Is Old style really money saving?

Mr_Proctalgia

I have moved over to equipower as I use so little electricity that I was only ever paying for the "Premium Units" and thus a little leccy was costing me a fortune. No no matter how little (or how much!) I use it all costs 9.36p per unit, no standing charge no other things to fuss over - I currently use about £20 per month...

For what its worth the rates are :- Standard day tariff 9.36p
Economy 7 tariff :- Day rate 10.97 - Night rate 3.73p

Gas costs 2.55p per KWh.

There are no standing charges, no rebates for different payement methods, no charges for different payment methods - just simple sums to do. The only differences you get is where you live and which leccy supplier they are buying from. I have a card meter (it was here whe I moved in) and because of the settings on it they send me a rebate every month.

Well chuffed....

skintas_2

i was paying £28 a month then £53 then £75 a mmonth as they underestimated the readings, im now paying £66 a month owe them £98 hoping to get this down. my usage is £48 the other is debt paying back!


blame the sunbed!

kittykat500

If you get an estimated bill, always read the meter yourself and phone it in. In my case they are always overestimating.

livinginhope

WOW,thanks all,really got a lot to take in there.
Queenie,thanks for all the info,I use the slow cooker for the main meal which I put on first thing in the morning and the oven for the baking etc,I have just been out to look at the manual of my cooker and it can be used without the fan,I didn't know this.On my old oven it was obvious and I used to fill it when cooking,but this one is more complex,too much for a pea brain like me!
I have always cooked from scratch,I lived with my gran for a number of years and she was VERY OS,and insisted I learnt 'the ways' form a very early age,I was boiling bones before the age of 7!!
I think maybe,well definately my organisation skills need a massive boost,I am a dreadful planner,but do try,although my kitchen looks like the muppetts kitchen when work in progress,it all comes together in the end.
Thanks for all the recipes for the cakes GE Drink,will give a couple a go later today.
I think we need to pull our socks up and get ruthless,make sure lights are turned off when not needed,plan more and get more organised.
Just wanted to add that my gas usage is VERY low according to powergen,this is my heating,water and hob,so the boiler is obviously efficient.

Horasio

We give very accurate readings and quote the last supplier's high bills to a new supplier, but still get a shortfall we have to make up. It is scaring us to death. We are not using any more things, if anything I have reduced usage, so what is going on?

phizzimum

Did I read correctly that you only owe them £110? Why on earth are they putting your bill up to £225 from £45?

we got caught out with a deficit because our DD was too low, so we put the DD up by £10 and paid the difference off by debit card over the phone so that we had a clean slate.

They must have got their maths seriously wrong (unless I've misread your posts)

Queenie

livinginhope wrote:

....
I have always cooked from scratch,I lived with my gran for a number of years and she was VERY OS,and insisted I learnt 'the ways' form a very early age,I was boiling bones before the age of 7!!

Not your Gran's I hope :laugh:

dannahaz

I'm with Powergen and I haven't had any problems with them.

I like to pay a fixed amount monthly, and I like to make sure that I am in credit not debit. When I first moved to them some years ago we had a disagreement over how much I should be paying. They said £50 a month, I said £75. In the end, they agreed to take £75.

I ALWAYS check my bill, and if they have underestimated my useage (which they usually do) then I send them the correct reading and get a new bill. Always.

This worked really well, and over the years I built up a small surplus (about £200). Then, this year, with all the fuel price increases, they contacted me to say they needed to increase it to £91 a month. ANd I had no surplus anymore.

Although it's a bit of a jump, I do understand it. The price of gas has gone up several times, and I think it's increased by about 40% (or am I imagining that?), so my monthly increase seems about right.

I can imagine that if I had been underpaying AND using more units than they were billing me for, then I would have had a huge shock when they finally read the meter and worked it all out.

However, I will NOT be moving from Powergen. When I checked, there was another supplier who was marginally cheaper, but I have always found Powergen's customer service to be very good, and I value that.

BTW, I also emailed Powergen to ask if I was on the best tarriff for my useage, and they moved me on to another tarriff which saves me £30 a year.

Might be worthwhile you asking them if you are on the best tarriff before you do your final comparisons?

We're also trying to be more OS: switching off mobile phone chargers when we're not charging the phone (I didn't realise they continued to consume electricity), using one of those power things which powers down all the peripherals when we switch of the 'puter, that sort of thing.

lyns_2

Im with scottish power my bill used to be £20 for each but after 2 years they said i had under payed them and charged me £50 a month for each now they have dropped it to £35 each.
My oh has to put a tv on in every room he goes in leaves lights on has the fire on instead of putting jumper on and we use the tumble drier every day.I even caught him using the tumble drier for a pair of socks the other day and put the heating on over night in the hot weather just to dry his jeans

newleaf

I'm with Powergen. I read my own meters every month and submit the readings online.