Need some advice please MSE

Ianna

Howdy. I've recently moved into a rented property and my supplier (scottish power) have estimated my gas and electric use over the past 2 months as £95 per month which seems ludicrous. They don't accept that it's absurd and I don't know what i'm talking about so I can't argue back.

I've been looking at switching but given that I've only got an estimated usage I really don't know what to do. Should I gamble and switch and cap on the estimate or should I gamble and stay put until I've got an idea how much I should be paying?

There's only two of us in the house so the amount we've been quoted seems daft. We don't have the heating on much because we're tightfisted and eco warriors and we don't run many electric or gas items.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'd really appreciate some help

Magentasue

Presumably you took meter readings two months' ago when you moved in? If you take readings today, you can work out what you've used. Factor in what will change over the winter (most people use more, some use less) and cost what you will spend over a year. Your monthly payments need to be at least 1/12 to cover.

Cardew

If you "don't know what you are talking about" I wonder how you can say the estimate is "Ludicrous and absurd"?

If they want you to pay £95 monthly, that doesn't mean that you have used £95 a month over the past 2 months. You would expect to use a lot less than that sum over the summer months and be in credit, then more over the winter months.

Also if you have not paid anything yet, the £95 monthly is the estimate for the rest of the year e.g. So you will be paying for a full years consumption in 9 or 10 months.

The biggest complaint on MSE is that the DD is set too low and then a big debit balance builds up, which has to be paid off. Your complaint is the opposite!!!

If you really insist they will reduce the DD payment I would think, but I would just pay the £95 and if that does turn out to be too high, then it will be reduced.

Dreamnine

Take readings, work out what you are using and see if it comes close to that figure. I don't like DD- you may get a small discount, but they can take what they like.

Magentasue

I've skipped around suppliers and never had problems reducing or increasing my DD payments as appropriate.