How to avoid lending your Utility Co £150 free for a year

braychurchmouse

Just had my latest electricity bill....ok I know unit prices have gone up about 10% (Southern Electric 9.7%) ...but whoooah...what's this in a liitle note at the bottom that I almost missed. They are going to increase my monthly Direct debit from £45 per month to £77. That's 71%. By my reckoning that means that during the Summer period I will build up a credit balance of at least £150!!!!!! Turn over the page and there's some convincing calculation that proves that £77 is the correct amount. Including an interesting little quirk that they divide the estimated bill for the year by 11...when last time I looked at the calendar there were 12 months in the year.

So I did my own calculation. ok i finished the year owing them £71 so whatever my calcs are i need to allow for the fact that i should have been paying more..ie about 71/12 per month more ... say £6. Also I should allow for the fact that my average usage over the year is now £45 plus £6 per month = £51. Apply the 10% price increase so thats about £56 per month. And in addition i owe them that £71 so to be back to balance at the end of next year I need to pay them an extra 71/12 .. thats another £6 per month (ok I know it seems like double counting but believe me its logical if you think about it.)

So i really should be paying them £61 per month standing order. (even so it will probably result in a small balance in favour of the electric company at the end of the summer.) . That's rather different to the £77 they "imposed".

Rang them up...avoiding the 0879 and 0845 numbers by dialling the 0800 meterline and keeping quiet when they ask you for details...straight through to customer services..haha. I had to threaten to come off direct debit to get them to agree...but finally got them to agree to reduce direct debit to £65.
Hope this helps folks.:j

anniecave

it's only a computer estimating how much you'll use -shows that computers are sometimes wrong!

mhendo

anniecave wrote:

it's only a computer estimating how much you'll use -shows that computers are sometimes wrong!

Computers aren't wrong - its the people that program them to do the calculations (incorrectly).