Massive bill from the ESB, no way we can pay

Vicxas

Hi Guys,

I posted this in consumer issues too, but i thought i might get an answer here too.

As the title suggests we've recieved a massive bill from the ESB for 409 Euro. This cant be right as we've been receiving bills for around 100 euro since we've moved in. We're at a loss here as to what to do, could it be a account error or something?

Is there anything we can do as we cant afford for this to come out in one lump sum.

fungun

how many bills have been 100 euro?
Were they all estimates and this is the first bill that is from a genuine reading for a few months? If so, this might explain it.

Id contact them, explain you have no budget for this and you could pay it off over 6 months or something; they are probably used to these issues from their 'estimate' system, where there can end up being a reasonably large correction one month.

Moonbeam

Were all your other bills estimates?
Just ring them with a meter reading and they can tell you if it is an estimate or the actual amount.
Then you can arrange a payment plan with them.

Neyite

Check your meter readings - on your meter and also on all your bills. It sounds like your bills were estimates and they finally sent someone around to read the meter and adjusted it. On your bill, if you see the meter number with an "E" after it, it means they estimated it.

I would suggest that you keep paying them a few quid on the account whenever you can over a few months - say 20 a week or more if you can. Call them to discuss it. I think if they see efforts to pay they would be reluctant to cut you off.

Thats how I did it when they lumped a bill on me like that. Then I switched to Bord Gais and now my bills are averaged out monthly throughout the year.

Vicxas

Thats what we'll have to do as we've been receiving estimates alright, Will have to call them later and arrange a price plan with them.

twistables

It could also be the 300euro security deposit they put onto accounts if not paying by direct debit, which would explain why the bill has jumped up by 300 this month, my self and the partner got one awhile ago with this added into the bill,

Vicxas

We've been paying by DD for over a year so i dont think its that. I have to get the missus to call as its her name on the bill.... grrrr

looksee

You can ask the ESB to spread the extra cost over a few months. I would be wary of the averaged out bill system though, we went on it for a while and I really felt that the bills were very high - they kept telling me that it was because the 'high' ie winter charges were spread throughout the year, but I was getting 'winter' charges all year round! Compared with bills from the previous year, before we went on the averaged system, they just did not make sense.

Taltos

OP - per our charter:

You only need to start one thread - starting numerous threads over a short period of time will be considered attention whoring and they will be closed.

Please review our charter before posting in PI/RI again, due to the sensitive nature of some of the issues here we are quite strict about our rules.

Thanks
Taltos