Help with electricity bills?

magicstrawberry

can i ask what tarriff your on savemoney ? as british gas wasnt anyhelp although edf energy seem that they could save me some money on there energy assist tariff.

Im so cold at the moment it hurts!

magicstrawberry

eon have put my payments up from £55 to £86 pounds per month... the women "couldnt" find anyway to help me to reduce cost and stay on a pre pay card but i suppose its better financally if they dont
but i know im really going to struggle with this kind of big increase
My only other option they said was to do it online and pay by direct debit this would save me 20% but as everyone knows having £86 go out in one go is not great and it will really cause problems
I asked if they could split this up but they cant probably as it costs them more
The other option is i move to EDF energy soon as i can pay of my arrears theres is

Band A 19.32
Band B 10.42 plus 15% discount on top but im unsure which is better.

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi magicstrawberry,

Just to clarify, do you currently pay (until today) £55 per month on a payment card at the bank/post office? Or are you paying £55 per month in total but making smaller weekly payments?

How much are the arrears on the account? I didn't realise you are repaying a debt in my earlier posts.

The lady you spoke to is correct, the best/most competitive tariffs are online tariffs with Direct Debit, the discount you are offered tends to be far high than the tariffs with other payment types.

Could you clarify these points please, and i'll get back to you.

Brian

magicstrawberry

I pay on a payment card at the post office

I did have a agreement with one member of your staff who is now on maternity leave to pay this and that it wouldnt change for 12 months as i tend to pay anything that my payment plan doesnt cover when i get my student loan in.

Currently the debit is £356.38 but again i tend to pay £55 each month and then i would usually pay a chunk of in january

magicstrawberry

To add I pay little bits over the month

Fire_Fox

magicstrawberry wrote: »

eon have put my payments up from £55 to £86 pounds per month... the women "couldnt" find anyway to help me to reduce cost and stay on a pre pay card but i suppose its better financally if they dont
but i know im really going to struggle with this kind of big increase
My only other option they said was to do it online and pay by direct debit this would save me 20% but as everyone knows having £86 go out in one go is not great and it will really cause problems
I asked if they could split this up but they cant probably as it costs them more

I did have a agreement with one member of your staff who is now on maternity leave to pay this and that it wouldnt change for 12 months as i tend to pay anything that my payment plan doesnt cover when i get my student loan in.

Currently the debit is £356.38 but again i tend to pay £55 each month and then i would usually pay a chunk of in january

The problem is that £55 a month isn't likely to cover your ongoing usage never mind pay off even the smallest amount of debt. £86 would be a reasonable monthly figure for your usage if you had insulation but without ... A prepayment card is supposed to be exactly that, you pay in advance not when your student loan comes in.

Is your problem with monthly payments that your benefits are paid on a weekly basis? I am on a low income (mature student last year) and much prefer DD as I like to pay the essentials off as soon as I get paid. Have you thought about posting a Statement of Affairs on the Debt-free Wannabe board so they can give you any ideas on how best to manage this debt? If you have other debts you may be suited to a Debt Management Plan for example.

magicstrawberry

My whole arguement is the only way im going to get any reduced cost is im either going to have to go to direct debit or change providers so im going to have to work out whats best

The agreement i had with them before had i think to sum it up was i would pay for my costs every month to cover the quarter which was on average £150 some lower some higher and then any debt not covered by this i then payed when my loan came in. This mostly occured over christmas as you use more electricity but i think due to the massive increases in there prices and to be fare every electricity providers prices there was more of a gap than before and i got abit stuck.

I will sort it out its of case of how exactly

Regarding debt management i have very few debts across the board appart from my student loan and ive got a very good credit rating and are paying what little debts i have regulary.... the only debt that seems to be cause any of an issue is this and when i rang up they didnt seem to be helpful and didnt explain how they work this out etc and werent to intrested in helping my cut the amount of spend untill i pushed them.

timmmers

A little off topic here, but my Mum had really bad arthritis in her lower back so I was always trying to find things to make it more comfortable...she hates winter and the cold and had some mad fleecy gear to keep cosy that helped. I got her something very similar to this from Aldi last year and she loved it http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20091119.p.Electric_Heat_Pad.ar7
Under her layers she was warm enough not to need the heating on full tilt ...which she did before. That one seems to use about the same power as a light bulb.

t

magicstrawberry

I really appreshate it thanks ... ive got a slanket that helps massively just as long as your not moving around much.

I just dont want to be to the point im shaking so violently as in last year my joints hurt so much so any advice ways to make it better im greatful

thanks

E.ON_Company_Representative

Morning magicstrawberry,

This situation is quite a dilemma; no energy supplier will let you pay for your consumption regularly but not repay earlier underpayments. It was very kind of the lady you previously dealt with to let you do this, however she wasn’t adhering to the rules, and unfortunately it’s not viable for our agents to monitor accounts individually like this example.

There are really a few options left, let me try and break these down for you.

1.Agree to a Direct Debit and an online tariff, this will reduce your bills by up to 22.2% (depends where you live), which means if your current consumption plus arrears over 12 months is £86 (as per yesterdays review) you could see the monthly payments fall to around £67.

2.Clear the arrears in full and re-review the payment plan for a monthly amount that covers consumption only.

3.If you do not wish to change tariff or payment type, then the only way of seeing a reduction will be from taking further actions to reduce the consumption.

I can’t stress enough that number one above is the easiest and best option you have available. Trying to reduce your consumption, when the majority is used for heating, sounds detrimental to your health, anything that has this effect, I feel, shouldn’t be considered.

Check for the Water Trust Fund, depending on your water supplier, either Severn Trent, United Utilities and Southern Water, you can apply for help with other utility debts. Check this website for a bit more information/idea of how it works http://www.sttf.org.uk/app.htm, I can’t be sure that they can help but it’s worth investigating.

Brian