New supplier

Kevin2494

I am looking to switch from SSE, was with NPower before that. I have always paid quarterly as I don't trust suppliers to submit honest estimated bills. NPower send me a quarterly electricity bill of over £1000. The estimated daily electricity use was 44kwh per day. All the cheapest companies only seem to do direct debits.
Are there any companies out there who submit honest bills and how do I prevent them submitting a ludicrously over estimated bill then take the direct debit?

CashStrapped

Any billing method, to be accurate, will rely on you giving regular meter readings.

If you do not, the chance of an over or underestimate increases.

A supplier should not have to submit "honest" estimated bills if you give an actual meter reading when required. This takes about 5 mins.

I have not had an estimated bill from my supplier(s) for years.

So the accuracy of bills whether they be quarterly pay on receipt or monthly by direct debit are as only as accurate as you want them to be.

Furthermore, by not having a direct debit you are preventing your own access to the cheapest tariffs.

People mistakenly think that a monthly DD should be the exact amount due on the bill. It is not, (although some companies do bill specific DDs)

A direct debit is an estimate of what you might use (usually based on what you used the year before) spread across 12 months.

The idea being you pay the same or similar amount each month. In summer the direct debit will overpay and build up a credit on the account.
The credit should not be touched because in winter the direct debit will underpay, using up said credit. By spring the balance on the acount should be on or near 0.

To ensure the DD is in the right ball park year round, you should give meter readings at least every quarter. I submit one monthly after my DD credits the energy account. This produces a bill and gives be an exact up to date account status.

Most monthly DD accounts are billed quarterly. But most suppliers allow you to produce a bill each time you give a meter reading.

The more meter readings you give, the more accurate the DD amount is to cover the year. A DD is simply a way to spread the cost over the year paying a similar amount per month.

It really is quite easy once you get used to it.

The worst mistake people make is taking out all the credit just before winter exclaiming how terrible it is that the direct debit has been overpaying. Not realising that it has been for a reason.

The direct debit then has to go up massively (as there is no credit on the account) to cover winter bills and they get into debt because they spent all the money over Christmas.

macman

By refusing to use DD, you are thereby screening out the vast majority of the competitive tariffs.
As above, submit regular readings and you will not get estimated bills.

Kevin2494

Cashstrapped, you don't work for NPower by any chance. Have been with them for about 5 years sending in "accurate" readings they decided that I was using 4000kWh per quarter. They presumably would have taken £1000 by DD.


"A supplier should not have to submit "honest" estimated bills if you give an actual meter reading when required. This takes about 5 mins." They had 5 years worth of readings so what excuse did they have to produce such an inflated estimate. The meter is 7ft 6ins off the ground and therefore unreadable. I consider that with 20 quarterly readings they should have been capable of making an accurate estimate.

Kevin2494

"submit regular readings and you will not get estimated bills" That is exactly what they don't do.