To think Scottish power are in the wrong

[Alreadytaken23]

Before I start I want to say I’m not looking for money or the likes. ( a bottle of vodka maybe lol)

We are a family of 5 2 adults and 3 kids 7 4 6m. I stay in a new build 2 bed flat. We don’t have gas only electric. Recently I have been putting 50+ into the key and it’s only been lasting a week at the most. We have stopped putting the heater to help but it’s still going up. I don’t know what to do:( we cannot afford this anymore

So you have storage heaters? Are you on an economy 7 tariff?

Yes we’re on a standard tariff

what heaters do you have? do you have hot water storage or instant water heaters?

If you have storage heaters you should be on an economy 7 tariff. Are they storage heaters or just electric ones?

Have you checked the immersion hasn't been left on?

You need to turn everything off at the fuse box and see if the meter is still taking credit. If it is call them up and explain, you'll be lucky to get any of the lost credit back though if the meter is broken.

How often do you heat your hot water? You shouldn't leave that switched on either

£50 per week for all electric is lower than national household average so without knowing more details, it’s impossible to know.

The biggest costs are nearly always heating. Do you have an immersion heater? What timings do you have for heating? Just because you live in a small property, don’t forget you have a larger than average number of people living there and that can result in higher bills.

Do you have to have a prepayment meter and if you do, can you go onto a fixed tariff? Are you also paying any debt?

Is there any debt linked to your meter/account that could be from a previous occupier? I assume not if new build but not sure if that’s brand new build.

Is it definitely your meter?

It's difficult to know what's happening without knowing how much electricity you are using. There are broadly 3 options:

1. You're using a lot of electricity and/or at a time that it's expensive (if you have storage heaters you should have a cheaper rate at night).
2. You're paying off a debt. How long have you lived in the property? Could it be that you or the previous residents were in debt with Scottish power?
3. Your meter is faulty. In reality this is very, very rare.

Do you have any recent meter readings? How much kWh do you use weekly? If you know how much you use, people here or at Scottish power will be in a much better position to tell you why you're paying as much.

£50 per week for all electric is lower than national household average so without knowing more details, it’s impossible to know.

^^ This

You might just have unrealistic expectations, especially if your heating and cooking is based on this. Best thing to do is ring them up and ask questions, on the face of it, it isn't the electric company ripping you off for a family of 5 living on electric.

That’s sounds like a lot to me.
We have gas and electric with Scottish power (not sure what tariff we are on) and I do watch what we use so not to waste it and mine is roughly £150 every 3 months for both for a 2 bed house.
I would phone Scottish power and ask them for advice.

Ok. We have storage heaters in each room. We turn the living room one on during the night sometimes but that’s it. Unsure about how much kWh we use weekly

I’ve called them a few times each time I got a different response. Once they said they were overcharging us the next it‘a fine

@Alreadytaken23 can you move suppliers??
Or phone them and threaten that you are thinking of moving supplies unless they address your problem?

If you are on a standard tariff but have storage heaters you are on the wrong tariff.
We have those heaters and are on economy 7 tariff(s) as it is recognised that most of the electricity is used at night. You may even have a boiler that heats at night so again most power used then. Our electricity bill in a two bed house using two storage heaters (always on as in automatically every night heat up to the number we want) and a convection heater, plus water tank that heats overnight is £105 per month on a EON economy 7 tariff. Aware a key meter may cost more but still.

Does your immersion tank heat the water all day?

£50 per week for all electric is lower than national household average so without knowing more details, it’s impossible to know.

Really?! We pay £82 a month for gas and electric. 4 bed detached.

OP Scottish Power are absolutely useless ime. Can you get them to switch you to a meter rather than the prepayment one? They are generally more expensive in most circumstances.

There are only two people in my mums two bedroom house, its all electric and she puts in £50-£60 every week in the winter months, electric heating is very expensive compared to gas.

I would try to do a price comparison with other suppliers to see how much the same usage would cost elsewhere. See how close to / far off the mark your current bill is.

However, it may also be an error on SP part- we have had a couple of billing issues with them in the past- including when we first moved in and got the pre-pay meter (prev tennants) removed.

Just seen your last update. If you are having problems with billing complain and refer to the ombudsman if necessary.

I’ve spent two hours tonight trying to contact Scottish Power. They are beyond useless.

If I were you, I’d just swap supplier. Don’t bother trying to contact Scottish Power again.

In September they installed a gas meter for me, and changed my electricity meter from dual to single tariff. They are still trying to bill me for dual tariff and are unaware that I now have gas, even though I got the meter through them!

Scottish Power are the worst company I have ever dealt with.

Any other supplier would be better!

We pay £82 a month for gas and electric. 4 bed detached

You can't compare a gas&elec property to an all electric property.
Gas is much cheaper so if you use this for heating & water, which is the main expense, your overall bills are much less.
Unfortunately all electric properties are very expensive to run. That's not saying there definitely isn't something wrong, but you should be expecting to pay much more than someone who has gas too.

We pay around £100 a month and have gas heating and water but do use more electric due to my husband working night shift. three bed house with three adluts. I have had a look for average household prices and cant find anything suggesting £50 a week is less than the national average. The average seems to be between £1000 and £1500 per year. You will be on a higher tariff due to having a pre payment meter so have a look into whether you can get that changed to a standard one.

It’s likely to be an error on Scottish Power’s part. We tried switching to them but they messed up the switch and then tried to bill us when they hadn’t even switched our electricity and even sent the bill to the wrong address! The energy ombudsman may be able to help more than contacting them direct

I'm with British Gas on a prepayment key, also all electric. 2 bed house, only me and a 3 year old, and I reckon we're getting through £40 a week at the moment and only use one storage heater. The combination of prepayment and electric heating is so so expensive. If you can, switch to a credit meter