Check your meter readings, people!

Narj · 7 Sep 2012 at 08:26

Well, I thought I'd log in to my energy provider account yesterday to check how my usage is going, seeing as someone came to read the meter a little while ago (they weren't the sharpest tool in the box).

It seems the special person they sent round was completely unable to distinguish between "6" and "7" on the second digit so my electricity use apparently jumped up by ~500 quid from the previous bill. Apparently this doesn't trigger any alarms at all. :confused:

Also, the sods had me over £300 in credit before this happened so I'll be getting that out once it's sorted.

Just a bit of a heads up really, watch your energy bills like a hawk, and don't give them free loans! The problem with Direct Debit is that you just tend to assume it's ok most of the time, especially where they are adjusting it as needed rather than taking the full amount each month.

TL

R - Being lazy and not keeping an eye on your bills can end up with you getting done over.

Theophany · 7 Sep 2012 at 08:30

As usual, my advice is this is why you shouldn't use direct debit on anything that isn't a fixed outgoing.

That way, your retain ultimate oversight on anything that could potentially put you in a tough financial position.

Edrof · 7 Sep 2012 at 08:31

It seems I've lucked out recently. My gas meter is unregistered, meaning I can use as much gas as I like but nobody can charge me.

Winning!

Narj · 7 Sep 2012 at 08:32

Theophany said:
As usual, my advice is this is why you shouldn't use direct debit on anything that isn't a fixed outgoing.

That way, your retain ultimate oversight on anything that could potentially put you in a tough financial position.

The problem is that you usually get a discount for using direct debit on utility bills, which provides an incentive. There's also the issue that I'm quite scatterbrained and tend to end up paying bills last minute if they aren't DD!

But yes, I'm considering paying these bills monthly by card now as it's immediately obvious if anything's wrong. :mad:

Theophany · 7 Sep 2012 at 08:34

Narj said:
The problem is that you usually get a discount for using direct debit on utility bills, which provides an incentive. There's also the issue that I'm quite scatterbrained and tend to end up paying bills last minute if they aren't DD!

But yes, I'm considering paying these bills monthly by card now as it's immediately obvious if anything's wrong.

Just set up a reminder in a calendar or similar, that's what I do as my memory for this kind of thing is appalling. You also get a **** ton of email reminders to pay too!

I think with British Gas the incentive to set up a DDM was a few hundred Nectar points, which were worth bugger all anyway. Earn more on my weekly shop!

estebanrey · 7 Sep 2012 at 08:40

Narj said:
There's also the issue that I'm quite scatterbrained and tend to end up paying bills last minute if they aren't DD!

Which is a good thing as you'll earn interest you wouldn't have otherwise.

I stopped paying my mobile bill by DD after Orange said they couldn't move the date they took it out. So I cancelled the DD and pay manually now, only I pay roughly 28 days after the DD would have otherwise come out.

bledd · 7 Sep 2012 at 08:43

Edrof said:
It seems I've lucked out recently. My gas meter is unregistered, meaning I can use as much gas as I like but nobody can charge me.

Winning!

I used to work for a major electricity / gas seller. One of the high up blokes said that they had at least 30000 unknown records on their accounts. Basically they have the mpan number but no other details, no meter readings, no address

So unless a customer called up to complain that they weren't being billed, they get free utilities!

Records were typically lost when they acquired smaller companies and merged with them.

Personally, I have mine on DD and I give them quarterly meter readings.

I always pay about 10 more each month, to cover price increases

Edrof · 7 Sep 2012 at 08:57

Sadly they got in touch with me recently (British Gas). It's been free since April, though, which is a nice bonus. Probably won't be billed until October now. Shame it wasn't over winter, though!

krooton · 7 Sep 2012 at 09:30

I'm on DD, but submit my reading every month, so everything is pretty accurate.

BigChief · 7 Sep 2012 at 10:03

I do my meter reading regularly, switched to First:Utility 2 months ago having come off a great fixed rate with another supplier. Did the usual price comparison to make sure I was getting the best deal. What comes through the door last week? A letter to say they are putting prices up by 10%...sigh. Need to look into how long I'm tied in with them, as it now puts them more expensive than competitors.

PistolPete · 7 Sep 2012 at 10:32

I read mine on the 1st of every month, and submit via their app.
I had a similar thing years back where I got a 18k bill as the person reading the gas put 90xxx instead of 09xxx.

