Gas & Electric bill

[red2357]

Hi All,

We got our electric bill yesterday and I nearly fainted with shock! We get quarterly bills and this quarter came to £240!

There's only two of us in a three bedroom semi and we heat the house with gas not electric (and our cooker is gas) so how on earth we can spend £60 worth of electricity each month god only knows, but to add insult to injury our gas is also this much each month, so in total we're being chaged £120 per month for gas and electric - is anyone else being stung as badly as we are??

Any advise?

[Eeyore]

I'm dreading ours, we had a house load of Xmas decs on for 6 hours a day throughout December, it's normally about £150 for the month but I'm expecting about double that ;)

It was on TV this morning about energy prices and how consumers are not getting the benefits of lower wholesale energy prices, but what can we do? OK you can shop around (which I always do) but at the end of the day they have you over a barrel as you need gas and/or electric :(

Have you tried checking to see that your supplier is the cheapest? I use uswitch (http://www.uswitch.com)

We're in a 4 bed detached, just the two of us and we're out most days, and we pay £80 a month for gas/electric, we were in credit at our last bill in November but won't be now.

Is your house well insulated? Cavity wall/loft insulation make a big difference, we got it the week we moved in, council grant paid for it, and at our last home, we didn't have it for about 2 years, and we noticed the difference in heating and bills. Energy saving light bulbs also help, some companies give them away free, or B & Q sell them very cheaply. Little things too like not leaving the TV on stand-by etc can make a difference.

[Bonkers Mad!!!]

thats sounds outrageously high. i have my gas and electricity on meters and i never put more than £5 a week on the electric, £5 a week in summer on the gas and £10 in the winter. so even in the cold months i'm not spending more than £60 a month fuel bills.

[tact77]

At the moment we pay 171.00 per month for both gas and electricity. I have asked and I was told this will go down in 6 months. It seems we underpaid for 6 months so now we have to catch up.

[red2357]

Yes, Tact77, we had that just over 6 months ago, we we're told that our £30 a month on electricty wasn't enough and bumped it up to £60 and then they slapped us with a bill for over £900 for underpaying for the last 3yrs!! I tried everything - got them to recalculate on actual readings as opposed to estimates, had the meter checked and even had an electrician in to test all our appliances, but nothing was found to be faulty or wrong. The bill went down £200 when corrrect readings were taken but we still ended up with a bill of over £600 right before our wedding!

Bonkers mad - A meter where you pay as you go (if you like) does sound better but YOU have to pay to get it installed and thats not cheap either.

[StoneHenge]

We spend £20 on electricity a month, then £17 gas, and approximately £25 on solid fuel, so it soon adds up doesn't it. That sounds like a very high bill though!

In summer we will spend about £10 electricity and about £10 on gas and no solid fuel. Roll on summer!!

[coppernob]

I have meters for both and i'm having to put £20 IN EACH PR WEEK this winter :huh: last year it was half that! The only thing I have which is gas is my central heating and hot water, it is crazy!

[red2357]

Sorry Eeyore, didn't mean to ignore your advice.

Yes house is well insulated and I'm always switching lights off when I'm not in a room, I even switch the cooker off completely when not using it.

We didn't have the fire on over Xmas just the central heating and we didn't have any christmas lights outside the house, just our normal porch light (with nice. natural wreath on the door). We had Xmas lights on the tree but that was is, I'm more of a candle person.

Some of us seem to being paying so, so much and others it seems pay very little - I can't think what else I am doing wrong. I will invest in some energy saving lightbulbs and start switching everything off totally instead of stand by, but this cannot account for over 1709Kwh from period 30/9/06 to 2/1/07. Thats a lot of units when you think that one use of a dishwasher is bearly one unit and one load of the washing M/C is bearly one unit, etc.

I hate being ripped off by big corporate companies! :angry:

[Eeyore]

I think it varies from supplier to supplier, they all rip us off, but to a different extent! ;)

Who are you with? Could they offer you a better package? Have you shopped around at all?

