Statement FAQs

There are a few reasons why you might receive an unexpected large bill.

1. The last bill you received was underestimated and, now that we’ve received a reading, we’ve sent you a catch‐up bill. 

Every home in the UK has an official estimate of how much energy it will use in a year. This is based on historic meter readings. It’s updated each time we receive a meter reading and passed on to your new supplier whenever you switch. 

If there are big changes in how you use energy in your home, or if we haven’t received a meter reading from you in a while, our estimates can fall short of your actual usage. This means that when we are able to bill you to accurate meter readings, the charges have to catch up, resulting in a larger bill than you might have expected. 

To avoid catch-up bills, be sure to provide us with monthly meter readings or ask one of the team to book in a smart meter installation for you. If you’d like to submit a meter reading now, click here or log in via the app or portal.  

If you’re not sure how to read your meter, you can find some instructions here. If you’re worried about being able to pay your catch‐up bill, contact us and we can set you up with a payment plan.

2. There is a typo in your latest reading
Sometimes meter readings can come through in the wrong order or include decimals when they shouldn’t. 

To check your meter readings, have a look at page two of your bill or visit the ‘meter readings’ page on the app or portal. If the meter readings don’t match what you have seen on your meter, contact us with the correct reading and, if possible, a clear photo of the meter showing the meter reading and meter serial number so that we can correct this for you. 

3. Good Energy has the wrong meter details for you
When a meter exchange takes place, the meter operator (usually SMS) lets Good Energy and other industry parties know about it. These should automatically update Good Energy’s records so that the customer’s billing remains accurate. 

Sometimes, this data can contain small errors or get lost in transit; and sometimes meters are exchanged in emergencies and data isn’t sent at all. This can lead to inaccurate account information and inaccurate billing. 

To check if the meter details we hold are correct, check that the meter serial number listed on page two of your bills matches the number you can see on your meter. If you’re unsure, email us a photo of your meter, clearly showing the meter reading, the meter serial number and any yellow tags or labels attached to the meter. It’s also useful if you can confirm: 

• Your supply address as seen on your council tax bill or the Post Office website 
• The location of your meter (inside/outside/in a bank of meters) 

4. You recently moved into a property or switched the supply, and the change of supply reading or change of tenancy reading was estimated.
If you move into a property or switch your property’s supply to Good Energy and don’t provide us with a meter reading, we’ll estimate one based on the historic meter readings held for the property. If this reading underestimates previous usage, then you may be left with a catch-up bill. 

If you are renting, the Lettings Agent normally provides a start of tenancy reading as part of their check–in report. Email this meter reading to us and we will correct your bill. 

If you can’t find an accurate meter reading for the period, email us a photo of your current meter reading, showing the meter reading and meter serial number. We will then ask you to send two more meter readings a week apart to help us to re-estimate your starting reason.  

We may only be able to adjust this reading so far without proof, so be sure to note your meter readings whenever you move or switch. 

If you have recently switched to us but your first bill doesn’t list the meter reading you provided to us, this may be because the reading you original provided failed a tolerance test. To get this corrected, email us with a photo of your current meter reading and meter serial number and we can raise a dispute with your previous supplier. Disputes can only be raised if the meter readings exceed certain tolerances: 

• Electricity meter readings must differ by more than 250kWh 
• Gas meter readings must differ by more than 109m3 or 39ft3 

Disputes can take several weeks, even months, to resolve as there’s often some back and forth required. Please be patient with us. Once a new opening meter reading is agreed, both Good Energy and your previous supplier will rebill you.

5. You have an Economy 7 meter and we’re billing your registers the wrong way around. 

An Economy 7 meter is a meter that registers two different meter readings – usually a day reading and a night reading. These are charged at different rates. 

Occasionally, meter readings either get allocated to the wrong register, or are labelled as the wrong register, so we bill your day usage as if it were night usage and vice versa.  

In both cases, a test called Timed Meter Readings will confirm which way around the meter readings and registers should be. To do this, take a meter reading sometime between 8am and midday. Wait a few hours and take another meter reading sometime before 11pm. Only one of the two readings should change. This is your day register and reading. 

If you think the readings on your bills are the wrong way around, send us an email with the photos of your timed meter readings, along with the date and time they were taken, and we’ll get this corrected for you. 

6.You’re using more than you realise or there’s a problem with your meter. 

Electricity and gas meters are reliable devices and very rarely go wrong. Usually, the problem is simply that you’re using more energy than you realise. 

If you’re interested in energy-saving tips, you can find more information at: 

• The Energy Saving Trust 
• Energy.gov  
• Sust-It. 

Key culprits of high bills are: 

• Immersion water heaters that are left on constantly 
• High heating 
• Electric plug-in heaters 
• Older appliances which have reduced efficiency 
• Poor insulation 
• Building work 
• A change in household circumstances such as additional people to stay or more time spent at home. 

