British Gas have taken £280

[ProfessorPickles]

Hello, I moved out 2 years ago into a 2 bedroom terraced house and was paying about £45 for my gas for ages. It then was put up to £70 and 3 months later £95 so I switched providers and got it back down to £50.

British Gas have taken £280 as a final payment which seems a fortune.
I have never had to deal with this before so I am looking for some advice. How do I go about checking this is correct?

It's 2/3 of my rent!

Start by phoning British gas and ask them why??

Have you kept all your bills? Hopefully the meter was actually read when you moved in, and again when you changed providers.

Check the bills to see if they are actual meter readings or estimates.

Oh, and cancel the direct debit!

All my bills are online and I can still access them, I feel like if I ring them there answer to why it was taken will be "because it was owed" and I'll not know what to say! Should I request someone comes to read my meter?

It just seems ridiculous that I was paying a fortune, and it was at a time where I wasn't using the heating towards the end of the summer so should have been in credit at that point then now I've got a massive bill.

Will cancel the direct debit today!

This is why we never use DD for energy bills. They give you the lowest estimate possible so if you try and leave them they present you with a massive " actual meter reading" bill hoping that it will stop you leaving.

They rely on people being forgetful/lazy enough to not send their own meter readings.

Poor you OP. Don't talk to me about BG though

I am currently receiving bailiffs letters from them for £880. The only slight issue with this is that they have never supplied electricity to my property!! This saga has been going on for approximately a year and is a nightmare. EDF have supplied my property since 1997 yet BG have got it into their heads that they have supplied me since 2012!!

Terrible company. AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!!

It would seem that British Gas are under the impression that you are using more and more each month as your bills increased to £70 and then £95. They would only do this if your account was going deeper into deficit to try and average out the amount you're paying rather than a lump sum (although obviously there is a lump sum now!).
I would ring and ask them what the last meter reading was (a proper one should have been taken when you cancelled supply with them - although if you didn't read it yourself you have to take their word for it as you're now using energy with someone else and the meter will have moved on) and compare it to the reading you have now to see if it makes sense for the length of time since you changed suppliers.

Another thing I would check is if the new company starts to get more expensive, is there a gas leak somewhere outside perhaps (very unlikely inside as your monoxide detector would be going off)? Leaving an emersion tank on by accident?

The deficit on the account could have been accruing for some time (this happened to me with Eon a few years back - running up a bill because of the emersion tank!) but they should have been sending you quarterly bills in the post to keep you informed of the balance on your account - what did the last couple say?

I don't know what other suppliers are doing now but British Gas are doing free installs on smart meters to help you tell what you're spending the energy on and they receive half-hourly actual meter readings - no more estimates, got mine booked in for January....sounds like you won't want to go back to British Gas but maybe your new supplier is doing it too? Might help to figure out where the electricity is going.

I hope you get it all sorted :) and a glass of in the mean time!

what is your meter reading? Is it somewhere near what BG think?

readings can be wrong at switches; my parents were initially told they owed loads because a digit was added!

moving on, give monthly meter readings to keep things on track.