Cheaper Electric Cheaper Electricity Bills

well basically i owed a gas/electric company some money on my bill i could not afford to pay the bill so thye installed a meter so i could pay the debt whilst using my electric ,now i changed companys but was still paying the debt on my meter anywasy i have paid all except 39.00 but i have my old electric company who i owed the money too sending me letters to say i still owe naerlly most of the debt i do not , they said because i changed company my new supplier would have the money infact it was not going to them ,my new supplier say im not in credit with them now i have a debt company called past due credit hounding me for the money i have already paid ,i do not and will not pay twice, i reluctantly offerd to pay in small instalments as i am a single mum to 3 small kids on benefits now that was ok but because i didnt have a lump sum to put down today to activate the instalment account they told me thye was taking me to court?? now i do know if i am offering to pay something even though i should not have to that thye cannot take me to court ,it is not my fault that i didnt have any money today to give them infact they were very rude, i was told they cannot take me to court for such a small amount and if im offering instalments??? thanks in advance
i live in norfolk and yes i probably was left with the bill because i changed companys and this i explained to the company i owe thy said i was not to worry and they will pursue my new supplier for the money but now thye call me everyday and send me letters all the time ,i can only offer i cant pay if they wont let me pay in instalments ,if they said yes i can pay in instalments then iwould have innstead thye was very rude and told me legal action was now taking place

Your description is very confusing.

You didn’t say where you live, and that may make a difference.

I can’t tell enough from your comments to know how to answer you, BUT I CAN tell you that "offering installments" doesn’t keep them from suing you. PAYING installments does. Offering is just words, it’s ONLY your ACTIONS that count.
cw

We have oil central heating, and no gas in our village, I am just looking into changing my electricity supplier. I am currently with Southern Electric. My monthly charge has gone up to £52. Someone from Scottish Power called round and I switched to them, but I’m not sure if I’ve done the right thing. I’ve been with S. Electric for 10 years and never had a problem. The salesman for Scottish Power said that they have no standing charges so their prices are cheaper. After he left, I couldn’t understand the tariffs! I’m not sure whether to cancel, I’ve got a 7 day cooling off period. Has anyone switched and actually saved money? Who did you use?
Thanks.

best bet is to contact everyone you know and ask them — myself i have no choice but to use southwest!!!

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