Gas / Elec suppliers billing enquiry

[Alf W]

I'm sure some of you must have worked on billing systems that the gas/electricity suppliers use so you may be able to answer this.

Say I was to supply meter readings to them as an update. If, by mistake, I happened to enter the numbers way higher than they actually were, would that mean I'd effectively pre-purchased a load of gas and electricity at the old price before the price hike came into effect?

[Spacecadet]

I'm currently almost £300 in credit with my Electricity supplier EON

All it means is that there is a cash credit on my account, not an energy credit, so i'm still charged at the price the energy when I use it, not at the price the energy was when I was paying too much.

[ASB]

I'm sure some of you must have worked on billing systems that the gas/electricity suppliers use so you may be able to answer this.

Say I was to supply meter readings to them as an update. If, by mistake, I happened to enter the numbers way higher than they actually were, would that mean I'd effectively pre-purchased a load of gas and electricity at the old price before the price hike came into effect?

If they don't notice yes. However some billing systems certainly "see" large difference as possible errors and act accordingly (some providers may email you to say "is this right"). I suspect you might have some difficulty you used 100mwh or plastic trickery last month and none for the next 1000 years though.

[chef]

they may think you've got yourself a homegrown cannabis growing haven.. expect to have a late night visit from drugs division..

[TimberWolf]

I keep my gas bill in credit. The first time they overcharged me based on an estimate and the credit from that lasted a year or so. Last months bill was about a £1, so I wrote out a cheque for a tenner, which should last a couple of quarters or so.

[Gonzo]

If they don't notice yes. However some billing systems certainly "see" large difference as possible errors and act accordingly (some providers may email you to say "is this right"). I suspect you might have some difficulty you used 100mwh or plastic trickery last month and none for the next 1000 years though.

It took London Electricity (as they were then) three and a half years to pick up the fact that my day meter was broken and the reading had stopped going up.

They even wrote twice to say that they did not believe the reading that their own person had taken so they were sending an estimated bill instead.

They would have stiffed me on the meter change-over though if I hadn't been there to take all the readings from the old and new meters when they did it.