Desperate for help & advice

theblackrose

Hi there

I've sort of been thrown in the deep end with all this. My dad passed away suddenly last year & barely a week after his passing I had to sit and switch bills etc over into my name. I'm an unpaid carer for my fianc!. We keep to a strict budget & are trying to make sure we can pay all our bills. We don't eat out, don't buy takeaways, don't have any extra expenses and we're managing OK. Well, until tonight.
We're with Swalec on a 3 year fixed price. Our monthly direct debit was £43 and that was perfect for us but now they are telling us we're using more than what they estimated and will have to pay £69. I don't think we can afford that. I'm so worried. I don't know where we're going wrong. That's what my dad was paying but in those days I was doing washing 3 times a week, using the oven regularly & my dad had his tv on most of the time. Now I only do washing once a week, I do bulk cooking so don't use the cooker a lot and we turn lights off when we leave the room and TVs too. I thought we'd be using less!

Is it worth getting a smart meter put in?

elsien

Have you been giving regular readings? Just wondering if the increase is from confirmed usage or their estimate of what they think you have used.
The other alternative is that your £43 wasn't covering your usage so you've built up arrears over time through not paying enough.
So the first thing to do is check whether your usage is based on up to date meter readings.

Eta - if you're a carer, do you not claim carers allowance, or are you working?

theblackrose

elsien wrote: »

Have you been giving regular readings? Just wondering if the increase is from confirmed usage or their estimate of what they think you have used.
The other alternative is that your £43 wasn't covering your usage so you've built up arrears over time through not paying enough.
So the first thing to do is check whether your usage is based on up to date meter readings.

Eta - if you're a carer, do you not claim carers allowance, or are you working?

Yes, i usually take a reading monthly and enter it online. We also had a guy come on Monday to take a reading. According to our latest statement we owe £14.17 but we did receive £140 Warm home discount in December apparently.

Sadly despite my fianc! needing help daily & not being able to be on his own they put him on lower rate so I'm not entitled to carers allowance. My care support worker has said we need to apply for PIP because he should be higher but with our current situation I'm a bit reluctant to push things. That and he's having some treatments at the moment & I don't want to add to the stress.

CashStrapped

If you gave a meter reading today, what is the actual position of the account? Are you in debit or credit at the moment?

theblackrose

CashStrapped wrote: »

If you gave a meter reading today, what is the actual position of the account? Are you in debit or credit at the moment?

The £14.17 is total owed up till 15th of February. £19.88 debit as of tonight. We pay the electric at the end of the month.

CashStrapped

A direct debit is a flexible amount, it is just a guess by the energy company.

The change may even be automated, so I would ring, explain that you have a tiny debit and that is during winter and see no reason why it should go up by so much.

If you are firm, state the facts they should put it back to what it was.

Furthermore, is the current supplier the cheapest available? Have you done a comparison recently?

gilbert_and_sullivan

Yes and while comparing make sure you click the necessary tick boxes so the comparison sites tell you about the ones they don't trouser bungs from.

[Deleted User]

Have you personally taken on a three year fix from your fathers account ? Your Dads death would end any fix and also any debts ( if he had with any) pass onto the estate. A three year fix is too long in my opinion. I like to switch often collecting cashbacks so I can "trouser a bung " along with any suppliers. I ve had three in the last year at £30 a time, a useful reduction in my bills and I m looking for another if possible. Prices have been dropping and there seems to be cheaper collectives popping up every month.