Cheap Energy Club confusion!

marky0077

Hello!
Could someone please clear up some confusion with the MSE cheap energy club??
I'm being told to switch because I have gone onto British Gas standard tariff about 3 months ago. The MSE comparison tells me that on that tariff I should be paying £82 per month.
When I log in to my British Gas account to check the last couple of months, my direct debit seems to still be at £65 (which is as cheap as the cheapest MSE recommendation). So no need to switch?
My British Gas account tells me I am £256 in credit. If I have a refund will that then send my direct debit up to £82??
Confused.
Thank you!
Mark

SpotlandRules

£265 in credit in just over £20 a month. Add that to your £65 you are paying now, and you are upt o around £83.

molerat

Don't confuse monthly DD with annual energy cost, the DD is just a payment on account. Because you are in credit your low DD reflects that in an effort to bring your account balance down to £0 at the next review. If you are on standard tariff you are overpaying, as simple as that. Get comparing and switching.

teddysmum

molerat wrote: »

Don't confuse monthly DD with annual energy cost, the DD is just a payment on account. Because you are in credit your low DD reflects that in an effort to bring your account balance down to £0 at the next review. If you are on standard tariff you are overpaying, as simple as that. Get comparing and switching.

..and check your preferred supplier's tariff on their website, as I found, the other day, that one of the switching sites was using incorrect data. It was a case where a fix kept the same name but had an increase rate for new takers.

MSE_Dan_L

Hi all

Some helpful posts on this subject - I thought I'd add to this.

To calculate the costs on your current tariff, Cheap Energy Club takes the usage which you’ve entered on your account and works out (based on your tariff’s rates) how much this would cost you over a year and on average per month. Don’t worry if you find the monthly cost figure differs slightly from your actual direct debit, this is completely normal - as your supplier will tweak this retrospectively based on changes to your usage.

The important thing is to remember is that by using your kwh, you’re getting a comparison based on your actual usage, rather than an estimation which would be the case if you used your direct debit figure. Our results will show you more accurately how much you’d pay for the same kwh usage over the next year.

However if you find that our figure is significantly different to what you’re actually paying, then it’d suggest that your supplier has set your direct debits at an incorrect level which doesn’t reflect your actual usage.

Hope that helps.

marky0077

Thanks everyone for your help and advice. Much appreciated!

Mark