Electricity bills

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Mortonclough

It sounds like your electricity company might have estimated your usage too high at first, which is why your direct debit (DD) was high. Now that they have your actual usage, which is less than half of what they estimated, they've reduced your DD. This can happen if the company wants to make sure they cover costs, but they should adjust once they see the real numbers. To keep better track of your usage and avoid surprises, you can use www.loadshedalerts.co.za to monitor electricity use and get alerts about potential changes or load shedding.

That link is for South Africa. I think the op is in the UK.

Aveline

Just had email from my electricity supplier titled 'change of direct debit'. I quailed and feared the worst. However, it seems that we have used less than half they'd estimated so the DD is now less that half what it was last month.
Along with all the payments received re heating etc I'll have actually paid very little for this year's supply.
What's going on? It's not been too cold a winter and I'm always careful but even so. Is this just electricity companies deliberately setting too high estimates?

I always pay over the odds on my direct debit throughout winter and then at the end of March, I am about £200/£300 in credit so it is like saving and claim it back. I then reduce my direct debit for the rest of the summer months. I am in complete control of my direct debits and have no problems at all with my energy companies. If they do state an higher direct debit, I just log in online and change the direct debit to what I want to pay. There is never a problem.

It sounds like your electricity company might have estimated your usage too high at first, which is why your direct debit (DD) was high. Now that they have your actual usage, which is less than half of what they estimated, they've reduced your DD. This can happen if the company wants to make sure they cover costs, but they should adjust once they see the real numbers. To keep better track of your usage and avoid surprises, you can use www.loadshedalerts.co.za to monitor electricity use and get alerts about potential changes or load shedding.

They have a good list of projected costs under balance forecast.

My last subsidised payment is 5th march and thereafter is recommended £90 pm through january next year. The expected rise for me from november will have to be factored in by me, I cannot see that my bill for next january is actually going to be the £116 predicted

Anway I am now going to change my forward dd to £90pm from the april payment, at least I know where I stand

Thanks Georgesgran. I need to do some forward planning starting with me looking at the future estimated cost for me, on their site via my account. I just divide that number by 12 and can ask for the dd to be adjusted from next payment. I would rather have a smooth transition, easier to manage on a fixed income

Yes karma the final payment will be March - Octopus want to put my DD up in April, but only by £20 and I’m £200 in credit, but they’re a good company to deal with and I can request a refund, should I want to.

Is march the last payment month for the gov energy money?

I think I will be upping my dd amount in a couple of weeks, just now it is only £23 pm to octopus. I started a regular savings account via my bank (5% interest) and it matures in november. I am going to need it to pay my future bills. I am eternally grateful that I was decisive about the octopus 2 year fix in nov 2021

I also like that octopus alerts me to the cheapest rate

The 400 from the government has covered my electricity since the monthly payments into my account started. Just received 200 as use oil and that will go towards the next few months electricity. Have oil heating and a log burner so electricity for washing machine ( no tumble dryer but have two pulleysand two drying racks), cooking, lighting, TV, etc. Have spent 180 on logs and have enough left to see me through the winter/ spring months. Kindling I have managed to either gather when out walking or from chopping up odds and ends. Am with Shell and so far they have been great and quickly refunded the 300 I was in credit. Am frugal with my oil central heating and am several hundred pounds in credit as oil company mistakenly topped up oil tank when they had been told not to and are due to siphon the fuel back out ( am not paying for my oil tank to be filled up when I don't use much and am I the process of moving house). One friend said her electricity estimate was for over 8000 for this year!

We are with Octopus, having been with Bulb previously. We were sorry when Bulb went down as they were always very easy to deal with, flexible and provided green energy. So far, Bulb have handled the transition well. We are well in credit, but that suits us as it will get used up as we plan on reducing our DD anyway, preferred to be in credit over the worst of the winter. Mind you, there is still March to come, which can be bitter cold.

Is it easy to contact Octopus? I tried to do an estimate on their website but their drop down menus didn't cover some of my info.

I contacted Octopus for a quote which was over £200 per month, currently with EDF paying £140... after my last bill I'm in credit by a small amount so hopefully it won't be too bad.
That's for gas and electricity.

We argued with our gas supplier about how much they wanted to increase our DD. We cancelled it and put our normal amount aside each month...we were ten pounds short 2 weeks ago. We intend to continue, and if they increase our other DDs we'll do the same thing!

Octopus are very fair, haven't set my DD too high and I'm still £270 in front and hopefully bills will reduce as the weather gets warmer.

I’m with Ovo. Have been for years. I don’t have a direct debit. I find them excellent. Never had a problem with them. Don’t have a direct debit!

I have just had my direct debit increased from £136 per month to £217 per month.
I was in shock after that and immediately phoned them up Ovo energy.
I bartered with a foreign female voice on the other end and eventually managed to get it reduced to £180 per month.
Not a lot but I was determined not to pay the original amount.
We are all being fleeced! Good and proper.

We have the best of both worlds by paying monthly variable DD.
The exact amount each month, keeping our money in our account, with the benefit of the DD price reduction.

I have just had my latest bill which is £30.28. That covers electricity ,landline and phone calls, and mobile. Set against it is the government grant £66 and feed in tariff for our solar panels. I had our gas tank filled before the prices went up. It usually lasts a year and was £1300. We also have solid fuel stoves in which we use our own coppiced wood and smokeless fuel amounting to £500. As all this includes Mobile, Landline and phone calls, I don't think we are doing too badly. Our supplier is very helpful when I ring them up if I have a problem. I tell them to imagine they are talking to their Granny so they speak in plain English without any patronising

Reading the (unsmart) meter and submitting readings online each month is so easy, as is paying the bill online as soon as it lands. We can compare what we’ve used with the previous month or year. And the money stays in our account until it’s time to pay the bill. The peace of mind is worth more than the small saving offered for paying by DD. We like our money to be under our control, not in someone else’s account.

We knew we were paying way too much in our DD but decided to continue to make sure we covered the winter costs. Our winter bills haven't been as bad as we expected. Partly because we've had a relatively mild winter. But also because we have done little things like knocking water temp and radiators down a notch. Closing curtains at night as well as the blinds to keep heat in. We are coming out of winter considerably in credit. Plan to ask for at least half of it back and will leave some to bring down our new DD. I liked not having to worry about a big bill. I think many folk have been taking more care not to waste elec or gas due to rising costs. I bet kids have had it drummed into them not to leave lights on all over the house!

Beechnut

Germanshepherdsmum

How glad I am that I refuse to pay by DD. Control is everything.

Me too, after hearing of the rises on these fuel threads.

... and me.

You are supposed to save money by opting for DD. If they hang on to it or keep increasing your amounts - how much are you actually saving?

I like the old-fashioned way of paying for what you use and for me, it concentrates the mind on what I'm using!

Aveline

Gosh. I must check out Octopus

They really are good and very straightforward to deal with. I ended up with them by accident because my low priced supplier went bust.
I think they were the first to get into the new schemes for bonuses if you could reduce your power consumption at particular times - though sadly we've never managed to do this as we really use the minimum anyway.
We wanted a smart meter which our previous supplier had not managed to install, cancelling four appointments, one of them after the event. No such problems with Octopus.
If you email a query you always get a response that you can understand, not instantly obviousy!
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Octopus, they're very fair.

Octopus are the best ..🤗

Gosh. I must check out Octopus

I just keep asking Octopus for a regular refund - seems to be working ok