To think this bill cannot be correct?

[MotherOfBleach]

I recieved a letter from my gas company telling me they owe me £500.

Which is excellent.

I'm beyond skint. I've already spent every penny and was looking forward to have a coat, more than one pair of pants etc.

They asked for an updated meter reading as they estimated my last one.

Their estimated reading was 1439.

My actual reading was 1435.

I filled in their online form and sat back and waited for my money.

They say I owe them £700

They've put my gas bill upto £76 per month which is almost three times what I was paying.

I feel sick. I cannot afford this. At all.

If is this correct I will need them to turn the gas supply off.

Oh, I live in a two up, two down terrace with gas central heating, a gas oven and no fire. We only cook 4 times a week. We use the heating sparingly as there's no thermostat and it gets too hot.

The boiler was hot water only up until just before x-mas. The heating didn't work.

They took a reading around two months ago and never sent me any demands for payment.

It sounds really odd, but it isn't possible to know from what you've posted. Have you had a chance to speak to them?

You need to call them x

How long have you been with them? What was your opening meter reading, what is it now, how much do you pay per unit and how much have you paid to date?

Have you spoken to them about this?

My phone is cut off.

I have emailed them to ask them to call me.

I won't have my phone back on for at least 2 weeks.

We're really struggling at the minute.

£76 a month is a huge amount for what you describe, though some of it would be paying off your debt (if the debt is real). I think our gas might be that much, but we live in a bigger house with heating and hot water and aren't very careful with it. We don't cook with gas though.

How much were you paying before?

I think you need to get them to recheck it. They could have put the figures in wrongly.

Can you borrow a phone from Someone? Sometime council offices have a phone you can use to call utilities.

I've been with them three years.

Prior DD was £29 p/m

I don't have the opening reading but the last one prior to their estimate of 1349 was 1344.

I think I've been over paying for a longtime because we had no heating for almost two years, only the gas oven and hot water.

Maybe I'm missing something but if they thought they owed you £500 when your estimated reading was 1439, and your actual reading is 1435, how do those five points represent a £1200 difference?

Sorry... four points.

Hope you get it sorted out. I know that sick feeling all too well.

That's what I was thinking Angela unless they think my meter has gone all the way round?

Somethings wrong - the tiny difference between actual and estimated wouldn't make any difference to your bill. Has there been a muck up between metric/imperial calculations?

You've put 1349 in one post and 1439 in another. Is one of these a typo?

The bill should contain the detail of what is owed and for what.

But don't panic. Utilities are notorious for screwing up bills. Sort this out with them, and then shop around for a good deal. You shouldn't be paying much if you are using the gas so little, but customers who don't switch suppliers or renegotiate their contracts regularly get majorly screwed on pricing.

Is it Npower? They are appalling for this sort of thing- utterly clueless and prone to sending out multiple letters with different calculations, often on the same day.

If there is an option to have an online account with your provider, go with that if you haven't already so you can put in your own readings regularly. That helps a lot for the future but in this case I'm afraid you really have to phone them to sort out the mess. Have all your letters and bills collated in date order beside you- it will be long and stressful, but ultimately worth it.

Yes it was typo.

Their bill says 'reading last time 1344' 'reading this time 1439 [e]'

My actual meter reading is 1435.

The email they sent me informing of my DD going up thanked me for my reading of 1435, telling me I now owed them £700 and a refund would not be possible.

It's with SSE

You might be able to put the details into www.gasbillcalculator.com to work out what your bill should be.

Can you go into your account on line and view your bill? That should make it clearer?

Do you have the reading at this time last year?

If you have that we can estimate how much you've used in the year and compare to the 12 lots of £29 monthly payments

It's quite likely that both figure they've given you are wrong, utility companies can be useless about billing

Do you pay by direct debit? If so, cancel it quickly so they don't suddenly start taking that much every month. Then ring them and try to work out what's happened. Have you got all your previous bills? That will be a help. Then if you really do owe that much money, then you can agree a regular payment plan you can afford. If you need help, then speak to someone at your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

I can't get into my online account. I tried that for giving them the reading.

It tells me my email address is not recognised.

My sister had to ring in with the meter reading for me.

I'll have to wait until she is next off work and go round to use her phone.

I can't believe we've used £1200 worth of gas between our last reading by the meter person around 2/3 months ago and now.

It's simply impossible.

That's insane - I live in a 2 up 2 day with single glazing. A combi boiler, gas oven and hob and no fire. I pay £50 per month for Gas AND electric!

OP this will convert your metric or imperial units to kWh, you can then look at what you pay per kWh and check what you owe.

It does sound like someone has typed somenumbers in wrong somewhere though!

Good luck.