WTF?! (electric bill related)

Check your meter reading against what they have first. Britsh Gas once tried to charge me £10k for a house I lived in for 3 months because they read it wrong!! If that isn't it, ring them and ask why the sudden jump when your circumstances haven't changed.

Yeah is the meter reading correct?

If so - definitely ring them. There's two of us with a dishwasher and I leave lights on constantly - we did pay £99 for gas and electric combined but it's just gone down to £75 per month combined.

As above, definitely chck the reading. We have electric only and only pay £45 per month for that. No dishwasher but we do tumble dry in winter and have to use electric heaters.

As above, definitely chck the reading. We have electric only and only pay £45 per month for that. No dishwasher but we do tumble dry in winter and have to use electric heaters.

Yikes! I'm embarrassed to say I had to ask mr ddpunk how much our bill is. I've never seen a bill since moving in!!

Anyway, apparently we only pay £35 a month electric. Only the 2 of us and no dishwasher we must be dead tight, ha!

CE haven't you both been off work recently? You'll be using a lot more electric as previously your house was empty for a lot of the day.

Are we Facebook friends? If so message me.

It could be a number of issues, an estimated read, a previously estimated read causing a catch up bill, spending more time at home, a new (or old) appliance using more power than before.

If you have your last bill and this one I can work it out for you and check the dd is correct, it won't be that you are suddenly using more, it will be recouping a previous underpayment in 99% of cases.

£25 a month here - and we're in credit haha.

OP, £136 is ridiculous. Unless you're having raves all day every day, I can't see how it would be that high!

Yes, that's true. I was off sick for 7wks but it shouldn't have made that much difference as when H and I are at work my parents are at our house dog-sitting so there is always someone around, watching tv or putting the kettle on. They've been pet-sitting for nearly two years now so again, no change in circumstances

Thanks everyone. Glad it wasn't just me who thinks it's high. We do have a tumbler but it's used in the winter, only twice a week. We changed suppliers when we moved in and I have been scrupulous in giving metre readings. I'm in work at the moment so will check metre and phone when I get home.

We pay about £100 a month which I can't understand but I've never been bothered to question it. We have one of those smart meters so it must be right I suppose.

Who is your supplier out of interest?

I submit my meter readings online every month and my bill is accurate. Bit of a pain, but means my DD doesnt change.

We had an estimate of £650 last month. We've lived there a year (always with this same supplier) and our yearly bill is less than that. (Our flat is crazy warm and we have literally never used the heating.) All I can conclude is that they deliberately send out ridiculous estimates hoping that people will be too busy/disinclined to read their own metres, pay the estimate and the money will sit in Eon's account gaining interest. It's a nasty trick.

This is entirely wrong and misguided, your estimates are set on a variety of factors. Another classic example of the media influence on energy companies!

Also energy suppliers aren't allowed to gain interest on customers money.

Energy rant over (for now)

I win! My electricity bill for the last QUARTER was £57, so that is £19 a month. I must be very mean. (Ok it's the summer but it doesn't change that much and the highest bill I ever got was £27 for a month)

(It's done by accurate meter reading which I submit as I object to paying for something I haven't used - control freak me)

I think it's about £120 a month we pay for gas and electricity. We were slightly in credit last year though. It's a very cold house in the winter but hot in the summer so it's generally even and there are 3 adult and the dishwasher and washing machine/dryer are on constantly.

Has it been estimated the last few times? Also always ring up your supplier and ask if you're on the lowest tariff. I did it on line, but they still beat the best one by £30 a month.

Go on then Mini, explain it to me! Why might they estimate that in three months April-June we'd used more elec than in the past July-March?...

Many reasons, first one that jumps out is why was your prev bill June to March? Which of those readings were accurate and which were estimates? Had you only lmoved into the property in June? What heating type? What settlement code is applied to your meter etc etc what fuel was it?

I can write a more detailed reply tonight, trying to excein estimating factors on my phone isn't easy!

