Hi,
Just a quick question about electricity! Moved into a rented house a few months ago. I've just had a bill for my electricity and it's £30 a month. This might sound a bit stupid but this is the first time i've had to pay for bills and for 2 people sharing a house, £30 a month seemed quite expensive! I heard the other week that it's about 33p a day - not sure if that's true though!
Any help on this would be really appreciated!
thanks

£30 a month is a bit expensive, it must be like a oven in there with the heat, I am in a 2 bedroom flat and my quartely bill doesnt even reach £70, I know electricity is more expensive during the day, so maybe thats the answer.

I am sure others will have there say on this.

Maybe you should think of changing to another elec provider, who are you with ?

im on a meter and mine is about 20 a month, thats a 2 bedhouse 2 people, heating an immersion heater everyday(no central heating) and iworkng mon-fri full time.

mine will be more because of it being on a meter, but that is expensive who is ur supplier

It's with British Gas. Don't think I can change the supplier because it's a rented house. We've got a gas oven so I can't see why it's so much (although I don't really know much about this kind of thing!)
thanks!

hi, if its any help my last quaterly electric bill was £56 and i have 2 kids and im home all day,so yours does sound a bit pricy
dont no if its true but i was told if you pay with the token things your electricity is more,my washer is on everyday,and other bits,i live in a 3 bed house,i am with british gas,

Have you set up a direct debit agreement? If so it could be that the monthly charge is £30 a month and you will always be in credit, some guys at work do it this way and then get the refund when they are skint.

u should be able to go with what ever supplier u want, ask ur landlord, is it private or council?

yeh Jaynos,how are you paying your bill??

The gas and electric companies like to have customers pay above their needs so that their "virtual account" is always in credit. THEY then gain interest on all their customers credits.

Should take a meter reading as soon as poss and get your payments reduced to an accurate amount.

btw- even tho ur in a rented house you can change your supplier :D

Originally posted by scottf
btw- even tho ur in a rented house you can change your supplier :D

I would check with your landlord first, it may be in the contract that you can't change suppliers without his permission

have a look and see whether that is an estimated bill or not.

Wow! Thanks for all your help everyone! - it's really appreciated!
I'm paying for the bill by direct debit. The bill says that is what I will be paying each month. Razorsharp's comment about the credit thing was interesting. I hadn't realised that this is how the company works, it wasn't explained when I phoned up to organise the direct debit, i just thought i would be paying for what i was using. I read the meter when I first moved into the property and I've had a note through the door saying that someone will be coming to read the meter.
Just phoned my mum about this, she says she's paying about £90 per quarter - that's for a family of 5, so in comparison, mine does seem to be too much
Would it be better to pay for the bill via a cheque or just keep with the direct debit?
Thanks again for all your help!!

If you keep paying £30 by DD and are paying for more than you are using then after 12 months they usually adjust the payments, either increasing ir decreasing as neccessary.

They take a typical snapshot price for a fully operating property ie kids and parent/s at home all day etc.

When you get your first actual bill see how much you have used and then if its way out contact them and get the payment changed.

Do remember though that we are not into winter yet and the bills get higher during winter and lower into summer.

On direct debit the provider will base your monthly payments on the entire annual use and then divide by 12.

I had an absolute nightmare initially when I moved into my rented flat. It's all electric and my bills were sky high. I had a direct debit set up for £50 per Month but my consumption was £100 Per Month!! Turned out my emersion was on, it had been constantly on for 6 Months!!

Once I sorted this my bills dropped to approx £40 a QUARTER so £30 PM is steep. They are probably working on an estimate for the property so I would first get a meter reading and submit it, take another one a Month later to find out your consumption and then you can drop your DD accordingly.

My electric bill works out at about a £1 a day for a family of 4 in a 3 bed house, if thats any help.

If you are able to change your utility supplier try having a look on www.uswitch.com this site compares all available utility bill suppliers and will list the cheapest. Its then just a matter of providing certain details and you get a seamless switch. The only thing you will notice is that your bills are provided by a different supplier.

Are you all electric or do you have gas as well? If you are all electric then £30 a month sounds about right to me. My bills vary between £30 to £60 a month depending on the time of year.

I'm on gas as well.
Thanks to everyone who's helped me out on this. Gonna keep a close eye on the meters from now on, so hopefully that should try to get the bills down a bit!

Me and all my friends are in seperate rented houses and have figured out that so far electric has been about £10 per person per month (so if there's 2 in the house, the bill was about £20) Only had one bill each so far though so I may be wildly wrong!

This "calculation" was based on about 5 electricity bills covering houses of different sizes/tenants so I reckon it's pretty accurate.