British Gas Major Price Rise Special Email Discussion

Capyboppy

IvanOpinion wrote:

If someone has £12 a month rise then that means thay are currently spending at least £100 a month on energy .. if they have £50 a month rise then that means they are spending over £400 a month on energy (although more than likely the rise is to do with non-payment and not the rise itself).

This is only my theory and has no basis in scientific fact (yet) ... but people have become far too molly coddled in their centrally heated houses .. they have every radiator burning on in every room, they hop from their house into a car with their big winter coats on and wind the heat up as high as it can go .. they have absolutely no resistance to the cold. Some people need to toughen up and in some cases put on a layer of fat to see them through the winter.

Grab yourself one of those literature packs that provides advice on reducing consumption. Find the expensive units in the house (usually anything that generates heat) and look at ways of improving their usage ... one example may be to use smaller pots when cooking .. always put lids on pots when cooking .. often when things come up to the boil they can be turned off rather than simmered. Has anybody done a 'tips on how to reduce energy usage' thread on this board?
Ivan

...........I think you must have misunderstood me on that one, or I haven't put what I meant clearly. What I meant was if the actually increase in Income Support/Other Benefit goes up £3 a week each April, that is £12 a month more income. But tha that extra income is already wiped out by the other bill increases that we might have, such as food, various insurances etc. So we are back to square one. Therefore if I am paying £50 a month for Gas and Electric, (remember, 2 years ago I was only paying £24 before the capped rate) Then my capped rate ends so I go back to being on a standard or even online rate, then I am told instead of paying £50 a month it will be £90 a month do tell me how I am supposed to find that extra money? That is one family members food allowance for the week. (£10)


I don't need to get a literature pack. I know all about saving money, I have been trying to do it the last 15 years. Maybe my "extravagance" is using my nebuliser so I can keep breathing.

Yes, there has been a few posts over time on how to cut back with lots of tips. But I think you will find most savvy "moneyexperters" already know most of them else they wouldn't be on the forums.

Ivan[/QUOTE]

I'm not having a dig at you Ivan, or anybody else, but at the end of the day, these companys are still making vast amounts of profit. Their Managing Directors are not sitting in their front room watching tv sat cocooned in a sleeping bag with the thermostat on number 0.

Capyboppy

Cardew wrote:

Nobody has had their bill increase by "£30-50 a month" due to the latest price increases. - unless their annual bills are Several thousand ponds a year.

Increases in the DD of that magnitude are because people have been underpaying for the previous period and have run up a large debit balance - which they now have to pay back.

Read back some of the posts Cardew.

al_yrpal and eclesto neither of them have suggested that they were vastly behind in payments. al_yrpal is estimating his/her bill going up from £51 to £92, and eclesto whose capped rate with SP (same supplier as myself) has been quoted double now he/she is off it.

Maybe these posters could clarify if Cardew is correct though, and let us know if they were vastly behind in payments.

For the record, I regularly submit meter readings even though they come and do them so they are up to date, and have been trying to pay £10 extra every 4-6 weeks, so I will be definitely even by the end of the anniversary year.

masonic

Cardew's statement that "nobody has had their bill increase by "£30-50 a month" due to the latest price increases" is correct.

A 12.4% gas price rise and 9.4% electricity price rise simply cannot in itself result in peoples bills doubling unless the laws of algebra no longer apply.

If someone is coming off a capped tariff, then obviously they will have to weather the cumulative effect of all the price rises since they signed up to it, but if they are seeing their bills double now, they would have increased by 80% even without this latest set of rises. The huge difference in price is not due to this latest set of price rises, but the combined effect of all of the price rises they have avoided for a time by capping their price to begin with.

For anyone else, either you have run up a large debt that your supplier has decided to start collecting or you will be seriously overpaying and end up with a large credit balance that you will have to claw back.

I would hope that everyone can appreciate that a 9-12% increase in prices can never, ever, lead to a 100% increase in cost and not allow their supplier to increase their payments by anywhere near that much without a satisfactory explaination of why it is required.

al_yrpal

Capyboppy wrote:

Read back some of the posts Cardew.

al_yrpal and eclesto neither of them have suggested that they were vastly behind in payments. al_yrpal is estimating his/her bill going up from £51 to £92, and eclesto whose capped rate with SP (same supplier as myself) has been quoted double now he/she is off it.

QUOTE]


No, the figures I quoted were - paying £51pm now, but as we have retired and kept the heating on all day for the last year increasing our usage, we should have paid £680 pa, not £612 pa. Our new estimated payment was £91 on the fixed rate Powergen tarrif for 4 winters until 2010, but we will actually pay £96 per month to clear the small amount of arrears that has accumulated. Hence payment is increasing from £51pm to £96pm. This is quite an increase! As we are over 60 we get Brown's £200 in November, but I am hoping this will be increased.

The reason for such huge increase was that my usage was 15,500KW pa Gas and 4350KW pa electricity, and at only £51 per month the original fixed rate deal from Powergen was quite a good deal and way below the £70 + a month I should have been paying. Its been quite a shock.