It wasn't, we were billed normally in quarters. I just mean that's how long we've lived there. The three month estimate is for more than all the nine previous months. They were all accurate readings that we took. It's all electric, and heating is storage heaters which we have literally never turned on (sorry for use of the annoying word literally, just emphasising that I don't just mean we don't use it much, I mean it's never been on in the time we've lived there). I dunno about the settlement code though, to be fair.

Have they confused your meter number maybe? This happened to us years ago and resulted in us being asked for £500 for one month. We rang them us to query it and they just said it was a "little high". They wouldn't asssist us so l went to the ombudsmen and had a 6 month row with them until they agreed to resolve it. But British Gas are wankers....

Hahaha we had the exact same thing happen with British Gas. Thank god for the ombudsman.

Maybe. They also wrote to us and said they thought we were taking the readings backwards - again, implying our bills couldn't possibly be so low. We're not idiots, we know how to read a meter.

Don't get me started on British Gas. Many years ago they broke into my flat and fitted a prepayment meter to recover debts left by a previous tenant. I had evidence they knew he'd moved out but I never got so much as an apology from them. I vowed never to give them another penny of my money and never have. This was almost 15yrs ago and I still feel angry and upset when I think about it!

Southern Electric. I rang and queried it and she said it was because we'd been underpaying and there is a deficit. We have come to an agreement to raise the dd to £80 rather than £136 and if possible when I get paid I will try to pay some of it off.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

We only pay £17 a month for our electric (and at the moment they owe us £36) A couple of years ago they forced us to pay more a month for electric, even though I said it would be higher in the winter but then we'd cover it in the summer. They ended up having to pay us over £200 of overpayments for a year.

I look at it over the whole year - you pay the same every month, it will be over payments in the summer and under payments in the winter but over the year it will all be paid. But Southern Electric don't like any monthly payments to be under - they would rather have you over pay and then pay you back.

Ah in that case I could have certainly helped you ?

My parents bill jumped almost £200 because npower decided they were a business and put them on business rates! They both work all day and My dad is almost Eco-warrior so everything is turned off at the plug when not being used so I don't know where they got that idea from! They promptly switched companies!

No fair! how come yours is so low ac? I've been having bills of between £50-60 a month and there is only me living here, all plugs off everyday except for fridge-freezer and the tv/sky. and in 3 days I went through£11 worth of electricity and I wasn't even home. According to Eon im a high electricity user and went through 290 kwh last month.. mini is that a lot? im out of the house 7.30am and don't come home till after 6 and am in bed for 10!

290kwh is only about 9 a day which with background energy isn't a huge amount. As an average your fridge and freezer use 2kwh each a day, so that's 4kwh before you turn a light on. A washing machine up to 9kwh per load plus a dishwasher wiyld be the same. A tumble dryer 7kwh per hour, tv a kWh every 6 hours of use, landline phone on charge 1kwh per day. It all adds up!

Thete could be places you could cut back to reduce it, standby etc. are you gas heating or electric?

Are you on a key meter leni?

Also, can't remeber now who said they were broken into and a key meter fitted. The supplier needs a warrant to do that and the courts wouldn't authorise this if there was a discrepancy between the Tennant and the dentils on the account. To get to warrant stage takes a good two years of non payment as well. If this situation occurs when I was in cs invariably there had been some ignored communication previously. I can only speak for the company I work for but I have seen countless cases where a Tennant has ignored many many debt collection visits, and had then moaned that a ppm has been installed! You were given ample opportunity! Not saying this happening in your case as like I day I don't know bg's process but I can't imagine them to be that diffirent to ours.

I've been out of cs a while now but the rules are still the same I'm sure!

Currently on tarriff until august 11th and then going on key, I know being on key is more per unit, but at least I know where I am with my electricity. I only have electric, heating is oil ☹️, I went through less electricity monry wise when living with ex and he had tv on from 7am till going to bed and an o2 concentrator running all night. my wash is once every 2 days and maybe on a weekend I might do extra loads.