# Gas and Electricty bills



## BigJimmyBovine (Jan 23, 2012)

Just sat online giving British Gas a meter reading and noticed we'd built up a fairly large Gas credit and Elctricity debit so decided to change my money direct debits and really struggling with how British Gas come up with their monthly direct debit.

I knocked the gas down from £30 to £23 and my term end credit is now predicted at £73, not a problem, I'll just get a payment refund if nothing unexpected happens and use it on the electricity debit.

Decided to knock the electricity up from £33 to £40 keeping my total monthly outgoings the same even though British Gas recommend it being £46.
What's confusing me is the predictor for the Electricty bill. 

At £33 monthly we'll owe £43 at the end of term. At £40 they say we'll owe £66, how they say by paying more we owe more I don't know.

Does anyone else have trouble with them and their bills and direct debit figures?

I get the feeling there will be another lengthy call to customer services later to ask them to explain themselves, I bet that will be as much fun as when they said we owed £66,000 as our meter reading for gas was less than the estimate, they were very insistent that the meter had completed a full cycle and wasn't just lower than they thought.


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## Rayner (Aug 16, 2012)

:lol: I like that last bit about the meter doing a full cycle :lol: they seem to be complete idiots sometimes don't they!? Normal cost of 60-100 quid per quarter but you managed to use 66k worth instead? Is that even possible if you had everything on 24 hrs a day? 

Anyway, never had them saying I'll owe more after increasing a DD? Doesn't surprise in the slightest though


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## shl-kelso (Dec 27, 2012)

Are you on a tariff that is due to come to an end within the next 12 months? If yes, they work out your annual usage based on you going back on to their standard tarifs, I.e. the really the most expensive option.

As an example, after some investment in energy saving measures my electricity is likely to be down by 40% this year, yet when my bill arrived the supply company suggested my DD needed to increase by 60%! This was because the fixed rate I am currently on for another few weeks will come to an end, so they re-calculated my annual bill based on last year's consumption at their standard tariff rates. I simply calculate my own figures and phone them to tell them what they need to set the DD to, and they always seems to agree


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## BigJimmyBovine (Jan 23, 2012)

It ends next September which is when everything is predicted until. I had to fight to only pay those figures each month, they wanted £180 combined for a new 3 bed terrace with 2 of us.
Phone call tomorrow, as long as it doesn't take days to sort out. This is the third issue we've had with them so may move on


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## Alfieharley1 (Jun 8, 2014)

That is ridiculous. Okay so I have a 3 bed townhouse and we are with EON energy saver. Myself , partner & twin boys live at the property to which my twins & partner are at home 75% of the day as they are only 2 so you can imagine TV is on 12 hours a day (reason to change tv to cost save  ) I pay £65 a month for both gas & electric.
House has been built 12 months. Brand new when we bought it.


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## BigJimmyBovine (Jan 23, 2012)

Yep, when I told them over the phone that I wanted to pay what I estimated not their ridiculous estimate she told me that I shouldn't complain when I had to ring back in a few months to get the direct debits put up. Unfortunately for her I had a page full of my workings out and asked her why she expected me to pay 2 and a half times their own figures for an average families usage for 2 people. They had no answer!

£65 for us sounds about right for our bills, unlike our old Eon account where it was all combined its separate accounts, I just had the figures the wrong way. Seems like they are just trying to get my money in their account to be honest.

Might go back to Eon as we had no issues at all before we moved out the flat.

Here's what we have had to deal with so far.
Owner of the house switched it back to British Gas before we moved in. Months later British Gas refused to accept the Gas account which had been closed with EDF, EDF sent me to BG who sent me back, took 4 months to sort. When BG eventually admitted they had the account the starting meter reading was nothing like what I'd given, they'd made one up to benefit themselves. Owing £66,000 due to their estimate which took a week to sort, the direct debit issue originally, this direct debit


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## m4rkymark (Aug 17, 2014)

Alfieharley1 said:


> That is ridiculous. Okay so I have a 3 bed townhouse and we are with EON energy saver. Myself , partner & twin boys live at the property to which my twins & partner are at home 75% of the day as they are only 2 so you can imagine TV is on 12 hours a day (reason to change tv to cost save  ) I pay £65 a month for both gas & electric.
> House has been built 12 months. Brand new when we bought it.


That's cheap, we have an old Victorian house with 4 beds, only me at home all day (work from home) but I don't use heating during the day as its never that cold, don't really use a lot of leccy either as I only have my laptop on so no lights or TV or anything else. My OH and little girl come in after 5pm and we are about £110 a month combined and we are never in credit.


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## Alfieharley1 (Jun 8, 2014)

Yep mega cheap. Last year we did use the heating only a hand full of time not by being cheap either as we have to have the house at over 20c due to or boys being premature. For example the house is now at 21 with windows open! 
When I did take out the cover they forecasted £90 a month however due to paying way over they reduced it to £8 a month. Came in not much over £600 for the year. If I come across the documents (filed away) I'll take a snap shot


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## nbray67 (Mar 22, 2012)

New builds are very well insulated and generally fitted with A+ appliances. You'll be surprised at how much money you save by using A+ appliances and being well insulated.

BG are doing FREE loft and cavity wall insulation for all at the moment, on average you'll save £150-£200 on energy bills by simply having your house well insulated.

Get on the BG website and register for a FREE survey and get them out if you need loft insulation or cavity wall insulation. No catch, you obviously can't have it if you already have it, don't have a cavity wall or if your loft is boarded out.


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## Alfieharley1 (Jun 8, 2014)

I could sleep in my loft on the insulation it is huge! 
As for A+ I would definitely recommend . For example due to our TV on 12 + hours a day we originally had a Samsung 51" plasma which was energy E. It was on its way out anyway so decided to look for another. Came across a e motion 50" LED at Tesco for £350. Best ever £350 I have spent. The tv is amazing quality and its A+ energy saving roughly £15 a month alone on electric!


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## m4rkymark (Aug 17, 2014)

All our appliances are only 5 yrs old at most because the house needed everything when we moved. The loft was insulated the year after we moved in and it is about a foot thick, we can't get cavity wall insulation though as our walls are solid stone and about 18" thick, there is no cavity in them, they have good old lathe and plaster on them . We also put double glazing in when we moved in so we have done as much as we can for the time being.


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

Alfieharley1 said:


> I could sleep in my loft on the insulation it is huge!
> As for A+ I would definitely recommend . For example due to our TV on 12 + hours a day we originally had a Samsung 51" plasma which was energy E. It was on its way out anyway so decided to look for another. Came across a e motion 50" LED at Tesco for £350. Best ever £350 I have spent. The tv is amazing quality and its A+ energy saving roughly £15 a month alone on electric!


12 hours a day?? :doublesho


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