But... with 'Rambo' Putin now flexing his muscles, the cloud over the Middle East growing darker by the day and the South Americans getting bolshie there is only one way prices will now go. Thats why I am going for a fix. If Powergen have overestimated what I should pay, I will be on the phone to them in a year to get the payments cut back.

al_yrpal

Capyboppy wrote:

Read back some of the posts Cardew.

al_yrpal and eclesto neither of them have suggested that they were vastly behind in payments. al_yrpal is estimating his/her bill going up from £51 to £92, and eclesto whose capped rate with SP (same supplier as myself) has been quoted double now he/she is off it.

QUOTE]


No, the figures I quoted were - paying £51pm now, but as we have retired and kept the heating on all day for the last year increasing our usage, we should have paid £680 pa, not £612 pa. Our new estimated payment was £91 on the fixed rate Powergen tarrif for 4 winters until 2010, but we will actually pay £96 per month to clear the small amount of arrears that has accumulated. Hence payment is increasing from £51pm to £96pm. This is quite an increase! But actually it should be an increase from 56 to 91 which is still 62%! As we are over 60 we get Brown's £200 in November, but I am hoping this will be increased.

The reason for such huge increase was that my usage was 15,500KW pa Gas and 4350KW pa electricity, and at only £51 per month the original fixed rate deal from Powergen was quite a good deal and way below the £70 + a month I should have been paying.

With 'Rambo' Putin now flexing his muscles, the cloud over the Middle East growing darker by the day and the South Americans getting bolshie there is only one way prices will now go. Thats why I am going for a fix. If Powergen have overestimated what I should pay, I will be on the phone to them in a year to get the payments cut back.

Apparently I am free to cancel/switch at any time, and he said I can get free insulation should I need it. I am waiting for details.

Capyboppy

Thanks for clarifying that al_yrpal.

I am surprised though they allowed you to go so long without them sending a letter saying your payments aren't matching up to your usage. That is unusual as all the utility companies I have been with have done this whichever way it was going, over payments or underpayments. Before the capped rate my varied amounts never differed more than £3 either way because of this.

Mikeyorks

Babbler wrote:

All this talk of switchin/not switching... what do you do if you are mioving home? How do you find the best deal then if its to a completely different situatuion?

......as post #65? Ask the vendor to tot up the last year's bills. And do the same for your buyer (except, of course, you'll be on the best tariff having read this site so thoroughly?)!;)

IvanOpinion

Capyboppy wrote:

...........I think you must have misunderstood me on that one, or I haven't put what I meant clearly. What I meant was if the actually increase in Income Support/Other Benefit goes up £3 a week each April, that is £12 a month more income. But tha that extra income is already wiped out by the other bill increases that we might have, such as food, various insurances etc. So we are back to square one. Therefore if I am paying £50 a month for Gas and Electric, (remember, 2 years ago I was only paying £24 before the capped rate) Then my capped rate ends so I go back to being on a standard or even online rate, then I am told instead of paying £50 a month it will be £90 a month do tell me how I am supposed to find that extra money? That is one family members food allowance for the week. (£10)

I do understand what you are saying but unfortunately energy prices are currently on a very steep slope. As the likes of China and other developing areas of the world start ramping up their production the demand is far outstripping the supply. Several years ago there was an expectation that energy prices might come down therefore there were some incredible capped rates introduced ... many of which cost the energy companies a lot of money. I don;t want to have to pay these prices either .. I have seen a fill of oil going from £158 to £360 over a few years. So what are the choices?

They are very limited ... we might expect the government to subsidise but then we have to expect cut backs in education, NHS, benefits or increases in taxation .. alternatively we can demand they cut back the prices and end up with unreliable supplies were you only get electricity/gas at certain hours of the day (as happened in California) .. alternatively we have to look to make the savings ourselves.

Are you paying back arrears? If so talk to the power company and see if the arrears can be spread over a longer period.

However, beware, we are currently at the thin end of the wedge. In the current market I do not believe that the government can keep its promises to wipe out fuel poverty.

Ivan

al_yrpal

Capyboppy wrote:

Thanks for clarifying that al_yrpal.

I am surprised though they allowed you to go so long without them sending a letter saying your payments aren't matching up to your usage. That is unusual as all the utility companies I have been with have done this whichever way it was going, over payments or underpayments. Before the capped rate my varied amounts never differed more than £3 either way because of this.

The difference only really occurred in the last 12 months because we kept the gas heating on all day, and it only averaged out at £6 a month. This morning I recieved confirmation. The new Powergen fixed rates are:-

Electricity (ex VAT)
17.27p/KWh with a quarterly threshold of 225KWh
then
9.10p/KWh

Gas
4.75p/KWh with a quarterly threshold of 1143KWh
then
2.753p/KWh

Powergen are actually the 'residue' of the CEGB and run quite a few power stations. Although they are now foreign owned I think they are quite an efficient outfit and certainly provided me with eye watering low prices during the last couple of years. I remember about 4 years ago it was announced that British Gas had locked themselves into very high priced contracts in the future. What we are now seeing is that coming true in the worst possible way.

Derek_A.

I note once again the BBC used the stick to beat BGC / Centrica.
But they failed to publisise the EDF rise of 19% & 9.1 %.
I have checked with EDF and these figures are corect.