Gas/electric bills

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So there we was paying £200 a month gas/elec to the co-op- decided to check online and when we put in our current meter reading it turns out we owe them an extra £1000 !!!
Can they do this? We’ve been underpaying all that time and now we’ve caught up . It hurts !
Anyone had similar experiences??
 
I normally take a meter reading on the first of the month and enter it online.The direct debits are often then adjusted to reflect usage. In fact, I'm sad enough that I record the readings in a spreadsheet, calculate total usage and use that to compare tariffs from different companies.

Are you able to adjust your direct debits to reflect the extra usage so you don't pay the £1000 in one go?
 
British Gas ask for meter readings every quarter and I duly oblige, seems to work ok.
 
So there we was paying £200 a month gas/elec to the co-op- decided to check online and when we put in our current meter reading it turns out we owe them an extra £1000 !!!
Can they do this? We’ve been underpaying all that time and now we’ve caught up . It hurts !
Anyone had similar experiences??

Very common issue given that meter readers don't get in all the time, one of the main drivers of the Smart Meter Roll-Out.
I used to work for a very large well know Gas company..... and yes this was fair game years back but I believe the back-billing rules have changed recently to restrict how far back a company can charge.
 
E-on are a pita about making sure I don't under or over pay.
 
£200 a month and your still in debt unless you live in a flipping mansion there’s summat very wrong ? ,let me clarify we are retired but have my son and his g/f still here ,the house is a 3 bedroom semi atop a welsh hillside it’s open to the elements with nothing in front of us bar the Irish Sea so winter does need a lot of central heating ,as I said we are retired so the house is occupied 24/7 and there’s usually one if not two t.v’s on at any time plus computers etc stuff is continually being charged phones I.pads etc ,the lad and his partner both have hay fever so the tumble dryer is used heavily ,there’s three very large garden that need frequent mowing (electric) our caravan battery is on permanent charge to ,now our direct debit has been for the last few years around £100 per month .and having checked yesterday we are in credit for the year .

So this sounds to me like there’s something seriously wrong with your billing ,have you thought about a smart meter ,changed lights to l.e.d’s
 
£200 a month and your still in debt unless you live in a flipping mansion there’s summat very wrong ? ,let me clarify we are retired but have my son and his g/f still here ,the house is a 3 bedroom semi atop a welsh hillside it’s open to the elements with nothing in front of us bar the Irish Sea so winter does need a lot of central heating ,as I said we are retired so the house is occupied 24/7 and there’s usually one if not two t.v’s on at any time plus computers etc stuff is continually being charged phones I.pads etc ,the lad and his partner both have hay fever so the tumble dryer is used heavily ,there’s three very large garden that need frequent mowing (electric) our caravan battery is on permanent charge to ,now our direct debit has been for the last few years around £100 per month .and having checked yesterday we are in credit for the year .

So this sounds to me like there’s something seriously wrong with your billing ,have you thought about a smart meter ,changed lights to l.e.d’s

For heating and electric? I’d keep quiet if I were you.
My electric is £100/month alone. Oil this last winter was £1500 although we’ve just had a new boiler installed so expect that to drop a bit this year.

Three bedroom house with three occupants. We work from home so also somebody here 24/7
 
Info may be out of date but I thought they could only go back max 2 years for retrospective adjustment?
 
Info may be out of date but I thought they could only go back max 2 years for retrospective adjustment?
12 months.
Did you see the link?
 
Off the top of my head I think our monthly electric and gas direct debits are around £130, two of us in a Victorian cottage.
I'm retired so at home during the day although I don't like an overly warm abode, so yes 100 quid sounds very reasonable
 
There's no way I could use get my bill up to £200 a month, 3 bed semi built in the 70's, two of us living here, although the house is empty during the day around 3 or 4 times a week, as we have a smart meter fitted i can work out just how much gas and electricity we use, April £96.13, May £70.80, obviously use more gas in the winter, but not enough to bring the bill up to £200 a month.
 
