Anybody able to talk me through my bill using idiot-speak?

Frogling

Sorry for asking another question here, but this capped/fixed thing is driving me nuts, as is what to do. I've almost switched several times now, but it's so confusing that I can't figure out what is right, wrong, inbetween, etc etc!

Looking at my gas bill from December 2007-June 2008, we've used 8474.68 kWh, so I'm assuming that I should double this plus maybe add a little bit on to find annual consumption? We pay £26.00 per month via direct debit.

Electric end No 07 to end May 2008, 2344 units - again, do I just double this and add a little extra on for annual consumption? We pay £43.00 per month via direct debit for electric.

I've looked at comparison sites until I'm blue in the face, but I hate to admit to the fact that most of it just goes straight over my head. And yes, I've read Martin's articles on the subject, but I'm still struggling to get to grips with it all.

If I look at switching to EoN, it appears that it will cost me an extra £300 per year.(based on their price protection 17 fixed rate offer). Is this actually a good deal, I know that prices are expected to go up, but their electric for the first load of units is charging 19p per unit, whereas atm I'm paying 10.27p (plus a standing charge of 11p per day).

Is there anyone or anywhere that can explain all of this to me in idiot-speak? Because I'm simply not understanding it enough to make an informed decision, and I'm worried that if I don't do something now I'm going to get into financial difficulties when the next lot of price hikes come along.

Unity

Frogling wrote: »

Sorry for asking another question here, but this capped/fixed thing is driving me nuts, as is what to do. I've almost switched several times now, but it's so confusing that I can't figure out what is right, wrong, inbetween, etc etc!

Looking at my gas bill from December 2007-June 2008, we've used 8474.68 kWh, so I'm assuming that I should double this plus maybe add a little bit on to find annual consumption? We pay £26.00 per month via direct debit.

Electric end No 07 to end May 2008, 2344 units - again, do I just double this and add a little extra on for annual consumption? We pay £43.00 per month via direct debit for electric.

I've looked at comparison sites until I'm blue in the face, but I hate to admit to the fact that most of it just goes straight over my head. And yes, I've read Martin's articles on the subject, but I'm still struggling to get to grips with it all.

If I look at switching to EoN, it appears that it will cost me an extra £300 per year.(based on their price protection 17 fixed rate offer). Is this actually a good deal, I know that prices are expected to go up, but their electric for the first load of units is charging 19p per unit, whereas atm I'm paying 10.27p (plus a standing charge of 11p per day).

Is there anyone or anywhere that can explain all of this to me in idiot-speak? Because I'm simply not understanding it enough to make an informed decision, and I'm worried that if I don't do something now I'm going to get into financial difficulties when the next lot of price hikes come along.

Sorry I can't help you on this one - but I just wanted to say that I am equally as confused, so don't feel bad about asking. We were with Atlantic (I think) until yesterday when I set OH on the job of sorting things out . He's extremely careful and looked at all the deals going and as a result we switched to EoN in order to cap things. After I got the 'warning' e-mail from Martin, I figured it was no good just ignoring things until the inevitable happened - luckily I was able to pass this one on to him indoors :j.

I hope you get some good answers and manage to do what's best for you.

Frogling

Thanks Unity - glad to find I'm not the only one who is really confused about this!

hopingforahouse

It's fine looking at the amounts, but what you also want to think about is the percentage increase.

So - you currently pay £868 for you energy based on those direct debit amounts. Add an extra £300 and its £1128. This percentage increase is 26.6%. This would be a very bad deal I think, as it is even more than the only price rise percentage we have to go on at the moment, which is EDF. I suspect your calculations are a bit off however.

When you input your figures into whatever switching site you use, I would use the actual direct debit amounts rather than the kWh. The kWh price can vary depending on how you use your energy and standing charges and things like this.

If your direct debit amount tends to vary during the year (or even if it doesn't) the best thing to do would be to work out your yearly figure - add your last four bills up and then divide by THE NUMBER OF DAYS these bills were for.You can use this website http://www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html for this. Your bills are not always an even quarter each time. Then you have a figure for how much you use per day. Times this by 365, and you have your yearly useage amount. This provides a much better figure to enter into the switching site calculator.

