Please Help!! I dont understand my bill!!

RebekahLFC

Hi

I live with my partner in a three bedroom semi 1970's house, in Feb 2008 I changed from prepay meter to a 'normal' meter. British Gas told me to ring up after one month so they can calculate my usage. I did this today, I ve used 264 units from the 3rd of Feb till today. On speaking with a customer advisor they have insisted that this makes my bill £91!!!! On asking them to explain this to me (although I was cut of twice) finally a man said 'I dont know exactly how it works wait a minute' then comes back to me and say's 'my team leader says its right'. I explained that my sums which are:

264 unit at 6.459p( incl vat) = 264 * 0.06459 = 17.05176 =£17.05.

Now if my sums are wrong thats fine but the fact no one can explain who to do it correctly at British Gas my struggling to believe. Now to check my sums I looked at me Electricty statement from them which is

First 276 at 15.438p = 276 * 0.15438 = 42.60888 = £42.61 which is exactly what is on my bill!!

Please please help me to understand were I have gone wrong and what I should do!!

Thanks Rebekah

espresso

RebekahLFC wrote: »

Hi

I live with my partner in a three bedroom semi 1970's house, in Feb 2008 I changed from prepay meter to a 'normal' meter. British Gas told me to ring up after one month so they can calculate my usage. I did this today, I ve used 264 units from the 3rd of Feb till today. On speaking with a customer advisor they have insisted that this makes my bill £91!!!! On asking them to explain this to me (although I was cut of twice) finally a man said 'I dont know exactly how it works wait a minute' then comes back to me and say's 'my team leader says its right'. I explained that my sums which are:

264 unit at 6.459p( incl vat) = 264 * 0.06459 = 17.05176 =£17.05.

You need to convert the 'units' which I am guessing will be cubic meters (M3 - check on your meter) to kWh before calculating the cost.

264 M3 = approx 3000 kWh of gas
3000 * 0.06459 = £193.77

msmicawber

Also, I imagine there's a standing charge - there usually is - calculated at so many pence per day, which you have to include, then VAT on top of everything. What does the blurb say on your bill?

(I agree - it does sound high.)

RebekahLFC

Thanks for reply

There is no standing charge with British Gas they simply have a two tier costing i.e. first 276kwh is at 15.438 p for electricity. So they said the first 670 units is at a costing of 6.15p but with vat is 6.450p per kWh so I still dont get it.

It does say on my meter cubic feet (m3) so how do I change the units into KWH?

espresso

RebekahLFC wrote: »

Thanks for reply

There is no standing charge with British Gas they simply have a two tier costing i.e. first 276kwh is at 15.438 p for electricity. So they said the first 670 units is at a costing of 6.15p but with vat is 6.450p per kWh so I still dont get it.

It does say on my meter cubic feet (m3) so how do I change the units into KWH?

It is not the first 670 units used! On the BG Click Energy 5 tariff, the first 670 kWh are charged at 6.2p and then units after this are charged at the tier 2 rate of 2.6p. Conversion calculator here.
Rough calculation:
670 kWh * 6.459 = £43.28
2330 kWh * 2.6 = £60.58
3000 kWh total = £103.86

msmicawber

Hi Rebekah - have a look at this and see if it helps:
http://www.gas-guide.org.uk/meters.html

If not, Cardew may be around later and he knows how all these things work so I'm sure he'll explain.

espresso

RebekahLFC wrote: »

It does say on my meter cubic feet (m3) so how do I change the units into KWH?

Just spotted another anomaly. It is either cu Ft or M3. However 264 cu FT = 8489 kWh

Are you sure that you are reading the meter correctly?

RebekahLFC

ok on my meter now it says in the black part 00265 at the end there is m3 so how do i change this it kWh? thanks for this help!!!

espresso

RebekahLFC wrote: »

ok on my meter now it says in the black part 00265 at the end there is m3 so how do i change this it kWh? thanks for this help!!!

Was the meter definitely zero when installed? Enter 265 into the convertor linked in post #5.

SwanJon

I assume they sent you a bill, and that will have all the calc ualtions on it.
Remember that this is only for a month, so you'll pay less at the higher price (670 for 3 months, so about 223 for one). This will bring down the answer in espresso's calculation (#5) much close to the £91 they quoted.
The calorific value is how much energy is in the gas. This is included in the calculation to make sure you don't get penalised if you need to burn more gas to get the same energy as someone with higher quality gas. It will say on the bill what this was for the month.
The next step is to get on DD (10%ish discount) or online (even more) so that you are paying the cheappest price they offer. It'd also mean that you don't have to pay the £91 now, but can spread it over they coming year.