Billing costs - normal?

jimmybhoy

We recently used uSwitch to go from Scottish Gas to Powergen on the basis that it appeared to offer us a saving of around £250 a year.

We are now set to pay £45 a month for Elec and £89 a month for Gas - i.e £134 a month combined which is £1608 per year. We are paying via direct debit.

We (my wife and I) live in a 3-bed terraced house in Glasgow. We used heating/water etc for couple of hours in morning and same in evening. Watch TV in evening, have lights on, use gas cooker etc as per normal.

Does this kind of cost - £1600 a year - sound right/normal/average etc to everyone?

Any help, ideas, thoughts greatly appreciated.

THANK YOU ALL FELLOW MONEYSAVERS..>!

newbie71_2

Hello, sounds a little high to me - from what you've said we use about the same amount of gas/leccy and we're on £33 per month for gas and £41 per month for electricity and I just started off the switching process yesterday to Scottish Power as we could save around £150 a year with them.

They should send you those quarterly statement things shouldn't they and then you can see if you're paying over the odds (you probably will be now with it being summer) or not? I'm assuming as you've switched they will have 'guesstimated' how much your monthly usage will be so once they can actually see your usage through the meter readings you should have the 'proof' to get your monthly dd changed if needs be.

tripled

The national average cost is currently around £1000 per year, so it does sound a little high. However, if you are overpaying then you should get it back when the payments are re-assessed.

jimmybhoy

£1000 a year would be fantastic...!

Anyone else shed any light on this? We live in Glasgow if anyone else has an idea of what their costs are?

When I called them, they told me direct debit amounts were set by USwitch, not by them which was confusing.

Thought this switching malarkey was going to be easy - and cheap..?! But not so far..!

any other help or ideas appreciated

thanks

maggiemae_2

Hi

We live in a 3 bed mid terraced house (in Ayrshire) and I have just switched to Scottish Hydro Electric - monthly direct debits will be £17 for electricity and £33 for gas. So total of £600 for the year saving us £144 per year from our previous Scottish Gas bills.

HTH

Individual_11

As someone who worked in the industry, when I choose a supplier I ask to go on direct debit and pay only what the bill actually is each quarter. I then just work out 1/12th of my average annual bill (or call it £45 if you wanted to) and save that in the bank every month (plus a wee bit in case I have a big bill). That way I get the same payment reductions etc as everyone else but keep the money not spent in bills in my bank.

Essentially that way, although I never know what the bills will be till they arrive, I pay for ONLY what I've used and the utility company don't have my money up front. And that's what it's about - them having and using your cash. I know a good few people who have a fair bit of money stashed with the utility companies - when it should be in their bank - or at least their pocket
:j

My suggestions would be:

1) Ask the supplier if you can pay direct debit for only what the bill is
2) Ask them to reduce the amount you pay monthly (say from £45 - which does sound high) to £35
3) Find another supplier. And if you do, call your current supplier and tell them you're leaving as they're charging you too much monthly DD. Maybe even go to PGen direct in the case of Jimmybhoy!!!!!

Will apologise tho as I'm not based in Scotland so can't help with the specifics of Scottish Hydro etc. I'm also not sure of how USwitch work but I'm with Powergen and they DO bill me quarterly bill amount DD. Again it could be that either Powergen's customer rep is ill informed (shall we say) or there is a deal with USwitch but I think if you're willing to insist and speak to someone on the phone's boss you might get movement (or at least a proper explaination of what the reason is for the £45 and the Uswitch deal - if there is one).

Good luck and hope you make some progress. Please post back if you do and let us all know how you get on!

I_11

Cardew

maggiemae wrote: »

Hi

We live in a 3 bed mid terraced house (in Ayrshire) and I have just switched to Scottish Hydro Electric - monthly direct debits will be £17 for electricity and £33 for gas. So total of £600 for the year saving us £144 per year from our previous Scottish Gas bills.

HTH

So by that reasoning, if your your DD was set at £1 for gas and £1 for electricity you would be saving £720 a year?;)

Seriously, what you are paying on your DD each month is meaningless. You will pay for what you consume and if it comes to more than £600 a year you will pay the difference.

All companies will set your DD at an unrealistic low level just to get your custom. If you contacted a few other firms and told them you were paying £17 and £33 you would get a lower quote!!

The only way to check if a company is cheaper is to check the tariff carefully; and even if they are cheaper today, they might not be next month.

Individual_11

Cardew wrote: »

So by that reasoning, if your your DD was set at £1 for gas and £1 for electricity you would be saving £720 a year?;)

Seriously, what you are paying on your DD each month is meaningless. You will pay for what you consume and if it comes to more than £600 a year you will pay the difference.......

The only way to check if a company is cheaper is to check the tariff carefully; and even if they are cheaper today, they might not be next month.

Cardew is right. Many people fall into the trap of taking a cheap DD rate when the actual units you use are more expensive per unit. Also be wary of them telling you you will save "£X" per year. It really depends on how much you use.

Would totally agree that what you really need to do is find out how much per unit (kilowatt hour) they are charging and compare those. You can even take the KWh from your last bill and work it out on the other tariffs you've shopped around for! Energy companies are often reluctant (in my experience) to release tariff rates... sometimes a sure sign they're not the cheapest after all!!!!

I_11

jamesd

Powergen's cheapest online packages require a fixed monthly direct debit so you can't do as Individual_11 suggested because you would lose most of the 20% rate discount that makes your plan cheapest. The variable direct debit packages have a lower discount. One reason is experience suggesting that people on fixed direct debits are less likely to have trouble paying and are cheaper in customer service calls. The direct debit amount will be adjusted periodically, including if you end up accumulating a 120 credit balance.

If you have your past actual meter readings (not estimated) for a year or so you can send them to Powergen using their online mail facility and ask them to enter them into their system and use them to calculate the appropriate monthly direct debit amounts. That will replace whatever was used in the uSwitch estimate of usage, which should have been based on whatever estimate you gave uSwitch.

In any case, so long as you can afford the payments for a while, there's no need to be geatly concerned because any amount in excess of your actual usage will just accumulate as a credit on your account until the direct debit is reduced based on your usage.

Once you get your first bill check the charging plans given on it to be sure that they are correct. Sometimes people start out on the wrong plan. Let them know and they will correct the plans and recalculate. Powergen EnergyOnline Extra Saver is probably the one you should be on.

Their online service lets you see alternative plans. You can't rely on the rate per kWh because those are usually the same. You have to look at the plan details to see the discounts, which are different for each plan. They won't tell you if they introduce a new and cheaper plan so it's worth checking from time to time to see if there is a new one with greater discount.

anniecave

jimmybhoy - do you have actual readings on your previous suppliers bills on both your gas and electric? So you you can work out how many kilowatt hours you are using for each per year? Then you can work out on your new tariffs with powergen how much it will actually cost, including any discounts.

If you can't be faffed with working it out on the new tariffs, just calculate the annual kwh figures and put the details in on uswitch and it should give you annual prices for each.

My parents are in a three bed house and they use nowhere near that much electricity and gas.

If you are seriously using that much electricity and gas in a three bed house, what is your insulation like, do you need to look at turning appliances off that you don't need, etc etc ?