So i just got my quarterly dual fuel (elec & gas) bill.....my good god! £930!?

[hairymcclary]

They want to increase my direct debit from £65 p/month to £262!
I DO NOT have the money.

Seriously stressed!

We do tumble dry, and have electric heaters in our conservatory (rest of house is gas rads). But still seems excessive.

We live in a 3bed semi, 2dc and 2 adults.

What do the rest of you pay?

Btw our electric was higher than they thought though!! Have had to put that up to 35 a month.

We have a conservatory but don't use it unless it's summer - I can imagine that heating a room made of glass would cost quite a bit

I've just called Eon - my meter readings match up with their's. The chap said that the hike was probably down to 2 price increases last year and that our account is £442 in debit. I can't understand that they can let us go so long underpaying for our consumption and then sting us like this at the annual review of the direct debit payments. Crikey - it's enough to bring on labour a week early! I think we'll clear the debt and move to a different supplier.

Next stop is Uswitch. Can anyone tell me a reasonable breakdown of the £185 in terms of how much is likely to be gas and how much is likely to be elec in an average 4 bed semi? I need this info for uswitch. Do you think about 2/3 gas and 1/3 elec? Or do you think it's more likely 50:50? We have an electric oven. DH is at work and I don't know what password he's using for our online account and we have paperless billing! Grrr!

We live in a 3-bed semi, 2 adults, 1DS, moved in last September. Heating is on for an hour in the morning, 5-7 evenings then back on again for an hour around 9:30. Tumble dryer one day a week (but it's ALL BLOODY DAY), PC always on, DS has to be beaten reminded to turn lights off when he leaves a room, cook with gas (hob) and electric (oven), mixer shower (shite), that's pretty much it. Quarterly bill received this week was just under £390 for both, and I actually thought it was high until I read this thread

Our first bill in October was for £85!!! BG told us they wanted to up our direct debit to over £70 a month because, in their opinion, it's better for people to spread out direct debits over the year. Instead of low bill in summer and higher bill in winter, be in credit in the summer to cover the winter. I said no f**king way mate - don't you dare try and tell me how to manage my own budget. Cheeky gits. So now we have no direct debits but the money's in our bank so the interest is also ours!

We're with BG and uswitch.com confirmed that they are actually the cheapest providers in this area (we're in Merseyside), as long as we switched to "Click6" tariff (BG website doesn't tell you this ). This means that we pay one rate for a certain amount of units consumed, then the price drops for any consumption over that amount IYKWIM.

DP insulated the loft in October (ex-council house with crappy/non-existent insulation) - got the rolls from Wickes and fitted it himself, saved us £100 from getting a company in. He also submits meter readings on line every month so we know the bills are accurate.

I think the fuel prices are only due to drop at the end of this week; conveniently after the quarterly bills have all gone out

i pay £75 a month for both gas /elec and my bill has just come in just over 400 so i dont owe them a huge bill.

we are in a 4 bed semi and heating is on a timer.. no tumble dryer though and im carefull with the electric. have a wall heater on the landing to keep the area warm so can put the heating on later...

could be the electric heating i think it may be cheaper to run the c/heating.

I've just had mine and its £680 for both with EON. The last time the reading was estimated, apparently, no idea why it's estimated as my meters are on the wall outside my house.
Really worried that they're going to put up our Direct Debit now and can't afford any more.
Have told my hubby he must stop using the tumble drier so much. He's obsessed with washing clothes and the drier seems to be on every day, with very little in it!!!
Also going to try not to have the heating on so much, everyone always says it's lovely and warm in our house, but will try to put on a jumper in future!!

F*ck me that;s a lot

On watchdog the other day they had something about how some meters are old ones measuring in cubic feet but the supplier assumes the readings are cubic metres and charges you for that instead ie stacks too much. There was an f(3) or a m (3) sign on the metre and then you could look at your bill.

Double check readings and whether your last bills were estimates.

Ring them up and explain that you can't afford it (not sure how effective this is though).

Look on moneysavingexpert.com there may be advise and check price comparison sites and switch...

I remember that tumtumtetum - an elderly couple had been stung twice with the same mistake!!

I checked ours just to be on the safe side - all is well thankfully.

it was scary wasn't it - and teh companies said it wasn't their fault despite the fact that they were sending their people to read the meters!

then there was that woman who was paying for next doors gas for years as well that was a shocker too.

Just had a look at Martin Lewis's site - his advice is not to switch - yet - as only British Gas have announced price drops and it'll be better to wait and see how the other companies respond to this over the next few weeks.

have done my caculations - with the debit of £440 that we owe Eon this is about £35 a month underpayment from us over the last year - but they want us to pay £95 a month more next year. This is bonkers! I need to calm down then I'm going to call them up again.

You lot are jessies.
My current gas bill is £6,500.

Yes I am arguing but blimey. I think they imagine I am a small village in Oxfordshire

hairy did they ever come and read your meter?

At the moment I am paying £59 for Gas and £77 Electric with British Gas. I applied for the Essentials tariff in August and this has only just been sorted last month

In the meantime I had a bill in November and they wanted to increase gas to £117. I did explain I was going on Essentials so wouldnt need an increase and anyhow I was in credit so it was still out or order to increase it. like a previous poster was cited a 'glich'

The thing is I do get stroppy about it and stand my ground that they WONT increase it (had a bill in August as well when they wanted to increase despite being in credit and going on cheaper tariff) i informed them anymore letters wanting to incrase I will cancell DD, I only get £5 off bill for DD and they have my money in their bank. I pointed out that an old person could be very worried by their demands and it does stress people to get these letters

Gosh, that is alot. I pay £68 a month for Gas/Elec - but Im with Npower - it was mych higher with Scottish Power.