Monthly or Quarterly Direct Debit?

kopper

Hi i'm with Southern Electric & Gas and currently paying quarterly DD. I'm dreading the winter as last winter the combined bills came to around £500 for the quarter.
If I was to switch to monthly DD, would it be the fixed amount every month or does it vary? If I do pay more than I use, how quickly do they pay back?
Thnx

jimexbox

kopper wrote: »

Hi i'm with Southern Electric & Gas and currently paying quarterly DD. I'm dreading the winter as last winter the combined bills came to around £500 for the quarter.
If I was to switch to monthly DD, would it be the fixed amount every month or does it vary? If I do pay more than I use, how quickly do they pay back?
Thnx

Hi kopper.

Your monthly DD would be based on your last annual usage, evenly split into 12 equal payments. So if you used £1200 worth of gas and electricity the previous year, your monthly DD payments would be set at £100. The aim is to have a zero balance on your account come your spring bill. So you will build a credit balance during the summer months, which will offset the the heavy winter usage.

As to what happens if you account is in credit as of your spring bill, each energy supplier has their own criteria. You will have to ring them up. My own supplier Eon refund automatically anything over £5. Where I believe BG will only refund anything over £150, they reduce you DD instead.