SSE bill gone up

[weloveheyduggee]

Help! Just had an email from SSE saying our electric bill is going from £52 a month to £170 a month, over a £1,300 in the next year. What the hell? I'm waiting to call them at 8 but has anyone else had this? The last meter reading was taken by someone coming to the house. We haven't used any more electric than usual, we're really careful about not leaving lights on and only put the heating on a couple of weeks ago. There's no way we can afford it and I feel sick to my stomach, we're living on a knifes edge as it is and I think this will be the thing that pushes us over. Any idea? Is it a mistake or has the tariff gone up? I want to be prepared when I phone and not just cry or scream at them.

No! Don't cancel DD, they can charge for that. Speak to SSE first

Ok so glad I asked you all first! Will write down all details before I call. When I checked my online account it does look like I've been under paying but it should only be going up to about £80 a month that's a huge jump. I've looked at u switch and bulb are £80 a month so I can switch to them. I don't have to pay exit fees for SSE. I'll find out if we owe anything and set up a payment plan for that, but then I'll say I'm leaving.

Definately look at switching, I was with sse and they were putting mine up from £56 to around £68, I changed to bulb and no way I’m paying £50 again. If you switch to bulb(use a comparison website to see who offers the best deal with no switching fees etc) find someone already on bulb and join up via their refferal link as you both then get £50 credited to you electric account. I also like bulb as on your online account you can change the direct debit amount yourself, so I ended up significantly in credit so changed it one month to just £10. With sse if I was in credit they’d do some complicatied calculation and say I couldn’t have the credit back as I would be using it at some point.

@Sisgal maybe it is you who is underpaying. I just did a price comparison through the Cheap energy club on the money saving expert site and the most it could save me was £123 a year so around £10 a month. That would be moving to an unheard of company who probably don't take on Independent Gas Transporter customers (always causes problems when switching)

Mine has gone up from £121 to £163 apparently. How can my usage have increased that much?

Electric only is really expensive. We were paying 170 a month too at our last place. It's one of the reasons we moved. I'll never go electric again!

@dementedpixie no am not underpaying, just went through a review with our supplier, £50 a month and we are £120 in credit

I just did a quote on bulb and it gave £130 a month too. We probably use a lot more than you and that's why monthly payments are different.

I wouldn't of thought so, we have a large 3 bedroom house (well cottage) and there are 6 people within our house hold

My usage is
Electric 5545
Gas 17371

Find me a quote for £50 a month for that usage and I will take it!

Listen, i pay 50 a month on my electric. It used to be 90 cos I was lazy tbh and guilty of leaving lights on and not turning telly off etc but I got my finger out and started making changes (and forcing kids to same ) it made a HUGE difference, as the drop in our monthly cost shows. What else can I say really, its as simple as that

Ah you implied it was combined gas and electric that was £50. If it's just electric then you can't really compare it to paying for both

If you have been under paying and it should have been about £80 then you must owe them some money. I imagine they have put it up so much to pay back the money you owe in addition to paying enough to cover your future use. In my experience they tend to put it up drastically until the debt is paid back and then reduce it again. Having said all that I just switched from British Gas to bulb and they are working out about £50 a month cheaper for us so it is definitely worth shopping around.

If anyone switches to bulb, & use my referral, we get £50 each credited to our account.

bulb.co.uk/refer/sdc0660

Worth a bullseye towards our bill!

@dementedpixie well I can as I am £20 a month on gas, if that tbh. So that's a total of £70 a month, £50 cheaper than what you pay. Which is a massive amount to anyone.

Christ I pay £120 electric and £60 gas. I have a large 4 bed house! There are 6 of us living in it. Does that sound excessive?

It depends on your usage. You can't tell from a monthly payment as that could be above or below your actual usage. Do a comparison with your annual usage to get a better idea of whether it is too much

Thanks yonijust I'll use that! Spoke to them, we've been underpaying (not to my knowledge ) for the last year so we're making up for last winter!! They think I should be paying £110 a month but bulb is £80 so I'll switch, we're £600 in arrears so we'll the have to set up a payment plan to pay that back. A complete nightmare on top of having a grumpy tired toddler, not what I needed today but thank you all for your help and advice

Did you ever give meter readings? I submit them regularly so i don't get big bill surprises

Yup regular meter readings, apparently they only review your bill once a year and otherwise it's up to you to work out if your under or over paying

Edf sends a bill online after giving a meter reading so you can tell from that whether you are over or under paying

We had a similar situation although not with SSE.
We moved house, gave final meter readings and turns out the electricity company had taken average readings for over 2.5 years without actually manually checking - I owe'd them over £2,000. It went back and fore, I complained to the Ombudsman who said they would only allow them to back bill me for 2 years but it was still a huge amount - I'm repaying at £40 a month for 4 years interest free. I refuse to pay more, only 2.5 more years of crappy payments