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AIBU?

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Original poster

OMG how can we be paying £100 per month but owe £1000 for Gas and Electric

86 replies

icarriedawatermelon2 · 09/06/2012 22:05

Ok, I should have spotted this sooner, but have been paying a standing order of £100 per month for duel fuel. 3 bed terrace, family of 4.
The bill they send always says 'in credit' take no action etc. They never seem to ask for a reading and I can't remember anyone coming to do one.

DH looked at the metre today and compared it to the estimated bill and he thinks it works out to be about £900-1000 under what it should be!

OMG! Panic. Not sure I can quite believe this! I can pay this off in Aug/Sep in full but I don't know what to do as this just can't be right......can it......

feel stupid enough so please be kind :(

OP posts:
mercibucket · 09/06/2012 22:27

Am a bit shocked at the prices some of you pay - shop around! I have a small 3 bed terrace and pay around 70 a month dual fuel. I change supplier every year via a cashback website and get around fifty quid back on that

Op, don't panic, they will adjust your dd, not demand it all back at once

Original poster
icarriedawatermelon2 · 09/06/2012 22:31

Just did an online tool thing to work it out - IT GETS WORSE
£1300

:( Wine o clock!

OP posts:
ginmakesitallok · 09/06/2012 22:32

Very Shock at some of your bills. We pay about £80 a month for a 4 bed detached - and are in credit (based on actual readings). Thats with heating on all winter, dishwasher and washing machine on constantly and house occupied 4 days out of 7.

Original poster
icarriedawatermelon2 · 09/06/2012 22:34

Seriosly ginmakesitallok :( I want to cry

OP posts:
AgentZigzag · 09/06/2012 22:37

You poor thing Sad

Have you talked to them yet?

They can't get blood from a stone, it's within their interests to work with you to help you sort it.

It must be a problem they come across all the time wankers

whathasthecatdonenow · 09/06/2012 22:42

£80 a month here for a 2 bed terrace. That is overpaying - they insist on sending two cheques every year with a refund, but I insist on overpaying just in case - don't like nasty shocks. Mind you, I do not put the heating on until November and turn it off at the end of March, and it is never on in the mornings - I get dressed under the covers!

They will adjust your Direct Debit, not insist on repaying it all at once. In future submit readings regularly - I never rely on an estimate.

ceeveebee · 09/06/2012 22:45

We had an issue last year as there was a problem witg our elec meter and resulted in us being in arrears by £800. They let us spread it over 12 months.

Also don't forget we're about to enter the summer months, I think usage for winter months is double summer months so by September the gap should close as long as you keep paying £100 per month. So I would wait till end of summer then send them a reading.

thekidsrule · 09/06/2012 22:57

4 of us in a 3bed detached

lots of gadgets and im in most of the day,kids at school

we pay £110 duel fuel

but just had a rebate of £180

since ive managed my account online ive become more aware of usage and they even give a funky graff to show usage,last years etc

only this week i was going to lectuer the kids into using less etc,not so sure now looking at some of your bills

hatesponge · 09/06/2012 23:07

This happened to me too, I have a big house but radiators only in half the rooms, and we hardly have the heating on in winter, it is always freezing. I have a very efficient boiler too. Despite which they have now increased my payments to £150 a month as apprently this is more in line with my useage, plus the arrears which are another £100 a month Shock

When I was living in a rented 3 bed house 2 years ago on a card meter it cost me less than half that (about £70).

mamadoc · 09/06/2012 23:29

Exactly the same just happened to us.
Paying 100 per month but after 2 years of estimated bills somehow managed to be over 1000 in debt to edf (4 bed terrace, family of 4)
I nearly died when I saw the bill but they have let us pay it off in installments and I've now switched to Scottish Power on a fixed price tariff and they only want 75 per month dual fuel.
I can only think that probably being on mat leave for a year and therefore at home more significantly bumped our bills up last year but still a complete shocker.
The account we just switched to sends email reminders to submit meter readings on line which should avoid this crap again. We are basically never in for the meter reader and the chances of anyone remembering to do it round here are small without the reminder.

kelly2525 · 10/06/2012 00:37

mamadoc I'm also on Scottish power fixed price platinum plan, £100 a month, within 3 months they increased the price to £150 a month.

They gave me a load of bullshit and waffle on the phone, said that its not actually my direct debit going up, its the price of gas, I was never told that they could bump my payment up by 50% on a frigging FIXED PRICE PLAN, I was told it would be fixed for two years.

