Gas and Electricity Arrears Help

The last thing a homeowner wants is to be cut off from gas and electricity because of some late or skipped payments. That is why it is important to keep up with the payments on your gas and electricity bills, as these constitute the basis for everyday living, thus you cannot afford living without these services. On the other hand, many times people consider it more important covering other outstanding debts, with the result that there will be no enough left for gas and electricity payments.

Just as turning to professional counseling when you have other outstanding debts is important, so is the case when there are unpaid gas and electricity bills. Notifying your main supplier about the fact that given your present financial condition does not allow you to pay your bills at such high rates is very important. They also do have a code of ethics, which means their position requires from them to deal with customers in a certain way, be open to arrangements and negotiations, so that people who find themselves in the difficulty of making on time payments but are struggling, can have access to their services. This doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay for your bills, but this means that upon arrangements it is possible for you to make payments in installments which are really affordable to you.

There is always one way for you to make your payments and do not get disconnected from gas and electricity services. Here are some of the options:

Contact your main gas/electricity supplier and propose that you can only pay your bill in smaller portions (installments). Be careful though, if you really decide to propose this measure that you must under any circumstances have your bill paid in full up until the arrival of the next one. For example, if you have a bill for $100 and you wish to pay it in installments of say $25, you can do it as long as until the arrival of the next bill, this debt is cleared off (paid in full).
If you got too tangled up in unpaid bills, you somehow must get out of it. Ask your main supplier about the possibilities of drawing up a plan, so that you can start clearing off your debt. Most of the times, there will be an agreement that you pay a portion of the amount towards the arrears while the other portion towards the services you presently use. So, if you have arrears of $300 and what you presently consume costs you say $50, then upon agreement you could pay $70 for example (from which $20 goes towards arrears and the rest for what you currently use). It will take some time however until you manage to clear off you debt, but it is a solution for not being cut off.
Prepayment gas and electricity meters- much controversy around these types of measures and views are shared: some consider it a good measure others consider it only another way of accumulating more debt.

For gas and electricity one will always have to pay for, but even if not significantly reducing the costs, there are some ways one can save. For example, you could adjust your thermostat at lower values, so that on the long term you will notice that you pay less; or, favor the energy saving light bulbs instead of the old-fashioned ones which just add tremendously to your electricity bill.

Try and keep up with your payments on gas and electricity bills, do not make excess of any of these, and then whenever that quarterly arrives you will not be wondering what it is that costs you so much. If you consider that you have been treated unfairly regarding the services of your main gas supplier, then you should contact the Energy Ombudsman which fairly deals with complaints on gas/electricity related issues.