt

I received a bill for £1300 last week. My prior bill in April was £80. Before that the bills were dealt with by Spark Energy which was £38 a month direct debit. This all seemed ok until SSE took them over. I sent my latest multi readings, 4 altogether, and they sent me a new bill of just over £1600. I am unemployed due to redundancy. Any advice would be much appreciated! 

Robin9

Back in April was the bill based on Estimated readings ?  Have you been giving SSE and before them Spark monthly readings.

Is this gas and electric  in which case the DD was far too low - now SSE has some actual readings you have a big catch up bill. Ask for a payment plan.

Can you give us today's readings please - and look back on your bills until you find some actual readings. I am a bit confused with 4 readings.

Neil_Jones

craigmoore121268 said:

I received a bill for £1300 last week. My prior bill in April was £80. Before that the bills were dealt with by Spark Energy which was £38 a month direct debit. This all seemed ok until SSE took them over. I sent my latest multi readings, 4 altogether, and they sent me a new bill of just over £1600. I am unemployed due to redundancy. Any advice would be much appreciated! 

Are you sure you're not confusing your monthly payment (of £80) for your bill?  It is not and never has been one and the same thing.

jbuchanangb

As with all these things, accurate meter readings are the key. Look back at your bills and see whether the readings have a letter "E" or word "Estimated", or letter "A" (Actual) or "C" (Consumer) next to them. Find a bill withe "A" or "C" reading from about a year ago. What are the readings? Also the date. Please explain why there are four readings. What are the readings just now, which you gave to SSE? Then we can help you work out how much the energy has cost you, versus what you have paid by DD, and figure out why you owe them so much (or so they think).

CraigArt

Thanks for the comments, I think a payment plan will probably be the best option if I have to pay that bill. The bills were estimated, so I could've  been paying too less and when I provided SSE with the latest readings they've dealt out the big one.  Readings are 1) 47374   2) 25423   and then there are 3 more 1) 00001?  2) 53674  3) 30619 . No gas, just electric. I'll try and find the old bills, but Spark Energy accounts were closed when SSE took over. 

Robin9

Still confused about your readings.Look closely at the letters following the reading.

Are all these taken from the single meter by scrolling through ?  In which case you should only read R1 and R2 ..  There may one labelled TTL (ie R1 + R2)   and others kVarh  or similar) (ignore)

niktheguru

craigmoore121268 said:

Thanks for the comments, I think a payment plan will probably be the best option if I have to pay that bill. The bills were estimated, so I could've  been paying too less and when I provided SSE with the latest readings they've dealt out the big one.  Readings are 1) 47374   2) 25423   and then there are 3 more 1) 00001?  2) 53674  3) 30619 . No gas, just electric. I'll try and find the old bills, but Spark Energy accounts were closed when SSE took over. 

be very careful with what readings you submit, as you may be giving incorrect readings then shooting yourself in the foot paying crazy prices for energy you haven't used.

If you need help please upload a copy of your latest bill (even with estimates) but remove your identity details from it. Also, take a picture of your meter, and someone will surely recognise which one it is.

welshmoneylover

Make sure you are not giving the total readings if you are all electric. You should have a R1 and R2 which is day and night on E7 and a R3 which is a combination of both R1 and R2. I very often dealt with big bills whereby customers were confusing the readings .

niktheguru

It appears that you are fully electric with one of those legacy 4 way plans. (economy 7 for your electricity (excl storage heating) and another economy 7 type heating plan for your storage heaters) How often were your providing your readings to spark electricity?

It appears from your bills that the readings you are reading are in the right sort of ball park to their estimates (i.e does seem like youve transposed readings and given the incorrect reading to one of the 4.

Unfortunately to my eyes it just appears that you've been massively underpaying your direct debits up till now. No way is £38 a month going to cover a fully electric house. It looks like a combination of both low direct debits, not giving meter readings regularly has caught up with you and given you a shock catchup bill.

During the pandemic you've probably spent more time at home during the day and been using this energy both in your heating and daytime electricity as this seems to be where all the costs have built up.

Do you actually have storage heaters? how are you using them. How are you heating your water and when? Perhaps there are savings to be made.

In terms of do you have to pay this, yes you do. However given your current situation you should contact SSE and explain your current employment status as that you would struggle to pay this. There may be some things that can be done to help you. And at the very least you can set up a payment plan.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Gerry1

There seems to be a problem with the meter: it's displaying CALL HELP, so you need to contact SSE.

niktheguru

Gerry1 said:

There seems to be a problem with the meter: it's displaying CALL HELP, so you need to contact SSE.

ooh yes, just seen the picture you added with the meter. Defeinitely call SSE to come look at the meter. CALL HELP doesn't look good!