Online fixed saver electricity deal direct debit increase

Have you been sending them monthly meter readings and checking your bills or statements to make sure that they reflect your consumption and that they havent been estimating your consumption.

Never accept an estimated bill, get it corrected immediately by giving them a reading or checking your on-line account to ensure that its accurate and up to date

If you've been with them for the the past six months (over the summer) then by now you should have a fairly healthy credit to see you into the winter.

However if you've not been keeping an eye on your bills then SP may think that you need to increase your DD to cover the increased usage over the winter.

Most people will only use around 30-35% of their annual energy during the summer and the remaining 65-70% in the five months between November and March

If you've been monitoring your consumption and it's in line with your estimates then get the DD reduced.

You can do your own sums - £77 a month for 12 months = £924.

Say you've used about 35% of your annual energy then you' should have used around £324 worth, but you've actaully paid £77 x 6 = £462, so you should be in credit by about £138 by now.

You'll be using around £600 worth in the next six months but you've only got another six payments to make = £426 so unless you are in credit by at leat £120-£140, you could be around £140 in arrears by the end of winter, which is what SP are trying to avoid.

If you have already accrued a debit (whether real or estimated) then you'll be even more in arrears so do your own sums to see whats happening and get it corrected if necessary.

You need to read your meters and subtract from it the initial reading that you gave when you started with SP to work out exactly how much energy you've used and how much it's actually cost to see if you are on track.