Gas and electric

[Flora]

I pay my gas and electric by direct debit.

 

Tbh I don't normally read the quarterly statements they send me.... as far as I'm concerned it's paid and that's that. Today I decided to read them and was amazed to find that I was in credit with both of these accounts and not only a little bit either! I'm talking a very welcome and timely (Christmas is coming) substantial windfall. The note on the statement said 'we will carry your credit forward to your next bill'... I thought 'NO YOU WONT!', and I rang them to ask 'for my money please', then read them the meters over the phone (the bill was an estimate) to find that they'd over estimated my usage and in fact owed me rather a lot more than was on the statement.

 

I'm now waiting for all this lovely money to plop into my account via bacs.

 

 

Flozxxxx

[ScienceGeek]

Excellent news! Getting money back is always a good feeling.

[warrenpenalver]

cool!!!

 

I heard a news article the other day about the fact that for the majority its the other way round when they give a meter reading!!! Some people thousands out!!

 

I paying �40 per month Gas and �40 per month electricity. IM hoping with the fact that i have all energy saving bulbs and A rated equipment plus the fact i only have 1 light on at any one time and turn all except fridges off a night that i wont be too much over that amount. Im hoping the gas is similar as the boilers only on for about 1 hour a day and off completely some days.

[warrenpenalver]

apparently fuel poverty is when more than 10% of your income goes on energy costs. I wonder how many ordinary families that effects now??

[Kazzen161]

You should be fine. I pay about the same for a family of 4.

 

When I moved in, I took Gas and Elec meter readings once a week for a few months, and then multiplied it to give me a rough idea of what my annual bill would be. You need to allow for extra in winter, but it gives you some idea.

[Tally]

I paid mine by direct debit for two, but they kept putting the direct debits up and up, even though I was already in credit. In the end I came off the direct debits and paid by quarterly bill. I was so much in credit that I didn't have to pay anything for two years, so I had been paying double for two years. Imagine how much I would have been overpaying if I hadn't noticed!

 

Suppliers are deliberately overcharging so that they can earn interest on people's overpayments.

[pearl]

Its great when that happens

Many years ago when we were young & foolish, we bought our first house & paid our bills regularly.

FIVE YEARS later we discovered we'd been paying our electricity at a higher business tariff (previous owners ran a cable to some stables) and a three figure sum was owed us.

 

I rang the man all excited. Sorry love, he says, you should have known .... water under the bridge, I'm afraid

Erm - WHY should I have known? It was my first house, I'd never seen an electricity bill before.

 

I promptly burst into tears & shouted down the phone, IF I OWED IT TO YOU YOUD BE SENDING THE BAILIFFS ROUND, I'M 3 MONTHS PREGNANT & ON BED REST, IF I LOSE THIS BABY ITS ALL YOUR FAULT !!!!!!!!!

 

Two days later a nice fat cheque arrived

 

And my baby is now 24

[Enid]

wow! good oh yer! Enid

[warrenpenalver]

yeah strange how they become real nasty when you owe them but are really "shy" about paying back when youve overpaid.

[Babylicious]

brilliant!

[warrenpenalver]

I wonder if i will have baliffs round soon Had a letter yesterday where the paper had moved so i couldnt see name so i opened it and it was a electricity bill for the previous owner!!! It was �1127!!!!! How did they manage to get that big a bill???? Even if they were a heavy user thats still a years worth of electric!! Youd think theyd have been cut off before then.

[Tally]

Warren, you should ring the electricity board and explain you opened the letter by mistake, but the people have moved out. If you have a forwarding address, you could offer to give them it. Any more mail you get addressed to the previous owner, you should return unopened. Just write on the front of the envelope something like, "no longer at this address, please forward to: (and then copy the address from the back of the envelope)." Once people get 3 letters returned, they normally stop sending them to you. This is what I was advised to do with the Ex's post from debt collectors, and I they all stopped pretty quickly

[warrenpenalver]

The wierd thing is all the letters ive had seem to be for lots of different people!!! I know the previous tenants (before i bought) were workshy loosers but didnt know loads of people lived in the house

[pearl]

Has anyone on the forum had their meter replaced this summer? Dont know if its a nationwide thing but Mum & I both have.

 

Anyhoo, I received an ENORMOUS gas bill this morning, for the summer quarter. And the helpful chart they provide showed that I had used THREE TIMES as much gas as the same quarter last year. That cant be right, I thought, so I went to the meter to do a reading, but the numbers didnt in any way shape or form correspond with what was on the gas bill.

 

So I rang them & provided the reading, at which point she said, have you had your meter changed? Oooh yes I said, having forgotten all about it. Then I found the card that the meter man had left, giving the last reading from the old meter and the first reading from the new.

 

Now listen to this .... the last reading from the OLD meter was LOWER than the first reading on the bill! Also, the bill said I had provided a reading from the old meter - THREE MONTHS after it had been changed !!!!

 

Cue profuse apologies, and a promise of a revised bill, which should be at least two thirds lower. Makes you wonder how many other people have been stung like this. And I'll be keeping a close eye on Mums next bill.

[chris54]

Gas and electric meters are changed every 20 or so years.

 

I have always checked the readings on the GAS, ELECTRIC and WATER meters. It surprises me that others don't do the same. By and large the readings have always been correct. The few times it has been wrong I have had no trouble getting things put right.

 

When we moved earlier this year it did take about 3 months to convince B.G. how where not my supplier that I no longer lived at my old address and I did not want a card meter there, why would I as I don't live there and I have never had a card meter from any one and never asked for one.They even started sending my letters about the card meter I had? at my old address to my new address, along with the card to use with it. Hope your following this.

 

I contacted Head of complaints at B.G. and its been 3 weeks now and not heard anything so maybe there now have the message. But we will see.

 

One of my dads obsessions was writing down the meter readings every day.When he died my mother found all the utility bills going back over 30 years.

[warrenpenalver]

They do seem to make lots of mess ups!!!

 

Just out of interest, why would anyone VOLUNTARILY choose to go on a card meter????

 

My house had a card gas meter with debt off previous owner and i had to go through hell to get them to change it to a normal meter. The prices on card meters are a rip off compared to normal ones.

[pookie170]

Ummm.....I do. Our income has been very changeable, and never exactly copious anyway, so I pay it that way in order to avoid big bills at the end of the quarter. That way, I know I can't spend the money on other things like food.

The meters do make things dearer, yes, but in my case, and in the case of most of us that use them, its a choice dictated by circumstance. When you've got 2 littl'uns you really cant afford to be cut off.

[ScienceGeek]

We were on a card meter at our old flat, not by choice but because it was already there. Although it was a good thing when my wife was working for an agency and was weekly paid, we're both not very good with budgeting so putting the money on the card each week was helpful. Now we have a quarterly meter in the new flat and are currently awaiting a bill from the energy company.

[warrenpenalver]

Thought you could have monthly direct debit?? Thats what i do.

 

I thought with card meters the problem is you dont pay you DO get cut off ?????? where as bill payments it takes quite a while to get cut off.

 

Personally id think the saving from monthly bills when on a low income is worth the hassle of budgeting (or saving monthly utilities in an account)???? Just seems to me the utilitie companys take advantage of poor people whove been forced onto card meters by charging them more. Kind of riping off the poor while the rich get better rates.

[ScienceGeek]

"we're both not very good with budgeting"

 

So it wouldn't have mattered if we could have got paid by direct debit we would normally forget the date it was going through, therefore not enough money being in for the payment. We got into stupid financial situations because of direct debits bouncing and then the banks charging �37 for each declined payment.