If you none of these explain your recent high bill, then your meter might be faulty. There are a few tests you can do to investigate this. In all cases, we recommend emailing us photos of the meter reading results so that we can help to analyse the data. 

Electricity Meter Tests: 

• Creep Test: Take a meter reading then turn off your power at the fuse. Wait 15 minutes and take another reading. The meter reading should not change as no energy is being used. 
• Kettle Test: Take a meter reading. Boil your kettle a few times from scratch and take a second read. Your usage should be reflected by your meter reading. 

Gas Meter Tests: 

• Burns Test: Turn off all your gas appliances and your heating. Take a meter reading. Then turn on one gas device, say a single gas ring, and wait 10 minutes. Take a second meter reading. Your reading should change but only a little. 

If these tests are proven inconclusive and, after discussing the issue with the Good Energy staff you’re still unsure, you can ask us to book a Meter Accuracy Test. What happens depends on whether the issue is with an electricity or a gas meter. 

Electricity meter: 

A Meter Accuracy Test is carried out by a highly skilled third-party engineer who attends the property and runs a current through the meter to assess the accuracy of the meter. If the meter is clocking too fast by more than 2.5% or too slow by more than 3.5%, the meter is deemed faulty and will be exchanged free of charge. 

If the meter is not found to be faulty, the meter will remain in place, and you will be charged £147.30 for the appointment. This is the cost-price to Good Energy. 

Gas meter: 

The accuracy of a gas meter cannot be assessed on site so an engineer will visit the property to remove the meter and replace it. The removed meter will then be tested in a specialised lab to deem its accuracy and functionality. If the meter is deemed faulty, there are no costs to you. 

If the meter is not found to be faulty, you will be charged £204 for the appointment. This is the cost-price to Good Energy. 

Good Energy’s billing system is set up so that each time we receive a meter reading, we bill to it. 

This means that, in the following situations, you are likely to receive more than one bill in a month: 

• If you submit more than one electricity and gas reading in a month 
• If you submit your electricity and your gas meter readings on different days 
• If you receive an estimated bill and then provide us with accurate meter readings that month 
• If you submit a meter reading and then a meter reader visits (meter reader readings also tend to come through on different days which results in separate bills) 
• If you have one smart meter and one traditional meter and you send us a meter reading on a day other than your smart billing day (you can ask the team what this day is). 

Submitting your meter readings together and around the same time each month will help to avoid some of these. However, on occasion, multiple bills are unavoidable. 

If you have received multiple bills in a month and you’re on a variable direct debit, this will trigger multiple payments. If you would like to avoid this, contact us as soon as you receive your second bill, and we can cancel the second payment and incorporate it into next month’s payment instead. 

There are two reasons why you might receive an estimated bill despite having a smart meter.  

1) We are not receiving meter readings from your smart meter. This may be because your meters are not commissioned (the smart capabilities have not been activated) or because they have fallen off the wide area network (WAN) and require recommissioning. 

If you have requested that your meters are not commissioned, or you have denied permission for us to read them, then your bills will be estimated unless you send us a meter reading. 

If your meters should be sending us meter readings but are not, contact us and we will attempt to (re)commission your meters remotely. If we are not able to do this, we may need to send an engineer to commission the meter on site, but we will let you know if this is the case. 

In your email, include an accurate meter reading from your meter. You can find instructions on how to do this here. 

If your gas meter is more than 10 meters from your electricity meter, or there is some obstruction like a wall between the meters, then it may be that we are not able to commission your gas meter and you will need to send us meter readings manually. This is because the gas meter can only communicate locally and sends its meter readings to your electricity meter, which then sends both meter readings off via the wide area network. 

In future, we hope to be able to offer dual band comms hubs to customers in this situation. This will boost the signal capability of gas meter and allow it to communicate with your electricity meter and so send us meter readings. 

2) Your smart meter read frequency preference is set to monthly. This means that we are only able to draw one meter reading from your meters per month so if we need to bill you between these meter readings for any reason then we will have to bill you to estimated meter readings. To resolve this, contact us and request that your smart meter read frequency preference be updated to either daily or half-hourly. 

There are several reasons why you might receive an estimated bill even though you’ve submitted meter readings. 

1) We did not receive the meter readings you submitted. This might be due to a system error or because you mistyped your information when submitting on the website. Try submitting your meter readings again and be sure that you have typed your account number and meter serial number correctly. 

2) We received your meter readings, but they were quarantined because they were deemed to be too low or too high. This can often happen if we’ve been estimating your bills for some time. To resolve this, email us a picture of your meter and we will review this and release a bill to you. 

3) We received your meter reading and have used it to bill you, however we have billed you from an estimated meter reading because it is the reading we charged up to on your last bill. To avoid this in future, be sure to provide us with monthly meter readings so actual meter readings are always used. 