MammaTJ · 10/06/2012 05:41

This makes me glad I have pre payment meters!

MsFanackerPants · 10/06/2012 06:30

How long is it since your energy co read your meter? Or have they asked you to provide a reading? It might be worth checking if they have breached the Code of Practice for Accurate Billing. I had huge problems with E.on several years ago when they suddenly stopped reading the meter and sending bills for 4 years. We referred to the code of practice and as the billing error was their fault, it was written off except for the last 12 months of usage. I always give meter readings now if we get estimates, but it seems our meters in the new place get read every 6 months anyway.

www.energy-uk.org.uk/customers/energy-industry-codes/code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills.html might be helpful for you

shouldIbecrossaboutthis · 10/06/2012 08:11

I have a 3 bed semi and am home 5 das a week, I pay £45 a month gas and £33 electric and am usually in credit on electric all year and about £80 in credit on gas at end of the year. I do give them a meter reading every month.

Chubfuddler · 10/06/2012 08:14

You can and should provide your own meter readings. The estimated one can be woefully inaccurate. Only thing to do now is give them an accurate reading and sort out a payment plan. And check your meter reading against estimate every time you get a bill in future.

KenDoddsDadsDog · 10/06/2012 08:15

Kelly2525 It's the price of the units that are fixed not your payments.

ImperialBlether · 10/06/2012 09:34

They will come to an arrangement with you - they are terrified of losing customers.

enimmead · 10/06/2012 09:39

Have to say some people on here don't pay much for their fuel. Very impressed.

I do think a lot has to be said for ensuring your house is insulated and turning down the thermostat.

I also have a water meter which my DS thinks is fascinating. It's below the bathroom sink so he can see the effect of leaving the tap on when he cleans his teeth. Which he no longer does when I explained it costs money.

CaveMum · 10/06/2012 10:14

I'm shocked at the amount some people are paying for their utility bills! Do you use price comparison sites?! We're in a 4 bed detached house (granted it is new build and insulated up to the hilt), but we pay less than £100 per month for duel fuel.

Doodlekitty · 10/06/2012 10:26

I work for a large energy provider and would second what everyone has said. Contact them, explain situation and make a payment plan. Chances are they will simply spread your outstanding balance over 12 months (if I were you I'd try to push it to 18 but they probably wont offer this). They may suggest prepayment meters if you can't afford the payment they suggest. With these you'll probably pay £40 per month per fuel off your debt plus whatever you are using but it can be as low as £3/week per fuel. There is a bit of a stigma around prepayment but with our company they actually work out cheaper than the standard tariff.
While you are on to them check you are on the best tariff, if you have not given meter readings for a while chances are it would not have been looked at for ages. Also, they will have some sort of efficiency department which should be free and can give you advise on cutting your bills. I've learnt loads since I started working there (eg if you leave phone chargers plugged in but not charging anything it still takes a lot of elec)

enimmead · 10/06/2012 10:31

I've just submitted meter readings - thanks to this thread.

On the website - no indication of previous readings.
No indication of usage.
No indication of what bill is at the moment and how the new readings alter that.

Not too hard for a computer to calculate - but what's in it for the company?

Doodlekitty · 10/06/2012 10:35

Chances are that the readings you have given are so different from their estimate that the computer simply flags it up as a problem for a human to look at. They will check how long it is since they had an actual reading and overide the computer to produce your bill with us rhis can take anywhere from a week to a month You will get more joy by ringing their billing department who can calculate it for you.

enimmead · 10/06/2012 10:35

Reading FAQs

"Your billing frequency will depend on the payment method you're on, but you will always receive a bill at least once a year. If you want to, you can provide meter readings up to once a month, as well as generating a statement, these should ensure that your account is as accurate as possible."

They do not make it easy to monitor your account and your balance.

I know that at winter, you use more but you should be able to track it easily.

WilsonFrickett · 10/06/2012 10:42

doodle thats very interesting. I was on a pre-pay meter when I was a student and it was definitely more expensive then. I would never have considered it before but I will def look at it the next time I'm looking at my tariff.

tittytittyhanghang · 10/06/2012 16:40

Similar happened to us and was landed with a huge four figure bill. This was massively reduced to a much smaller three figure sum when i argued it and went to my mp. Legally they can't charge you for any fuel used over 12 months ago, and it was this which reduced our bill dramatically. We then paid the rest off by paying extra over and above our monthly dd ( which we increased ourselves as it clearly wasn't enough to start with).

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