Fantastic. Thanks for that. Will be sending it recorded delivery next post! Martin.

I called the finance company - First Response Finance, who after hearing why I wish to VT the agreement sounded awfully reasonable. The car must not have any major faults or have serious cosmetic issues. It seems there is no shortfall liability on the balance of the agreement. But I have to pay a fee of £149 to cover their initial insurance costs on me. With 11 months to run on the agreement they want that paid before I can VT the car. Once the agreement is VT'd they will arrange someone to call me to arrange collection. Is this insurance real or just a scheme?

Hi, this is a bit unusual I think. I bought a Zafira for £3000 on finance from first response finance 2 years ago. I was also sold gap insurance and a service agreement. I have never missed a payment and I get statements from the finance company to show this. I have made approximately 47 payments of £153. I am disabled and was awarded the higher rate of Disability Living Allowance which I'm currently using to pay for the car. However, my disability is making this manual transmission car increasingly more difficult to use and I am thinking of applying for a Motability car with automatic transmission. If I were to Voluntarily Terminate my finance agreement and return the car will I be liable for any shortfall on the remaining balance and what the car fetches at auction? I paid a lot for the car from a dealer and it's value now would only be around £800 I imagine. I have paid well over half the contract at a large APR of around 30%. There will be at least £2000 left in payments to make as there is a year left on the agreement. Finally, the service record isn't up to date. I have had the car serviced but they were mobile and never stamped the book. Is the service record essential? The MOT expires end of May, does the car have to be in MOT for any length of time? Thanks for any help. Martin.

Checked boiler stat, it was at 65 and i've dropped it down to 55. I'm not sure where to go from here. I'm going to take daily readings from the meter and keep a diary of what I use during the day. I've turned the heating off entirely and set the hot water for just two hours a day. If the sun appears for a decent amount of time it won't be quite as chilly in the house. We can hit the 1 hour override button if necessary and make a note of it. We've applied for a Charis Grant, this might help. We will look at BG tariffs as well. But to me there is something fundamental wrong to use so much gas in this very ordinary house.

Thanks for the comments so far... Spoke to British Gas today, something about 4.2 units a day average, said our bill was high (but not massively apparently) and offered us a meter accuracy check that if it found nothing wrong would cost us over £700. Our quaterly bill for Nov 2012 to Feb 2013 was for £682.56 using 14666.59 kWh of gas. That is £56.88 per week or £227 a month just for gas!! The most recent bill is for £542.94 using 11349.57 kWh of gas. That is £38.78 per week or around £170 a month. This seems exceptionally expensive for a 3 bed semi. I've checked the serial number on the meter in case it's a billing mistake but it's the right one. I can't imagine what it is that is causing such high bills! Most people pay for a month what we pay a week! Q. Are you on a Dual Fuel tariff with BG. A. We are. We are going to check for a better tariff with BG though as we were on their essentials tariff (which has now stopped) and now we are just on standard. Q. Have you checked to see if there's a better tariff using a price comparison site. A. There are cheaper tariffs but we are in so much debt to BG we can't change. 1. How old is the boiler approx. The boiler is an Ideal fitted 6 years ago. 2. Is the house double glazed. Yes, with only one small single glazed in the bathroom. 3. Is your loft properly insulated with at least 100 to 200mm of insulation material. The loft is insulated but we have been approached by a company who will upgrade it via a grant. They are also insulating the cavity walls. 4. Do your rads all work well, heating quickly and with no cold arcs across the rads. They seem to be fine, all get very hot. They were cleaned and had new valves when the boiler was fitted 6 years ago. Some sort of inhibitor was used as well. 5. Is your hot water cylinder reasonably modern with a factory applied foam covering all over. I don't know how old it is but it does have foam cladding all around it. 6. Is your boiler checked annually as this should ensure it's burning gas efficiently. If not, when was it last serviced or repaired. British Gas service it annually. I dunno what the engineer did last service but it seems to get the water much hotter despite the settings being the same. What to do??

My gas bills have become outrageous. We have a 3 bedroom semi and it's just two adults, a small child and a baby living here. We get our gas from British Gas. On the 6th of Feb this year we got a quarterly bill for £682.56. On the 11th of May they estimated another £540.28. I checked the meter today (26th of May) and their estimate for 11th May was high, but now two weeks later it is pretty close. Our usage is (in Kwh): Jul - Sep1352.28 [2012]Oct - Dec9651.26 [2012]Jan - Mar13994.18 [2013]Apr - Jun4642.55 [2013] As we pay £100 per month direct debit for gas we are now £1200 in debit to them - we are struggling to find a way to afford more. Isn't this a ridiculous monthly gas cost for an ordinary 3 bed semi? We have hot water on for four hours a day and heating is also on a timer combined with a thermostat. We cook with gas but only have a mini oven as the main one has a fault with the safety device. Our friends tell us they only pay an average of £45 for gas. An engineer has checked the meter flow with the boiler and says it's right. He detected no leaks through the test, the boiler is regularly serviced. What are we doing wrong???