Understanding your Gas and Electricity Bills
If you want a cheap gas bill or a cheap electricity bill, it helps to gain a greater understanding of what you are being charged for.
Many customers complain that they don’t understand how their utility bills work and therefore don’t know exactly what their costs are and what they can do to change them.
That is why we have taken a typical utility bill, below, and attempted to explain each term through our numbered links as part of our energy bill guide.
Your Gas and Electricity Bills Explained
There are two images showing the front and back of a typical bill. Use our guide below to learn more about your gas bill or electricity bill.
1. Account number: Used to identify your bill details.
2. Bill breakdown: Summarises your gas bill and/or electricity bill with charges, discounts and VAT included.
3. Total payment due: The bottom line payment that you owe for that period.
4. Date and package information: When your bill was issued and the name of your tariff.
5. Contact information: How to contact your gas and electricity provider if you have any bill related queries.
6. Electricity supply number: For electricity customers this is a unique meter number usually situated on the front of the bill.
7. Message panel: Details of potentially money saving promotions from your supplier.
8. Account details: Outlines your recent payments and the dates they were made.
9. Bill breakdown: An explanation of how your bill was calculated. This will usually begin with your meter reading (taken by the company, supplied or estimated) and is followed by the unit price to calculate fuel costs. Additional charges (such as standing orders) and discounts are then outlined before a total amount due is shown.
10. Total charges:The amount payable after all charges and discounts are taken into account.
11. Meter point reference number: For gas customers this is a unique meter number usually situated on the reverse of a bill.
12. Important information: An outline of what to do in an emergency.
13. In case of emergency - electricity: Contact details in case you suffer an electricity-related emergency, such as a loss of supply.
14. In case of emergency - gas: Contact details in case you suffer a gas-related emergency, such as a loss of supply.
15. Minicom service: Details of a service for the hard of hearing.
16. Calculating your gas charge: How to work-out the amount owed on your gas bill.
17. Code of practice/priority service: Details of additional services including customer complaints, special needs, prepayments, visits and more.
18. Unhappy with the service: How to contact the supplier if you have an unresolved issue. Each bill should also supply contact details for consumer organisation energywatch in case you are unhappy with your supplier’s response.
Hopefully you now have a greater understanding of how your utility bills work.
If you are not happy with the amount you are being charged and want cheap gas bills or cheap electricity bills you should search for better deals using our
gas and electricity comparison tool.
Compare Gas and Electricity now with our free comparison service