[red2357]

Yi Win - The house we hope to buy is wood buring stoves, oil fired central heating, water UV filtered from the stream and although the electric is currently mains it soon will be from a generator, wind turbine or solar panels with mains as back up. Sounds lovely!

Eeyore - We are with Npower and I have shopped around this morning online and there are a few coming up saying they can save us 12% (Powergen), £280 P.A (EDF energy) but I need to ring them to discuss properly, so my mission tonight is to sit down and get my partner to go thru it all with me and make a few calls. (Oh, what a great evening I have instore....the long winter nights just fly by......)

[Bonkers Mad!!!]

i'm with powergen for my electricity. they supply all the electricity to all the other fuel companies so it made sense to me to buy direct from them as its always cheaper to buy from the manufacturer. with Gritish Bas for the gas :yes:

[Eeyore]

We're with Powergen for gas and electric, they're cheapest for us. It's also a free phone number when you ring them!

Used to be with Atlantic - bunch of con merchants they were, when we left them they "made up" meter readings that were nowhere close, thankfully with the help of Energy Watch, although it took 6 moths, they lowered our final amount owed and we got a good will amount off the amount too - wouldn't recommend them as a firm at all

[StoneHenge]

I probably only get away with less than most because our house is not a house, it's a boat. Our leccy is metered so we buy cards to top up. We run lights, TV, fridge etc, but our heating is solid fuel which feeds the radiators and is actually very efficient. Once the weather is warmer we will look into wind and solar energy with solar panels that work even on cloudy days and wind for days like today (which if working, would feed the national grid!).

I think being self sufficient is the only way to go for the furture, but it's difficult in some places having wind or solar because certain areas don't seem to allow it and some folk think that wind turbines are ugly therefore don't want them on theirs or their other neighbour rooftops.

I don't intend to give to them much longer if we can get away with it.

I feel for those who have to manage on pensions. I know they get a fuel allowance, but I bet it doesn't go far!

[marieuk]

Hi all


We are with powergen and they are the cheapest for us, when we moved in we were with npower and omg their customer service centre was horrid they tried to send the debt men round for a bill they had invented :angry: :angry: i must have spent at least a month on the phone mainly on hold :angry: i could not wait to change back to powergen.




Love Muk xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Bonkers Mad!!!]

i had the same sort of experience with NPower :angry:

[marieuk]

How do they get away with it BM?????





Love Muk xxxxxxxxxxxx

[Annabel]

Dont be tempted to go on prepayment meters unless you absolutely have to - it always costs you more that way.

Ofgen has warned the utility companies that they must pass on the savings from the price reduction in wholesale gas to the consumer or they will get fined, so hopefully there will be an easing in the situation in the spring.

I have arranged to pay £30 per month on the gas and £60 on the electric in the new house we are in, but I dont think it will be enough. we shall see. :unsure:

[Planet 24]

At the old house my gas and electric came to 1500 per quarter, in the end I gave up having heating on as I had holes in all the windows and barricades so it was like living in a cave anyway.
This house is much much smaller and I pay 60 per month for both...big difference hey?

As for British Gas and Npower ...least said the better I think, still Npower did send me 2 light bulbs and 3 easy handy plugs a couple of weeks ago and Im not even with them anymore :lol:

[red2357]

Thanks for your advice everyone!

Powergen and EDF do seem to be coming up cheapest in my area so I'm gonna give then a ring. I don't really fully understand it all (you need a degree to read the bills!) but my husband said he switched to npower originally because they were the cheapest and then the bills suddenly started to creep up so I think he is a bit reluctent to switch again becuase of this, but I'm not. If its saves us a couple of hundred a year just to fill out a few forms then so be it.

Cheers!

[Eeyore]

I understand your husbands reluctance, but hey, they do all the work :) and if it saves you money it's worth it

good luck

[Eeyores mam]

They do all the work because everyone of them is vying for business. It is really cut throat.
I`m with Powergen having tried another one for some months and they were rubbish. The people in Powergen seem very friendly indeed and helpful and while I object to paying £92 per month for gas and electric it is cheaper than a lot others.

