Thames Water - robbing twunts - update

Water is stupid expensive. We pay £45 a month for water so your bill could well be right, it's still bloody outrageous though isnt it?

It's not that expensive!

We're on a meter (I know you can't be metered) but just to compare - we live in a 4 bed house, have 2 kids and run the washing machine plus a bath and two showers daily. Our bill is £13 a month and we're still in credit!!

I'd definitely argue the toss over it, sounds like they're definitely overcharging (oh and we're in the S.E too)

Ours is £30 a month and I just don't believe we use that either. I must look into a meter actually.

I just had to phone Scottish power and explain I couldn't pay a £320 bill in one go. They got all arsey. What is wrong with people? I am actually finding all the threatening letters utility suppliers have started sending quite upsetting. Scottish power sent me one a week after i recieved the bill, saying they were taking legal action and I may be charged £40 late fee. Its pathetic. How many people can lump out £320 the second they ask for it?

I pay £35 a month for water by direct debit. No meter here. I always assumed metered was more expensive.

We're with Three Valley's Water and our bill for the year is £829!

Luckily we can pay in 2 installments, one in April and one in October but it's a ridiculous amount of money.

I think that most people do think metered will be more expensive - I certainly did, and was very surprised when it turned out to be so much cheaper. I think water companies must be fleecing 90% of the population who are as yet unmetered.

Sorry OP - didn't mean to de-rail your thread as I know in a flat it's a different situation, but just wanted to show how much it does actually cost as that might help you in your case. Not sure what else to suggest to help though, sorry.

I pay £33 a month and also live on my own all week as H works away. Water is stupidly expensive. I live ina 2 bed semi and my parents live in a big 3 bed cottage and pay £21 with the same water provider. it goes on the ratebale value of the house, and mine has a higher rateable value than my parents. A bit off that they want it all now though!

Ours is much less than that, and we re on a meter. we use the dishwasher and washing machine etc but dont have ever have baths.

we do shower you know.

Suppliers are becoming aggressive now I feel. My mum paid her bill back in December through her bank for gas but it turns out the muppet behind the cash desk didn't do it properly which resulted in my mum getting a threatening letter from British Gas. The bank were investigating the problem so I called BG on my mum's behalf (she has a mental disability which means she can't deal with it herself). They tried to tell me it was 75 quid a day legal expense if someone didn't pay up NOW and tried to coerce me into paying it for her (I eventually did because they were being quite horrid), threatened to cut her off that minute and take goods from her home to the value of the amount. The person I spoke to the next day to put in a complaint said they get told all the time that people cannot pay and they lie with differing reasons, one of which was my mum's. I still put in the complaint because of the way I was spoken to, it is happening more and more.

Are you paying TW direct, or your leaseholder?

I could try and find out from work. I suspect they can't just measure your flat though TBH.

TW are arses. We manage a lot of properties and include their water in their Service charges. TW think we are in the property, so often phone us up asking how many rooms or next door neighbour has, or how many people are living there, or how many flats the properrty is divided into. Cheeky sods.

Is it Thames Water that have said they can't put a meter in? I wouldn't believe them, they refused to put one in my flat after months of faffing around. I now have tenants living there and they got one put in (by Thames Water!) with no trouble.

Hyacinth, I pay them direct.

Nick - no garden, obviously, and no dishwasher. Have maybe 3 baths a week, shower the rest of the time. But if they're not metering it I might as well just leave the fecking tap running when I go to work.

Actually, £26/month sounds quite reasonable to me for a non-metered property. We're with Three Valleys and pay £38/month for a 2 bed non-metered place. Don't forget the cost also includes sewage removal.

Will they let you pay by direct debit?

Sadly I think it sounds about right - I pay quarterly and my last bill was £45.45 with TW. Like you I live alone, don't have copious baths and have a washing machine. I don't even have a dishwasher.

To expect you to pay upfront is outrageous though - I guess I would give them a call and ask to set up an instalment plan?

Before we were metered our bill was £38 a month so that's probably right. Our supplier (Severn Trent) offer a service to put in a meter for 12 months, if you don't find it cheaper then they will take it out otherwise you're stuck with it.

We decided it was a win/win situation so went for it and our bill is now £17 a month and we're still in credit. The guy who fitted it said that generally meters are always cheaper. So anyone who can get a meter should check with their supplier, there's usually details online.

According to the u-switch estimatomitor i should be paying £217. Apparently also I can ask for an "assessed charge bill", which I will do. Where the hell do they get off charging me for the entire year upfront though? That's outrageous.

Can't believe they want it up front, that's so cheeky.

