Beware

cheghead

Cardew...you really should take these life or death issues more seriously!

He He He

kat21

No doubt you will be the ones struggling when you get massive joint fuel bills and no way of paying them other than to be disconnected or left on a charge card meter. Its about choice, I have and so have many others found it easier to pay amounts in different months rather than pay a huge amount all at once. It might be alright for you to receive your gas and electricity bills both at the same time but for me it is not. And as long as I can find a supplier whom is willing to supply me with my bills in different months to suit my financial status then who ever that company is gets my trade !
Kat21
glad you think poverty is funny
glad you think that we should have no choice
as I have said before and energy watch agreed if I want my bills in different months then there is nothing wrong with that. The only fools I see are those that pay in advance via direct debit, whom never get there meter read because its estimated all the time, your supplier is quids in!!! you do all the work we charge you more and more, you the mug end up locked in because of the debt created by no fault of your own but by a fuel supply company whom thinks you should do everything.

iceicebaby

I pay for my fuel monthly dd and you have your facts wrong.

I have my meter read each month by me. I e mail my meter readings off to my supplier each month. No one comes to my house from that company to read my meter and I get my fuel at an extra discounted rate because of this and my usage is tracked each month so my dd is the.a same all year but im never hit with a large bill due to under estimating. This makes budgeting easier for me as money is also to tight to mention here aswell! It is not worth my while to lie and say the reading is lower as it will catch up with me eventually.

My supplier e mails me each month with a reminder, i fill in the boxes with the readings and send back. Simple. and as my meter is read each month is a damn site more accurate that having it read every 3 months or so. It also means if my consimption is going up excessively I can do someting about it quicker.

So im no fool.

I would rather pay a low (but correct) amount each month that be hit by a 3 month bill every 3 months for gas and then another 3 month bill the next month for electric.

Again tho its all personal choice. If you think paying quarterly is fine then fine and if you think paying monthly is fine then fine too. Not everyone is the same.;)

Cardew

iceicebaby wrote:

Again tho its all personal choice. If you think paying quarterly is fine then fine and if you think paying monthly is fine then fine too. Not everyone is the same.;)

Plus of course many suppliers provide gas and electricity on a cheaper tariff when you elect to pay by Direct Debit.

iceicebaby

Cardew wrote:

Plus of course many suppliers provide gas and electricity on a cheaper tariff when you elect to pay by Direct Debit.

Which is precisely why I do it!:money:

kat21

paying direct debit means your paying for what you use, your also saving your supplier between twenty to fourty pounds each time you read your own meter, you update things too, so no doubt you are saving them on administration costs. I pay quaterly, that means I use the supply first then pay for it later. I can wait three months which gives me enough time to save up the money to pay my supplier. My supplier also sends out a meter reader, so there is no dispute at a later date should complications arrise regarding the readings taken. This deal suits me fine.
kat21
seems to me you do an awful lot of work for nothing, but then hey your saving your supplier money. I dont have to worry about updating readings, I dont have to worry if there is something wrong with the readings I have plenty of time to get money together to pay my bills and I even get discount if I pay within five days.
seems a no brainer to me, but then hey!! you carry on doing all the runing around.

jem16

EDF Internet tariff - paying by DD, read own meter.

For a whole year I pay £1234 for gas & electricity

EDF Standard tariff - paying by quarterly bill.

For a whole year I would pay £1689

That's an extra £455 per year, £114 approx each quarter.

I think I'll carry on "doing all the running around" and save myself all this money. :money:

iceicebaby

:money: I still get my gas and electric cheaper tho, :j hehehe

Xbigman

My Ebico gas and electric bills do not come in the same envelope or at the same time. They are about 2 or 3 weeks apart. I also don't pay by DD, but pay quarterly, saving up the money in advance and getting the interest rather than the supplier. Its also very clear that Ebico use Southern as their billers and aligned billing periods should really be no great surprise. Now if the OP was with BG for gas and Ebico for electric and they aligned the bills then that would be a valid complaint.
Remember, Ebico charge the same for prepayment meters as they do for DD's, and the OP is probably doing it the wrong way around as Ebico is cheaper on gas than electric (relatively speaking).

I find it annoying that my car tax, insurance and MOT all run out close together (about a year after I bought the car usually), But thats just life.
Regards


X

MttJocy

I have to totally agree with jem16, a saving of £455 per year for sending off one meter reading per month taking I guess <5 mins ie 1 hour per year, £455 for an hours work sounds like a damn good deal to me, if only I could find a job paying £455 for an hours work lol.

And to be honest I think that kat21 is being rediculous, if the meter was read an extra time costing the company £20 this money would have to come from somewhere, anyone want to take a guess at where? The consumer perhaps?

This seams like a simple matter of logic, if one uses their assests more efficiantly as a company it results in lower costs conversely innefficiant use of assets results in higher costs which they have to seek to recover from their consumers in order to make a profit.

By the way I do not work for a utility company of any description, and I am also on a low income so yes I can see where kat21 is comming from with reguards to the combined bills being a large ammount of money to come up with at once having said that you also meantion that you "save up" the money for your bills, now correct me if I am wrong but say for example that one fuel costs £100 per quarter and the other £120 or something surely no matter when the quarterly bills come you still have to save up £74 per month I really can't see how the precice dates of the bills changes the total costs which are owed nor does it change the ammount which one needs to put aside each month to cover those quarterly bills when they arrive.

Please if someone can point out to me how exactly the size of two bills in different months is on average more expensive overall than two bills in the same month for the same utilty supply and average consumption?