MARTIN Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert has urged British Gas customers to take an energy meter reading so they can keep a close eye on their usage.
It’s all because a major technical glitch has meant regular readings aren’t showing up online.
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The energy giant admitted to the MoneySavingExpert team that smart meter customers have been unable to track their own usage on the app or British Gas website for more than two months now.
British Gas has confirmed the issue only impacts smart meter credit customers, who have unfortunately not been able to get onto their usage history and see data from February.
Though the provider is thought to be working on resolving the issue, the savings experts have advised taking a more manual approach.
Particularly if you’re worried about tracking your own energy.
The display mishap shouldn’t affect your bills directly, but taking regular readings will mean you’re equipped with the most accurate information on your energy usage.
That way you won’t get overcharged for what you haven’t used.
It also tells you where you might be able to cut down on costs in your home – if there are certain times of the day you use the most energy, and more.
Typically you’ll be able to make sense of all this data on a little screen monitor in your home.
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All that information is usually stored on an online account too, or particularly tech savvy households might have everything they need on a smartphone app.
But with British Gas’ online tracking out of action for most for the time being, those that are worried should take a reading from the actual smart meter to keep their own record.
That should still be up and running despite the online technical difficulties the supplier is facing.
And doing so means you know how much energy you should be paying for.
If you find you are having to do things the old fashioned way you can submit a manual reading to British Gas either over the phone by calling 0333 202 9802 or online.
A British Gas spokesperson said: “We’re working to sort this issue and we know that keeping track of energy usage is really important to our customers right now.
“They can still log into the app as normal but the glitch is preventing them from seeing their most up to date usage information. We hope to have this fixed soon.
“This doesn’t affect bills in any way or how consumption is being recorded.”
Plenty of households are looking to keep a more watchful eye on their energy usages as bills have rocketed in recent weeks.
They went up by 54% at the start of the month, all because the price cap shot up to £1,971.
That meant an increase of £693 for the average household – the exact cost can vary depending on your use though, so many bill payers have been going to lengths to cut down and save forking out more.
It wouldn’t be the first string of complaints British Gas has received in recent weeks either.
Some customers claimed the energy firm had closed their accounts with no warning, and they were furious.
Meanwhile, a separate blunder by the company meant one customer couldn’t use their heating or hot water for TEN weeks.
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