CBANDY

Anyone else had a problem with their January bill? I paid 178 euros in December which is normal for us this time of year as we have electric central heating but for January i paid 335 euros!!!!!!! 1 MONTH.... Surely this is a mistake. It is almost double what we paid last year.

Casa Santo Estevo

It has been all over the Spanish newspapers and TV. You have to go to the electric company to sort it out. As I said about a a similar posting about the electric company here in Galicia; now is the time to test out your Spanish!!!!

Fred James

Yes, lots of people. Apparently over 20 million consumers are affected.

The problem was caused by meters which should have been read in December were estimated and at the same time billing is now monthly. Combined with a price increase in January and changes to the excess charge system the result is total chaos!

There is some information here

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news...le_20020.shtml

Mitzyboy

My December bill was about €138 and Jan €160 ish, normally about €90 a month

themercer4

Same has happened to me. Paid 200 euros for Dec bill and then they charged me 207 euros in Jan for the estimated bill. I'm just hoping that when they come and read the meter for Feb's bill I might not owe them that much. Who Knows? They do what they like.

Same here with our water bills. Company has changed name from Gestagua to Aguagest, and the price has gone up with the name change!
They charged me 105 euro for Dec, 55 euro for Jan, and nearly 70 euros for Feb.
Went in to office to complain (the whole town was in there complaining) to ask why we are paying monthly now, only to be told we are not. So I asked why then have they took the above amounts of money out of my bank account. They told me this was to compensate for the change in the company and are claiming back money for the higher cost of water and charges from when the name changed in August.

We are in a crisis so they put everything up! I have paid a fortune out in utility bills as of late. I really can't see things getting any better here.

Dxf

Hi

A number of people around here are taking DAILY readings because they don't trust the electricity company.
Others are just thankfull to have a meter and electricity no matter what the price as it is much cheaper than HAVING to run a generator / set up a solar or wind system

Davexf

spainboy

According my landlord Iberdrola have increased electric by 28%

My bi monthly bill was 120 euros on average and now Im paying 90 euros a month(180eu bi monthly) and I have been careful too.

Spain is becoming the new rip off britain.!!!!!!

All my friends and family in the uk pay no more than 45 quid a month.!!!

Fred James

He's talking rubbish.

It went up about 5% on Jan 1. It will go up again in July.

Unlike the UK, in Spain the government refuses to allow the electricity companies to increase the tariffs as much as they want to.

spainboy

That's what I thought. 28% is a bit extreme but Fred how can people explain a massive rise in Electric from January.?? At 5% mine would have increased by 3 to 4 euros but it has risen by over 20 euros??
This is not just January's bill this is also February's bill too and considering I have been very careful last month, much more than normal(and we had a day without electric due to the big forest fire last month)

A massive rise is effecting thousands and all my british friends have seen a massive rise in the last 2 months.

Fred James

As I said before, it's a complete cockup and it will get sorted eventually when all the meters get read properly.

That will automatically get the figures right again which will only leave the question of having some units charged at a higher rate than they should have been.

There are two possible "overcharges". The first is because the rates were increased by 5% from January, so by under estimating the readings in December, some units will be charged at the new rates but frankly this will only make a Euro or two difference.

The second and biggest problem is the standard "penalty" charge of an extra 25% on all units over 500 used in one month. Clearly pushing units forward into January would increase this penalty. However I have read that they will get round this by going back to the old formula of 1000 units over the two month period.

Personally I think the main reason that bills have shot up is that this winter has been the coldest for many years, having started in November and still going strong! It only takes a few extra hours of heating using an electric radiator etc to whack up the bill alarmingly.

My winter bills are at least 30% higher than last year and I haven't had a billing problem as my billing is still 2 monthly.

crispy

Same problem with Endesa have a look at this link. hope it works


http://jimenapulse.wordpress.com/200...ctricity-bill/

spainboy

My heating is run by gas.I use the same electric winter and summer.
My only problem is that im moving house on the 13th March so how will expect to get any rebate eventually?

Lionda

We must have been lucky then, ours was 13 euro

spainboy

Cant wait to move in 2 weeks.We will have piped gas and my new landlord who has been living in the place we are moving into told me the other day that electric will be about 26 euros and gas about 20 a month.

crispy

We paid more in leccy fines than that