Hope this helps. It's bloomin confusing.

Cardew

You are making a fundamental error in mixing up your consumption in kWh and assuming that your direct debit payments are an accurate relection of that consumption.

Your logic of doubling your Dec to Jun consumption is sound enough. So we can say approx 17,000kWh for gas and 4,700kWh for electricity as annual usage.

Entering those kWh into a site and getting an annual figure for a capped tariff is again sound.

What is incorrect is in comparing that annual figure with your monthly DD payments over a year. Those payments could be too high, or too low and you could have carried forward a credit or debit balance.

You must use only a kWh figure in the comparison sites(17,000/4,700).

That will give you an accurate figure in £££s make comparisons.

If your current(sorry) tariff is not shown on the website, you will have to calcualte it manually.

e.g. (4,700 x 10.27p) + (365 x 11p) is £523. does this include VAT at 5% and then subtract any discounts for dual duel, DD etc.

mech_2

hopingforahouse: No, that's the percentage decrease if you knocked £300 off £1128. The percentage increase would be 36%.

Frogling: Your direct debit for electricity seems about right. However, either you are getting very cheap gas, or the current direct debit for your gas is set too low. It works out as 1.84p per kWh over the past 6 months, whereas I would expect it to be more like 2.5p (plus £40 a year standing charge). How much do you pay per kWh for gas? What tariff are you on?

USwitch comes up with Southern Electric "Fixed Discount 2010 Duel Fuel" as a better deal than the E.ON one for the Cheltenham area. Yearly: "Estimated cost: £973.36, based on a consumption of 16950kWh for gas and 4688kWh for electricity" with prices fixed until 2010.

Frogling

mech wrote: »

Frogling: Your direct debit for electricity seems about right. However, either you are getting very cheap gas, or the current direct debit for your gas is set too low. It works out as 1.84p per kWh over the past 6 months, whereas I would expect it to be more like 2.5p (plus £40 a year standing charge). How much do you pay per kWh for gas? What tariff are you on?

My tariff for gas is a No Standing Charge one, and I pay 3.620p and 2.56p on the standard and discounted energy respectively if that makes sense.

hopingforahouse

mech wrote: »

hopingforahouse: No, that's the percentage decrease if you knocked £300 off £1128. The percentage increase would be 36%.

Sorry, bad maths.

mech_2

Ah, then it works out that your current consumption is costing around £1000 (assume 4572 kWh a year of gas is charged at the higher rate).

The "Price Protection 2009 V17 Dual Fuel from E.ON" would be £1133, so quite a lot more than you are already paying.

Southern Electric seems best to me. Fixed prices until 2010 and cheaper than what you are already paying. (In fact I've just noticed it's less than I'm currently paying too).

You can't seem to switch to it with USwitch, so you may have to phone Southern Electric directly to get it. http://www.southern-electric.co.uk/Help/ForYourHome/PhoneNumbers.aspx

Ask for "Fixed Discount 2010 Dual Fuel".

Frogling

Thanks Mech, really appreciate your effort on my behalf. Is a fixed discount better than going capped?

notbritishgas

mech wrote: »

Ah, then it works out that your current consumption is costing around £1000 (assume 4572 kWh a year of gas is charged at the higher rate).

The "Price Protection 2009 V17 Dual Fuel from E.ON" would be £1133, so quite a lot more than you are already paying.

Southern Electric seems best to me. Fixed prices until 2010 and cheaper than what you are already paying. (In fact I've just noticed it's less than I'm currently paying too).

You can't seem to switch to it with USwitch, so you may have to phone Southern Electric directly to get it. http://www.southern-electric.co.uk/Help/ForYourHome/PhoneNumbers.aspx

Ask for "Fixed Discount 2010 Dual Fuel".

Beware, Southern Electric do not do a fixed price tariff. You are talking about the fixed discount tariff, this is a discount of 2% off their standard tariff (which will rise when they increase their prices)