Water Bills questions and comment

BillerPayer

We have been paying £20 a month to Thames Water for a while now and are currently £24 in credit with them. But the latest bill says they are increasing that to £28 a month.

I phoned and the message says they are fantastically busy and then the line cuts out. I have emailed and the email back says they hope to get back in 10 days but it could well be longer. Meanwhile I have a direct debit set up which will withdraw the £28 from my account into theirs.

Anyone got any ideas how to reach them? And/or could I switch my payment from direct debit to standing order?

Cardew

BillerPayer said:

We have been paying £20 a month to Thames Water for a while now and are currently £24 in credit with them. But the latest bill says they are increasing that to £28 a month.

I phoned and the message says they are fantastically busy and then the line cuts out. I have emailed and the email back says they hope to get back in 10 days but it could well be longer. Meanwhile I have a direct debit set up which will withdraw the £28 from my account into theirs.

Anyone got any ideas how to reach them? And/or could I switch my payment from direct debit to standing order?

Welcome to the forum.

Do you have a water meter?

Does your latest bill(the one that states your DD is increasing to £28) show £24 credit?

As you do not get a discount for paying by DD, you can stop your DD and pay each bill as they arrive. However if you don't have a water meter, you have to pay the bill 6 months in advance in April and October.

T90

Wondering if anyone can help? We moved in to our home in Feb 2020, being paying £23.72 a month for water&sewage. Got my 21/22 bill yesterday saying it's going up to just shy of £45 a month, no explanation, nothing. We aren't on a meter. Only thing I can think of us the council moved us from band A to band B. Any help understanding this would be really appreciated as it's quite a hike in price.
Thanks, 
Michael. 

Cardew

T90 said:

Wondering if anyone can help? We moved in to our home in Feb 2020, being paying £23.72 a month for water&sewage. Got my 21/22 bill yesterday saying it's going up to just shy of £45 a month, no explanation, nothing. We aren't on a meter. Only thing I can think of us the council moved us from band A to band B. Any help understanding this would be really appreciated as it's quite a hike in price.
Thanks, 
Michael. 

See separate thread started by T90

Ian2deep

I have just moved out of a house served by Severn Trent Water and so was checking the billing system for final amount required. Has anyone noticed that the water authorities (well ST anyway) are now charging for water, sewerage AND highway water? This used to be a cost bourne by the District/County Councils surely and it now seems to be a sizable lump sum just based on property type. So, if Severn Trent now charge for this, why is my Council Tax bill not reduced to compensate?

MintyCyrmu

I saw on the Water bills to rise by £7/yr article that Dwr Cymru were not raising their prices.

We've had our bill through for 2022/23 and it works out £5 per month more than 2021/22.

Have I misunderstood anything?

Cardew

MintyCyrmu said:

I saw on the Water bills to rise by £7/yr article that Dwr Cymru were not raising their prices.

We've had our bill through for 2022/23 and it works out £5 per month more than 2021/22.

Have I misunderstood anything?

Are you metered or pay based on Rateable Value?

If metered it could be that you had a small debit balance last year (around £30?) because you had used more water than estimated. So the £5 a month could be to pay off the debit balance and an extra £30 this year to pay for the estimated usage.

MintyCyrmu

We aren't on a meter - although thinking of changing to a meter as there's just two of us in a 3 bedroom house (all other houses around us as 3 beds too) - no lawn, and I never wash my car either ( ) I think we are quite low consumers, is this a good idea?

But anyway no, not on a meter....

Jaybee_16

MintyCyrmu said:

I saw on the Water bills to rise by £7/yr article that Dwr Cymru were not raising their prices.

We've had our bill through for 2022/23 and it works out £5 per month more than 2021/22.

Have I misunderstood anything?

According to Wales Online prices to rise between 3.8 and 6.6% in April.    

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/bills-rising-wales-april-1-23013721

MintyCyrmu

Ours rose by around 14% (£36 to £41...odd).

We've booked to have a meter installed, if my estimations/calculations are correct the bill should come back down to the previous price.