So there we was paying £200 a month gas/elec to the co-op- decided to check online and when we put in our current meter reading it turns out we owe them an extra £1000 !!!
Can they do this? We’ve been underpaying all that time and now we’ve caught up . It hurts !
Anyone had similar experiences??
When was the last meter reading taken prior to this one?
 
At work we recently had an incorrect reading by a meter reader that overstated our reading by 10,000 units...who read your meter and have you double checked it?
 
Every month, I get a reminder by BG to email them my meter readings and then they email me a bill based on that and I pay online via my debit cards which I do so immediately. My last gas bill was £9 for the month and £45 for the electric also in a month. I've been using this system on a monthly basis for almost a decade and it is serving me well. I don't do direct debits based on guessimate readings and they get my money but not a penny more nor a penny less. :)
 
So there we was paying £200 a month gas/elec to the co-op- decided to check online and when we put in our current meter reading it turns out we owe them an extra £1000 !!!
Can they do this? We’ve been underpaying all that time and now we’ve caught up . It hurts !
Anyone had similar experiences??


What type of boiler do you have? This seems like a lot of money, although similar to me when we bought the house with a 34% efficient boiler which had to turn the heating on in order to get hot water. Changed to a Worcester Bosch combi and despite being a few sizes too big for the house the bills dropped to £150 combined in winter and around the £60 mark in winter. Gas cooker, tumble dryer, full house and all sorts on all the time etc.
 
Yes - a £100 a month for all that sounds pretty amazing. I wonder who is your supplier ?
Scottish power
 
I'm with the co-op (dual fuel) £120/pm. I give the readings every month online and everything works fine, I also get co-op points every time I give a reading. The online account page gives a day to day balance, so unless the o/p doesn't do things online I don't see how a 1grand underpayment couldn't have been noticed earlier. I find the Co-op to be an excellent provider and l'm sure you would be able to increase your payments to avoid a lump sum, unless you close your account of course then full payment would be expected.
 
Yes - a £100 a month for all that sounds pretty amazing. I wonder who is your supplier ?
Ours was £57 a month with Robin Hood energy for the last year, They have just upped it to £70. There's two of us at home, modern semi with two beds. We work from home so usually in during the day . You should go with a not-for-profit company, they're much better value.
 
£200/month and still underpaying? Where do you live, in a data centre?!

I had a similar issue with Npower, underpaid for ages because I kept forgetting to submit readings, got hit with a massive bill, ended up paying £150 a month to pay it off but that went on too long and ended up with a huge credit.

We now pay approx £55 a month for gas and electric for a three bed 70's semi. Have recently switched to bulb as they were almost the cheapest plus only buy from renewable sources which I liked. Also with their referral scheme it's worked out that we have only paid £5 a month so far. :D
 
There are two of us in a two bed semi and our current combined leccy/gas DD is £71 per month.
 
£200/month and still underpaying? Where do you live, in a data centre?!

I had a similar issue with Npower, underpaid for ages because I kept forgetting to submit readings, got hit with a massive bill, ended up paying £150 a month to pay it off but that went on too long and ended up with a huge credit.

We now pay approx £55 a month for gas and electric for a three bed 70's semi. Have recently switched to bulb as they were almost the cheapest plus only buy from renewable sources which I liked. Also with their referral scheme it's worked out that we have only paid £5 a month so far. :D

Only 55 quid a month for gas and electric, must get rather dark and cold during the winter months.
 
I also stopped the monthly fixed payment as I always ended up in credit and I'd rather the money in my bank than theirs. I changed to just paying what the bill comes too each month and use one of those smart meters now because I'd always forget to submit readings. Works out fine and you can tell from the amount debited if it's worth logging in and checking out usage.
 
I only pay £52 a month for gas and leccy, 2 bed apartment occupied 24/7, tvs and computers on most days from 0900 to 0300 due to son working from home.
 
I also stopped the monthly fixed payment as I always ended up in credit and I'd rather the money in my bank than theirs.
I've peen paying inflated monthly payments for a while and it suits me fine. I'm in credit to the tune of over six months' worth of energy, and the good but is that my energy supplier (Ovo) pays 5% interest on that credit balance whereas my bank pays diddly squat.
 
