A social media user has shared how she managed to cut her energy bill down by £1,000 after it skyrocketed over the course of a few weeks.
It's no surprise that the cost of gas and electricity has soared in recent months, with many struggling to keep on top of their bills. When getting your monthly statement, it's not unusual to be taken aback at the cost, but there's a chance that you could be paying too much.
This is what happened to one woman who shared her experience with the Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK Facebook group - and she explained how she managed to get the bill cut down by over half.
The Mirror reports that she told the group that she was with the energy provider E.on for both gas and electricity, and paid via direct debit.
One day, she checked her energy account and saw that her bill was showing around £1,229.
Two weeks later she checked again and the price had skyrocketed by £300 and her account was showing her a bill for around £1,550.
The E.on account said the readings had come from the woman's smart meter. However, after checking her gas meter, the woman realised that E.on had overestimated her gas bill by over 900 units.
After looking into the issue further, she realised that her standing charge was much higher than the maximum allowed to be charged by Ofgem.
In the post, she wrote: "I emailed them because when I looked into it their standing charges and charges per kw were waaay higher than the maximum that Ofgem shows.
"I know nothing about this I just googled it and it says what the maximum charges should be for gas and electric."
According to Ofgem, electricity and gas unites are capped at 46p and 28p respectively for direct debit customers on a "default tariff".
The woman said that E.on was charging her an extra £11 for her energy daily, even when she wasn't at home - so she also threatened to take action with the ombudsmen.
After this, she was told that her energy bill would be brought back down.
She said: "I’ve just got my new bill generated and it’s gone from £1550.75 to £593.53. So if you think your bill is wrong, it probably is! That’s nearly £1,000 difference - I hope this helps someone."
The post has received thousands of likes, with hundreds of people commenting and thanking her for sharing the advice.
One Facebook user commented: "Well done you, that’s amazing, but if you’d just left it, look how much more you would have paid.
"It just goes to show that we all need to be aware of the prices that we are paying thankyou!"
One wrote: "Thank you I was also discussing this matter with my husband. We have been away and my smart meter showed the weekly usage which did not make sense, how could it be so much when we’ve not been in the property? So I said this is bloody fraud."
If you have a complaint with an energy company your local ombudsman may be able to help you with advice. You can find their website here.
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