British Gas bill sample
If you're confused by your energy bill, you're not alone — suppliers are often regarded as having the most complicated bills out there. We’ve taken a sample British Gas energy bill (gas only, but an electricity example would be very similar) and shown you where you'll find the key information.
What does being in debit mean?
This person is in debit on their account. This means the amount they owe for their energy use is higher than the amount of money in their account. They have to pay £41.17 to bring their account back to zero. If they paid an extra £10, they would be in credit by £10.
Your balance will inform you if you're in debit or credit to British Gas. Knowing this can be a good indicator of whether or not your direct debit is at the right level to cover your energy usage.
If you're building up credit during winter months, it's likely you should be paying a lower direct debit amount. If you're in debit to your supplier in summer months, you'll accrue an even larger debt as you head into winter when your usage increases. Your supplier may automatically increase your direct debit amount in this instance.
Supplying regular meter readings keeps your balance as accurate as possible.
What British Gas tariff am I on?
At the bottom of the page, you can see
- The tariff name - this shows that this person is on British Gas's Standard Variable Tariff. This means their unit rates change depending on the price cap.
- Payment method - this means this person makes four payments a year on receipt of a bill. They could pay automatically by Direct Debit, but have chosen this payment method instead.
- End date - this is the date the plan ends. After this point you'll be rolled onto a tariff chosen by your supplier, which could cost you more. You should switch again onto a fixed plan at this point to avoid overpaying.
- Exit fee - if this was a fixed deal there would be exit fees that might apply, but it's a variable deal which don't usually include them.
- Annual estimate - this is the estimated annual gas usage in Kilowatt hours. This is usually estimated based on previous meter readings. Uswitch can use this figure to calculate how much you would pay for the next 12 months on different plans. This figure is in between Ofgem's defined low and medium usage estimates.
Plan and usage details
On the second page we see the usage details for the gas meter and the calculations made to come up with the amount owed by the customer.
You can see that British Gas has been making estimated readings that are more or less the same as the actual readings sent in manually by the customer.
Payments and balances were summarised on the first page, but this page confirms that the previous payment of £47.65 brought the account to £0, while £41.17 worth of energy has now been used so the account is in debit again.
British Gas bill common terms
Here are some common terms you’ll see on your energy bill, and what they mean:
Fixed rate — A fixed rate means your rate cannot be changed by your supplier before your plan’s end date. You can usually get a fixed rate plan for one or two years. Find out more about fixed rate plans, including how they work and what the cheapest fixed rate plans at the moment are.
Variable rate — Variable rate tariffs can go up or down in price depending on the level of the energy price cap. They're often the most expensive tariffs, so if you're on one, it might be worth running an energy comparison to see what fixed options are available. You can do that by entering your postcode in the box below.
kWh — A kilowatt-hour or kWh is a name given to a unit of energy, and it is the standard unit across suppliers for both gas and electricity. One kWh will provide enough energy to power a 100-watt lightbulb for 10 hours.