[coppernob]

Have you looked at the website USWITCH? you can compare prices of all the major utility firms and even get connected to them online, worth having a look at.CN

[dozer]

I are mostly with. Whatever the Hydro Board is called in these newfangled times. Gas too. It's the same old same old (disgustingly hot winter up to now), but the leccy has doubled since last autumn quarter. Duh, how? why? Surely the Old Child's new vice, MSNing to gurls, ain't burning more juice than the MarshallValveAmpofDoom he used to go out with?? (Well stay in with, but it amounts to the same thing, i.e.ma&pa no longer exist, I are a teenager :cry:)
[Wurgh!, brain slowly coming back on stream. Maybe the vile <strike>dossers</strike>students down the stair have figured out how to leech our ringmain without blowing the fuses. Maplin's in the morn, grab one of those plug-in mains-meter doodads, if they still do them. Scabby little weasels, wouldn't put it past 'em]

[lovethyneighbour-not!]

I get my gas and electric from EQUIPOWER who are a little heard of charitable not for profit company, they are the only company in the uk that charge the same rate for pre payment meters that they charge for quaterly.
The electric is charged at different rates depending on where you are in the uk, some of the areas are charged 9p per unit which is pretty cheap.
If i get sales people doing the sale pitch for different companies they dont even argue once they know i use equipower, my electric bills are a lot cheaper than they were before i switched.
it is always worth looking around to see who offers the best deals :D

[TotallyStressedOut]

We've just moved house and are in the process of changing back to British Gas as we had to temporarily change to the people the previous owners were with. Well, the companies that they were with haven't bothered to contact us, other than to say sorry you are leaving, which means we have no idea what we are being charged for electricity and gas. I think it was very wrong of them not to get in contact when they received notification that the previous owners had moved. Now I guess we just have to wait for a bill to turn up.

Then BG sent us our final bills from the flat but didn't give paying in slips or tell us how they wanted the payment. I'd already cancelled the direct debits as I was told that I could do that. When I phoned them they told me to send them a cheque. I decided to pay it electronicly. A few days later I receive letters telling me that they weren't able to take the payment for the final bill because the direct debit had been cancelled, just like they told me to. Why couldn't they have just written on the final bills that the payment would be taken by direct debit.

Then they want us to pay by direct debit for our new accounts with them but they only sent us one form for two accounts! D'oh.

[red2357]

Thanks for your advices everyone. We did have a look online on Uswitch and found that Sottish Power was the best, we will be saving £20 a month + £63 saving for handling it online, so

THANKS EVERYONE, it is worth shopping around. :)

[coppernob]

Glad you found it useful :D

[ozzychick]

Hi Everyone,

We live in a 1 bed house with no central heating so we use electric for everything, out bill this month from Powergen was over £300!! We aren’t running an amusement arcade for god sake! It’s totally ridiculous.

Because we rent we aren’t able to change supplier either which is a nightmare.

We use the storage heaters like MrsSB, I’m pretty sure they bump the price right up.

Also it says on the bill you must pay now! You would think they would give people a week or so to sort themselves out, especially after Christmas. :(

[ron]

Hi All
we pay gas at £40 per month 3 bed house elec is on a key meter pay as you go it was in when we moved in and will cost £70 to get a normal meter been using it for 18 month then npower who we are with sent me a bill for £160 I told them that i am on a pre payment meter so how can i get a bill they said the meter was wrong and i had been getting my elec cheaper than anyone else. Not happy about it but i said i would pay %50 of the bill as they left it so long to inform me the meter was wrong and for them to send some one to sort the meter out.
After the meter guy came we put £40 on the key tranfered it to the meter and it went to zero after a call to npower another guy came out checked the meter and the standard charge had been put up to £52:00 a WEEK.
I have got it sorted now but it shows that even pre payment can go wrong cant wait to just get a normal meter put in but will have to wait a few weeks for that .

[Domestic Goddess]

We don't have any gas, and pay £40 per month on electricity. This is for a 3 bedroom chalet bungalow with central heating.
There was a pay as you go metre when we arrived and we've stuck with it and found it to be fine.