What type of boiler do you have? This seems like a lot of money, although similar to me when we bought the house with a 34% efficient boiler which had to turn the heating on in order to get hot water. Changed to a Worcester Bosch combi and despite being a few sizes too big for the house the bills dropped to £150 combined in winter and around the £60 mark in winter. Gas cooker, tumble dryer, full house and all sorts on all the time etc.

It was a 25 year old oil fired boiler. Not very efficient at all, and it was installed in the kitchen so made a heck of a racket when firing.
We've just had a Worcester-Bosch installed outside, although it's not a combi. That would have meant ripping up the floors to change pipework which we didn't want to do.
We also had very little in the way of control such as timers and no thermostatic valves on the rads so we've had all new timers and controllers so we can adjust termps at different times of the day and also had thermostatic valves fitted to all the rads.
I'm sure we will see a big saving next year when it comes to oil consumption.

Next year we are changing the hot water tank to a more efficient one and it will also be pressurised which means we will get better water pressure throughout the house and can get rid of the water tanks in the loft and the shower pump.
 
my fuel bill comes in at around £185 a month with EDF dual fuel
most of it is the elecy bill averaging £140 a month and £45 a month gas paid monthly direct debit

end terraced 4 bedroom house 15 years old filled with 3 teenage girls an 8 year old girl a 12 year old boy and me n the wife
you can imagine the amount of showers , baths , washing n drying, cooking , games consoles and other related items constantly in use

we're not quite up to £200 a month considering there's a hell of a lot going on every day, i would be questioning why your bills are so high
it takes quite a lot for that kind of bill
 
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3 bed detached here.
Leccy is £39 a month, gas just went up to£51 a month due to heavy winter/spring heating use.
That'll alter at the end of summer/autumn. It always does. :)
 
Get some older bills, preferably ones that have actual reads.
Use the data and go to a comparison site. See how much you can end paying.

If you don't have actual readings, they can only back bill you for a limited length of time.

Call your supplier if the difference from the comparison is massive, they may need to send someone out to check and calibrate the meter(s)
 
i think monthly meter reads with monthly billing is the way to go - i'm with outfox and they insist on monthly reads - i average £25 electric and £10 gas on a 2 bed flat
 
I'm staggered by some of the monthly fuel bills posted in this thread.
I mean, you accept that everyone's circumstances may be different, number of people in the household, house energy rating and all that stuff but hell, £200 does not cover fuel bills..????..wtff
4 bed semi £75......in winter, they probably pay me in summer
 
We are with Co-op energy, seems as though going by you guys we are using a lot of energy! We only have a 3 bed detached and there are four of us living here. We do have an outside hot -tub that we've had for 10 years but its only the last year we've had these high bills. We was paying £168 upto March 2017 then it was reduced to £121 until xmas 2017 then they put it up to £198 until the present - now they saying we owe £1200 !!
How can they put it down if we're using more??
Anyway I'm having it all investigated at the moment and expecting a call today
 
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So there we was paying £200 a month gas/elec to the co-op- decided to check online and when we put in our current meter reading it turns out we owe them an extra £1000 !!!
Can they do this? We’ve been underpaying all that time and now we’ve caught up . It hurts !
Anyone had similar experiences??

We are with Co-op energy, seems as though going by you guys we are using a lot of energy! We only have a 3 bed detached and there are four of us living here. We do have an ou

Do you not get a monthly reminder for meter readings and then jump on line and upload ?
 
I've peen paying inflated monthly payments for a while and it suits me fine. I'm in credit to the tune of over six months' worth of energy, and the good but is that my energy supplier (Ovo) pays 5% interest on that credit balance whereas my bank pays diddly squat.

Likewise but getting close to nearly a year in credit.
 
Does anyone know how to work out what a single item uses ? I'd like to know if our hot-tub is using excessive energy- it has its own mini-fuse board in the garage so was wondering if I could use one of those energy meters that clips over the cable?
 
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