PhillyDee · 7 Sep 2012 at 10:35

Edrof said:
It seems I've lucked out recently. My gas meter is unregistered, meaning I can use as much gas as I like but nobody can charge me.

Winning!

A unit I used to rent was like that. Electric was fine, the gas meter did not exist. Phoned up transco and everyone, only to get, that property does not have a gas meter and the meter reference number is not on our database, ring (this other company). I gave up in the end. Apparently the pipe was there, but it was capped off at the mains. Well, no, it was not, and it worked fine.

My lasses old work was the same, but their meter was hidden 3 basements down.

bledd · 7 Sep 2012 at 10:38

PhillyDee said:
My lasses old work was the same, but their meter was hidden 3 basements down.

A lot of people just concrete over them

Porceliamone · 7 Sep 2012 at 10:43

Edrof said:
It seems I've lucked out recently. My gas meter is unregistered, meaning I can use as much gas as I like but nobody can charge me.

Winning!

Someone is supplying the gas and when it all catches up (it will eventually) you won't enjoy the huge bill that lands on your doormat.

There's always someone who thinks they won't have to pay in these cases and when it turns out that they actually do it somehow comes as a shock.

EDIT: Just saw your latest post. If BG have decided not to charge you then that's their choice and frankly a poor decision from a business perspective. I'd wait and see the size of the bill you get though. You might still get a shock.

Zogger · 7 Sep 2012 at 11:06

Personally I owe npower about £300 because they messed up my direct debits when I switched to the santander cashback account and didn't charge me at-all for a few months. I'm on a monthly dd so I'm happy for them to take it back as slowly as they like...

I won't be using npower again once this fix is up though because I get the impression they have absolutely no idea what's going on with my account, their meter read reminder service has never once reminded me to read my meter. The readings I do give them always show as a different date on the bill which is confusing. They seem to send me bills on a 2 month basis even though I'm on a monthly dd, they randomly switched me on to the standard tariff for no reason even though I was on a fix and had to complain to get switched back. blegh

at least british gas were reasonably unconfusing, but won't be going back to them either since they report your details to credit reference agencies without consent..

On the plus side for npower at least they noticed when I accidentally put an extra digit in my meter reading.

Philz0r · 7 Sep 2012 at 11:07

i pay £70 dd for dual energy.

got a statment the other day, "your 200 in credit so we are reducing you to £48". in winter wont i be using a lot more power and get a statment next year saying im now at £100 per month or somthing?

The-Plethora · 7 Sep 2012 at 11:08

Try to send in readings semi regularly online (NPower do this). When I moved in they took a standard monthly fee out and when the meter is read by their meter readers I thought nothing of it till I got a £650 bill in the post.

MissChief · 7 Sep 2012 at 11:16

Philz0r said:
i pay £70 dd for dual energy.

got a statment the other day, "your 200 in credit so we are reducing you to £48". in winter wont i be using a lot more power and get a statment next year saying im now at £100 per month or somthing?

Personally I would ask them to leave it as it is and provide monthly readings. You might end up using loads if it's a cold winter.

Edrof · 7 Sep 2012 at 11:20

Porceliamone said:
Someone is supplying the gas and when it all catches up (it will eventually) you won't enjoy the huge bill that lands on your doormat.

EDIT: Just saw your latest post. If BG have decided not to charge you then that's their choice and frankly a poor decision from a business perspective. I'd wait and see the size of the bill you get though. You might still get a shock.

According to what BG have told me I have nothing to worry about. At first I was concerned that I would be landed with a large, back-dated bill and so I paid the original BG bills that came through the door even though the meter was 'under investigation' at the time, but they've said they shouldn't have charged me anything and even refunded all that (hundreds of pounds) and apologised.

The service has been nice from then, surprisingly.

Porceliamone · 7 Sep 2012 at 11:35

Edrof said:
According to what BG have told me I have nothing to worry about. At first I was concerned that I would be landed with a large, back-dated bill and so I paid the original BG bills that came through the door even though the meter was 'under investigation' at the time, but they've said they shouldn't have charged me anything and even refunded all that (hundreds of pounds) and apologised.

The service has been nice from then, surprisingly.

Well in that case you're a very lucky boy!

I still can't see why they would have refunded sums to you if you'd been using the energy they had been providing. Strange, but a bit of a result for you nontheless.