We now pay £21 a month - we're on a meter and I think it's cheaper than when we were in London.

Hmm. I work for a water company, not the robbing twunts of the title, I hasten to add. TW should be able to offer you a sensible payment plan - we do this a lot for our customers partciularly at the moment as we know times are hard. They should certainly be willing to set up a DD for you as this helps guarentee their income stream.

As far as not having a meter is concerned, I don't know whay they've said you can't have one. I think the Ofwat rules says that you should be allowed to have one, free, if you request it, unless installing it would be horrendously expensive or otherwise impossible. You can also have it removed after a period of time if you metered bill is higher than your rateable value measured bill.

If you visit some water companies' websites you should be able to find an on-line calculator that will help you estimate your current water useage and what you might expect your bill to be. Remember that as other have said, you aren't just paying for water usage but for sewage treatment too.

As a general rule, a single person or couple will benefit from having a meter - I know I did. When I first moved to a metered property when I was single I cut my water bill in half!

If you get stuck, pm me and I will try and help you out. I agree that it's a big bill to pay up front !

Thanks GMT, that's really helpful.

Just bouncing the update

Good grief! At last some advice I've offered has proved correct!!!!!!

Good result, SophieM!

Gah, we're not. Whenever I do the online calculators, it always increases our bill by around £100 a year. I can't understand why everyone I know has had a cheaper bill with a meter when it tells me I'd be far worse off. Am I doing something wrong? I don't think we use excessive water but our yearly bill is £284 for a two bed flat and just Mr Nora and me.

Flaming Nora - not sure why this should be. Which water company are you with? South west Water, for example, because they've had to invest massively in infrastructure in recent years, have the highest bills in the countyr (more than £400 I think).

Try visiting http://www.stwater.co.uk/server.php?show=nav.5964&PHPSESSID=2c4f2290f26018d4b25e864882737a46 and use the claculator there - it might help spot any areas where you're using more water than average.

Cheers GMT, I am with Severn Trent and used that calculator but its still showing as being cheaper to not have a meter.

<thicko alert> when it asks how many baths/showers etc, it means in total per household doesn't it? Not per person?

Sounds like going metered / assessed is going to save you a lot of money - good!

Mine (which I've just found out today) for my new flat is going to be around £165 PA, on a Band A rateable property (although as I live in Cheltenham in a listed property, the actual rateable value of the flat is probably ridiculously expensive). That sounds about right to me.

As for Scottish Power - also rang them today and they offered me a 5% discount for paying my electricity up front. Silly me, thinking that maybe this meant paying a month in advance, asked how much I'd need to pay up front. £600 ?. Yep, I've got that kind of cash hanging around to sub your cashflow. Needless to say I went for the direct debit option instead.

Yes, it's how many baths all together, not just one person's watery activity.

Have you called the customer service people and asked them to look into your case a bit more closely? A word of caution, though, the average annual bill for Severn Trent from now on is £305 so you may not be that far off the mark. Still worth calling the customer service peeps if you think your bill is out of kilter - try **** 500.

? GMT, I think its worth a quick call to them to see if theres anything they can suggest.

I'm severn trent and even when speaking to them on the phone they told me i'd be better off without a meter. Like I said earlier, they gave me the option to have the meter in for 12 months and I could have it removed if I wasn't saving money so if that's still the case what have you got to lose?

The only thing I have to lose is if it costs more for that first 12 months. Do you get billed monthly on a meter? I wonder if the first month or two is horribly expensive, I can revery back to my 2 yearly payment and not have to wait for the full 12 months?

Everyone I know that has changed to a meter has said it cheaper, I just can't understand why none of the calculations agree with that. Its odd idn't it? Maybe its because our house is rarely empty so our water consumption is higher than for an average couple who are out of the house between 8am and 6pm?

We pay monthly by direct debit. I think they read it six monthly. We are either in credit or debit then when the meter is read our payments change accordingly. Usually we're in credit. Our bill before having a meter was £38 a month. We had the meter before having a baby and MrSun was bathing every day at home. Now he tends to shower at the gym daily but we still use the washing machine a lot. We don't have a dishwasher. MissSun has a bath every other night and so do I. We have a 3 bed semi.

I don't want to tell you it'd be cheaper and you then find it's not but our bill with them went up ridiculously a few years back so I decided to change. The guy fitting the meter said that a meter is nearly always cheaper than not having one.

We have a meter and pay by DD. If you're home all day, then yes, your bill is likely to be higher as a result.

https://www.stwater.co.uk/server.php?show=nav.001001002 click here for meter info