Huge Gas Bill

[candeur]

I've just recieved my gas bill for the last 3 months... £825!!
I have absolutely no idea how it came to that, it's not even based on estimates, I always make sure I give them my meter readings.
We only have the heating on for about 4hrs max in the early hours so it's warm for Seren in her room when she wakes up, I'm completely baffled.
I can't even ring the gas company as my head is just completely spinning, there's no way we can afford it, OH has to ring them when he gets in from work.
What can they do? They say we have to call to discuss payments, and reducing the balance. Our electric bill has been tripled aswell so we're completely screwed, and have no idea how
Does anyone have any experience of what they're likely to say to us? or offer? x

oops - sorry i meant to put this in work & finance

 

[sparkswillfly]

That cant be right at all. Even in winter when I have my heating on all day my bill is only £60 a month. Something funny is going on there definitely.

 

[sparkswillfly]

what were your bills like before?

 

[~KACI~]

That can't be right hun unless you have a mansion, definatly enquire further

 

[aimee-lou]

Give thema call and ask them to re-calculate. This has got to be a typo! My electricity bill has tripled too. If you can't afford it you just need to tell them so!

 

[candeur]

We havn't long lived in the house, We've lived there since August and our bills were only £30 a month for gas, which now I know is very low, but even if we were underpaying them, surely it still wouldn't come to almost £850... I just live in a 3 bedroomed semi detached, not big at all. I did have the heating on alot when Seren was first born because it was winter, but not for a prolonged period of time...

 

[aimee-lou]

try not to worry about it hun...it's probably just an issue with your meter or something else innocent. Either way, they cannot expect you to pay this in one go so I'm sure they will come to some arrangement. (For example - I got a bill of over £500 from scottish power in May. I could not afford so they upped my payment from £100 to £190 a month. I have tried to be a lot more energy efficient and they have told me that in 2 more payments I'll be up to date.) If you explain what's happened and have a figure of what you can afford them maybe they will be able to sort it out......it's in their interest!

 

[Kirstin]

Does the meter reading match whats on your bill?

 

[candeur]

Does the meter reading match whats on your bill?

Yeah it does.
OH rung them, and they are adamant it's correct so I have absolutely no idea what to do next.

 

[Squidge]

Can i ask who your with? My parents have had 2 HUGE bills come through and their both adamant it's wrong because we're rarely in. Although, when we've phoned N-Power up they're saying it's definitely right.

Seems N-power are REALLY taking the piss with some people lately, my brother has had huge bills too!

 

[classyburd]

Oh dont sya that, ive recently moved into a house and we are with N-Power

 

[candeur]

I'm with Swalec, they were the providers to the house already when we moved in so didn't want to faff about with changing them.
Seems we're all getting a bit f*cked over by our gas companies...
I've gone from being shocked, worried and upset, to being just plain angry that they can do this to people.

 

[sparkswillfly]

how many units are they saying you have used?

 

[sparkswillfly]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/01/are_you_paying_too_much_for_ga.html

watchdog had this thing where loads of peoples gas bills were wrong because they were being calculated wrong by the companies.

do you have a metric or imperial meter?

If your gas meter has the letters ft on the front, it's one of the old imperial ones. That means your reading needs to be converted, and the small print of your bill should show this. It'll probably be called a metric conversion factor. But if your meter has the letter M, it's a new metric meter, and your bill shouldn't have a metric conversion factor on it. If it does, you too could be paying too much.

 

[candeur]

It's an ft3 meter so that would be the imperial one... I havn't got the letter with the units in front of me, OH took it to ring them today... thanks for that info though and the link, when I get the units back I'll have to do some of the calculations and see if I come to the same as Swalec. Let's hope not.

 

[BlackBerry25]

That must be wrong!

 

[candeur]

I hope it is... I'm wondering though... how common are gas leaks, and how would I know if I had one? If it's all correct then it's the only thing I can really think off, no other explanation seems viable.

 

[sparkswillfly]

https://www.adviceguide.org.uk/inde...lectricity/gas_supply.htm#Usefulorganisations

Heres a list of agencies that can advise you on how to challenge your bill. I went through something similar with EDF electricity recently. They were trying to charge me for electricity they hadnt proved! I found consumer direct to be quite helpful.

 

[Abz1982]

waa, we just moved to NPower when we moved in to this flat in March so I hope we dont get a huge bill!! But I update the readings every 2 weeks online. We are moving to Eon in a few weeks so hope they dont slap us with a big bill!

Do you have a note of all your readings? and have you ever had a paper bill? If you have then you can actually roughly calculate what you do owe - just do a calculation in excel, and that should give you a rough idea. They put the formula for the calculation on the back of the bills. I think I have mine somewhere...............I shall see!

 

[Abz1982]

cant find the calculation, but these might help

https://energylinx.co.uk/how_much_gas_used_in_a_year.html

https://energylinx.co.uk/calorific.html

https://energylinx.co.uk/gas_meter_conversion.html