Cheaper Electric Cheaper Electricity Bills

i want to change my gas and electric supplier but not shore who to go with ..can you tell me who your with and do you have problems with them …..IM WITH SWALEC

british gas.

Hey guys.

My sister received the keys to her new house on Thursday. The electricity meter is a pre-payment one. The problem is British Gas! She has called them several times since Tuesday as she has no electricity in the house (she has a baby of 8 months, also). BG have told her to get a pre-payment card from the shop and simply top the electric up… she’s tried several times but it doesn’t work. BG were supposed to arrive this morning to sort the meter out, they didn’t turn up! She called them again and was told they’d be there in the next 4 hours… again, they didn’t arrive.

She’s already set the ball rolling to change suppliers, but of course this takes time.

So my question is, what can she do?

Thanks very much for reading this

KC

My advice would be to contact the citizen’s advice bureau, as they shoud be able to give you legal advice and what kind of complaints procedure you could go through.

can someone help me please , iv been with scottish power for gas and elec for almost a year , i pay monthly direct debit of £45 , never missed payments
i got a letter today stating we have revised your monthly payments to £98 , this is ridiculous , i know i dont use a lot of electric , only as much as any other normal house, i may have used more gas during winter but no more than most people , i cant afford £98 , i am nort working , this is a joke , what can i do , other than change supplier and cancel my direct debit ? could there be a fault on my meter? this is stressing me out

Try phoning them,you may be able to sort it out without much fuss.

(please don’t say go to the CAB, tried that and found them to be of no practical help at all.)

They sent me a bill in March for over £620. I live alone, and despite relying on electric heating, my bill for the winter the previous year was a more reasonable £120.

They installed a pre-payment key meter in May, saying they would deduct £16.40 per week for the contended debt. They only started to collect it a few weeks ago.

Now the meter says I owe the over £1400 – why do Scottish Power think they can steal my money and I just have to accept it? The worst part is, you cannot change supplier if you have a debt to your current one.
Errrrr. I don’t have solicitor money.

Speak to Energywatch (www.energywatch.org.uk) they should be able to advise you what to do and they are really helpful.

can someone help me please , iv been with scottish power for gas and elec for almost a year , i pay monthly direct debit of £45 , never missed payments
i got a letter today stating we have revised your monthly payments to £98 , this is ridiculous , i know i dont use a lot of electric , only as much as any other normal house, i may have used more gas during winter but no more than most people , i cant afford £98 , i am nort working , this is a joke , what can i do , other than change supplier and cancel my direct debit ? could there be a fault on my meter? this is stressing me out

I’m assuming it was £45 for both gas and electricity all together, not each, which seems quite low. That equates to £540 for your yearly total in bills.
But nevertheless.

1. You could contact Scottish Power and ask them to put you on a slightly lower rate. If they are not helpful then your could switch your supplier.

2.There are many switching companies out there, like uswitch or energy helpline which are based on-line.
Find a good list of them on http://www.cheaperutilitybill.co.uk

3. Get Your previous month’s bill with you and note, how much you are being charged per unit. Then go to one of these switching companies, follow the instructions on line, and wait for them to find you the quote.

4. The once you have the quote, check which is cheaper for gas and electricity, gas only and electricity only, (more often than not, getting both gas and electricity from the same supplier is not always cheaper). The look carefully at the results to see how much their quote is in terms of cost per unit.

5. Energy Prices have risen , hence there is no guarantee it will be cheaper. But try this nevertheless.

I am with British Gas at the moment and I am finding we are getting bills in 4 a 4 week mth of over £90 (although we have a direct debit set up on both gas and electric for £50 a mth) No we are renting privately at the moment and the landlord has a certificate for the boiler to say that it is safe etc but is "Deteriorating" on the gas report. Now I would have thought that with a boiler going down hill like that it would have something to do with the costs? Me and my partner (no kids) both work 9-6 we do not have the heating on (we have a energy efficient heater in our living room) We have been in the property for 2 mths now and have had the heating on twice purely because we use the little heater
We are seriously thinking of changing to Ebico and having pre payment meters fitted on both as we can then keep watch on what we are using and not get a bill even after we are paying £50 on each with British Gas a mth!
What does anybody else think.
P.S Ebico do not charge anymore for us having a pre pay meter to paying by direct debit they charge the same price per kwh.
Tess

Yep I am with Ebico and pay £40 per month for electricity by direct debit. My unit price is 13.75. With my last supplier it was 23.17 per unit. They have a free phone customer service number rather than a tiresome 0870 number and you get to talk to a real person. Just about everyone I have told has now joined them.