When you switch to Good Energy, we will ask you how many kWh you use in a year. You can find this figure estimated on previous bills or by asking your previous supplier. The figure is calculated based on historic meter readings for the property and updates with each new reading. The more meter readings you provide, the more accurate the estimate is. 

If you cannot provide an estimate of usage, we will calculate an estimate for you based on answers to a few questions. These estimates tend to be less accurate than those listed on your bill. 

With this estimate, Good Energy will provide you with a quote, estimating monthly and annual costs based on usage and tariff rates. While your tariff rates will remain fixed for however long the contract lasts, the amount charged will vary depending on your actual usage. If you use more energy than estimated, your monthly and annual charges will be higher than those quoted to you. 

The first thing to do if you’re struggling to pay your bill is to ensure that your bill is accurate. For more information on how to do this, click here [link to first FAQ on my bill is too high]. 

Once you’ve confirmed that your bill is correct, contact Good Energy to request a payment plan. This will need to cover ongoing usage as well as a debt repayment element that will be agreed between us. 

When contacting Good Energy, we recommend asking if there is a better tariff available to you as this could reduce future costs. We offer a discount to those prepared to pay by direct debit and specialised tariffs for those with electric vehicles or heat pumps. 

If you’re interested in reducing your energy consumption, we recommend looking at the following sites: 

• The Energy Saving Trust 
• Energy.gov  
• Sust-It 

Key culprits of high bills are: 

• Immersion water heaters that are left on constantly 
• High heating 
• Electric plug-in heaters 
• Older appliances which have reduced efficiency 
• Poor insulation 
• Building work 
• A change in household circumstances such as additional people to stay or more time spent at home. 

If you’d prefer to pay for your energy as you go, Good Energy can install a smart pre-payment meter for you free of charge. Top ups are managed online, and payments taken daily. 

If you need additional help with your bill, we can recommend the following third-party services: 

• Citizens Advice (0344 411 1444):  For general independent advice. 
• StepChange (0800 138 1111): For debt advice for domestic customers. They arrange a 40-minute phone call to run an Income and Expenditure survey and can hold off non-priority debt 
• Turn2Us (0808 802 2000): An income maximisation charity. They run searches to ensure you are getting everything you are entitled to from the government. 

Good Energy will do its best to make managing accounts easy after an account holder has passed away. Contact us to let us know the name of the deceased, along with their address and the date of their passing. Depending on the situation, there are a few additional pieces of information that we may need. In all cases, meter readings are helpful but we can use estimated meter readings if necessary. 

If there is more than one person liable for the account 

In this case, liability will automatically fall to the others listed on the account. It’s up to you to decide if you’d like to keep the same account or have us start a new one. 

If there’s a direct debit, we’ll need to know if the bank details have changed. 

If there was only one person liable for the account 

In this case, we will need to know when the property has been sold/transferred as part of the will/probate process. We will need meter readings and the name and contact details of the executor so that bills can be sent in the meantime. 

If there’s a direct debit on the account, we will need to cancel this and set up a new one. If there’s a credit on the account, we can refund this to the executor. 

If there was only one person liable for the account and they were renting 

In this case we will need to know the name and contact details for the executor. We will also need the landlord’s information as a new account will need to be opened for them. 

There are a number of ways you can get your bill if you’re blind or partially sighted. 

We can send paper bills to you in Braille or large print, or we can arrange a call to talk you through your bill over the phone. Alternatively, you can nominate someone you trust to receive your bills for you. This could be a family member, friend, neighbour, or other individual of your choice. 

To request any of the above, give us a call and we’ll make the arrangements. If you’d also like us to add you to the Priority Service Register, let us know or sign up here.

One of the easiest ways to make payments to your account is via a Direct Debit. Depending on your tariff, you could also be eligible for the Direct Debit Discount, which is £15 per year, per fuel. If you’d like to set up a Direct Debit, you’ll need to complete this form and return it to us.  

Variable Direct Debits   

If you have a variable direct debit, the balance of the bill will be taken from your account 14 days after the bill is released. This means that payments will vary across the year. Payments tend to be lower in the summer and higher in the winter.  

Fixed Direct Debits   

If you have a fixed direct debit, you pay a fixed cost which we’ve calculated based on historic meter readings. We average your payments over 12 months and you pay the same each month. Accounts with fixed direct debit should always be in credit, with surplus credit built over the summer used to tide you over the winter months. 

If you use more energy than we’ve estimated, a debt will begin to build up on your account and we’ll contact you to let you know that your direct debit will be increasing. 

If you use less energy than we’ve estimated, a credit will begin to build up on your account and we’ll contact you to let you know your direct debit will be decreasing.

If you let us know that you’re moving out, your fixed direct debit will automatically switch to a variable direct debit and the balance will be taken or returned 14 days after you receive your final bill. If you do not want this to happen, contact us to arrange a payment plan. 

You’re welcome to contact us at any time to request a direct debit review and/or a refund. We’ll ask you for a meter readings so that we can be sure your account is where we think it is.