When I moved into my 2 up 2 down terrace I was paying about £5 a week, rising to £7 a week in winter. Gradually it increased and so I bought an electric cooker, but my gas bill didn’t change so I switched to a cheaper supplier. However, since then the gas price has gone up again. Now I am having to put on £10 every other day just to keep the place warm. I have a baby and a 4 year old so I can’t leave the place without heating on as it gets incredibly cold. Is this price increase normal? Is it possible to be paying two suppliers at once? I pay by prepayment and when I changed suppliers I didn’t have to change the card. I am getting really stressed about this as I can’t afford to keep my kids warm. It’s so upsetting!

I have a very small two bedroom flat and my gas is £40 a month in winter and that’s just having the heating on for no more than 4 hours a day. My cooker is electric. I too have a prepayment card and what annoys me is that they are supposed to be for people who are on low incomes or who need to budget carefully, but the fuel companies charge us more for using them.
I would look into not changing your card when you changed suppliers, I got a new one when I did that.

What a con, my gas and electricity are with BG.
My Gas DD was £35 per month, most of our appliances are electric and the electric DD was £67 per month. No outstanding bills. In Sept they increased to £68 Gas & £145 Electric per month.
They did not inform me in writing, I was so disgusted that I cancelled both DDs and decided that I will pay when they send the bills.
I am over paid by £119 on the gas but they have sent 3 letters this week.
First stating that my electric bill is £178 over due, this was not the bill as I have not had one. Fine if that’s what it is then I will pay it. BUT I received a Second stating that I owe them £317 and the bill is two months overdue then a Third stating that if I do not pay my supply will be cut off on 11 November 1111 !! 3 years time.
Tried ringing cant get through, so now Im writing.
Then I will be changing supplier.
Has anyone else had these kind of problems.

Write to the ombudsman, can be found in the yellow pages or through Citizens Advice Bureau they are very good at threatening to cut people off and whacking up the bill when it suits them, make sure you take meter readings and pass them on to British Gas to make sure they are only billing you for what you have used. Even if you’re in dispute with them you won’t be able to change supplier and they may even screw up your credit rating just to stop you moving, the direct debit guarantee says that they must inform you of any difference in payments at least ten days before it is due, if they didn’t contact your bank and they will refund you. They only seem to answer the phone when it suits them and they never do what they say they are going to do. Good Luck i don’t think they’re very British at all

i have a small catering unit in garage conversion at home here in the uk, 3 phase is way out of my price range and i need a bigger oven i have a 3 phase one that is 7kw per phase and i can get it converted to single phase it is 4 deck and if i had all decks on ive been told it would need a 72 amp supply yet the whole house/garage is on a 60 amp main fuse,would the electric supplier up my supply and change the amps or would a 3 phase generator be better or maybe an inverter, the oven itself is a tom chandley convection oven and has no motors or blowers just top and bottom heating elements thanks to all the yahoo expert users who answer the questions

your electrical service needs to be updated unfortunately it is at your cost

At current I am on a top up key meter for electric and gas. With constantly changing energy prices I can not seem to find what the best supplier and/or Tariff for my household would be. I also fear one of those much heard about £700 gas bills.
Do you recommend I stay with top-up or do you truly save by going on a monthly tariff?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Please note that I am in the UK, so regional answers please
I have looked online and get so many conflicting answers that now it just makes no sense!

It will depend on where you live but pay as you go are always the most expensive tariffs so there will definitely be savings if you switch.
If you don’t want scary bills, monthly payments based on average usage may be your best option.
It will be useful but not essential if you can contact your current supplier and ask them what your last 12 months power consumption has been.
Then use the link below to get a realistic idea.