Extra Energy - Big Jump in Direct Debit

luckofthe_irish

Good morning,

I would love some advice on the subject of electricity deals and pricing if anyone had any!

I live alone in a ground floor, 1 bedroom flat (four rooms in total - bedroom, lounge, kitchen and bathroom), I work 8.30-6 every day so am not in very much apart from on the weekends and do not leave heating/lights etc. on when I am not there. Am not big on turning the heating on anyways as prefer to curl up with a jumper and a blanket.

When I first moved in I was paying £27 a month with Extra Energy for electricity. They have now increased by DD to £88 a month which seems insane. I have given meter readings which show that maybe £27 was a little too low, but £88 a month seems very excessive to me and they won't amend my DD to any lower. I went on to the MSE comparison tool and it seems to be telling me that £88 a month is the cheapest deal I can get - surely this can't be right can it?! I have put in all the correct details so maybe it is, but it just seems very high for a small one bed flat with a single occupant. I am so confused about how this has happened, I have never paid this month for electricity in my life and I feel I might be missing something!

The new DD is absolutely killing my budget at the moment as it is such a huge jump. If anyone has had a similar experience, or any advice I would very much appreciate it.

molerat

If £88 a month is what MSECEC gives based on actual kWh readings then it is probably now the correct amount for your old supplier as not only have you got to pay for your current use you have to make up the shortfall on your previous use, your actual DD possibly should have been more like £50 - £60. Anyway, £s are not really relevant. How many kWhs are you using ?

luckofthe_irish

molerat wrote: »

If £88 a month is what MSECEC gives based on actual kWh readings then it is probably now the correct amount for your old supplier as not only have you got to pay for your current use you have to make up the shortfall on your previous use, your actual DD possibly should have been more like £50 - £60. Anyway, £s are not really relevant. How many kWhs are you using ?

Thank you for your response! I am not sure exactly what kWhs I am using which could be the problem. The extra energy website is down at the moment so I can't log on to analyse. The shortfall of what I had paid and what I still owed was not large enough to justify changing the DD to £88 a month, as I did these calculations but Extra Energy said that was standard practice and it could not be amended.

When I put into MSECEC that I pay £88 a month it says I am on the cheapest deal, but when I put that I don't know how much I use/spend and it is estimated for the me based on where I live and when I am home, the tool states that Extra Energy should only be charging me £21 a month... I just don't understand what I am doing wrong. I really can't afford such high energy bills so need to sort it, but I just can't seem to verify if £88 a month is correct or not.

molerat

Annual kWh usage is the ONLY figure that will give you an accurate estimate of annual cost. Any other figure will just give a stab in the dark guess.

matelodave

If you just put in what you are paying then the comparison site will guess how much you are using in kwh and use that for comparisons. It may not bear any relation to the actual amount of energy that you use. It wont take into account any arrears either. So if you try to swap you'll have to pay back your arrears in one lump.

The only way to use a comparison site is to use your consumption in kwh. It's far better to keep your own spreadsheet going and read your meter yourself at least monthly rather than relying on your suppliers account info unless you keep checking it yourself and making sure it's accurate - you should download and keep statements on a regular basis, so when it goes down you've still got something to fall back on.

If you keep your own records you can check that bills, statements and readings are correct and you can ensure that the supplier does not use estimates or guessses.

As said above, if you've ramped up some arrears then you've got to pay those back at the same time as you are paying for the energy that you are currently using so the DD will be higher than just paying for current usage.

dogshome

Sure enough, Extra Energy advised you your D/D would be going up, which they are duty bound to do

Like all other suppliers,what they have not done is tell you how much of your new monthly D/D is going toward to clearing Debt and how long this surcharge will go on, and much the D/D of it is the charge for what they see as your actual consumption.

Get onto Extra Energy and ask what these figures are - With Repay- debt-
over-time plans, suppliers have a duty to recover debt at a level the customer can afford, and this level is established by negotiation
But
Be aware if you fail to maintain the payments on an agreed plan, all hell breaks loose with Court Orders/forced entry/pre-payment meters

If you can arrange a plan, get it in writing. It's been known for suppliers to agree a plan over the phone, but then not do the paperwork which results in further chases to recover the debt

luckofthe_irish

Thank you all for your responses - I guess I will need to be a bit more vigilant with my meter readings to try and get the monthly DD down.

The irony is that now I have paid my first £88 monthly payment (last month was the first time it was increased), my account is only £6.51 in debit so by the next payment I will be firmly back in credit. It just seems such an odd way to calculate things. I have tried to speak to EE about it before but with no success, but I will try and again to see if this can be resolved.

Thanks all again.

teddysmum

If you are not in a fix or your fix is due to end, they will have based your DD on the coming year being on their standard tariff.


My supplier's website shows whether you DD I is on target, too much or too little and my forecast said I would be in debt by some £400 come the next bill, unless my DD was very much increased to the figure given.


However, I was over £90 in credit, after last week's bill, and the forecast will have been based on my using standard tariff,which will be very much increased anyway, instead of taking their new 12 month fix.The DD will go up, because of huge rises in annual costs (about 20%) but not to what they suggested.

footyguy

luckofthe_irish wrote: »

Good morning,

I would love some advice on the subject of electricity deals and pricing if anyone had any!

I live alone in a ground floor, 1 bedroom flat (four rooms in total - bedroom, lounge, kitchen and bathroom), I work 8.30-6 every day so am not in very much apart from on the weekends and do not leave heating/lights etc. on when I am not there. Am not big on turning the heating on anyways as prefer to curl up with a jumper and a blanket.

When I first moved in I was paying £27 a month with Extra Energy for electricity. They have now increased by DD to £88 a month which seems insane. I have given meter readings which show that maybe £27 was a little too low, but £88 a month seems very excessive to me and they won't amend my DD to any lower. I went on to the MSE comparison tool and it seems to be telling me that £88 a month is the cheapest deal I can get - surely this can't be right can it?! I have put in all the correct details so maybe it is, but it just seems very high for a small one bed flat with a single occupant. I am so confused about how this has happened, I have never paid this month for electricity in my life and I feel I might be missing something!

The new DD is absolutely killing my budget at the moment as it is such a huge jump. If anyone has had a similar experience, or any advice I would very much appreciate it.

This MSE article may assist you
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits

If, having read this article, you still have more questions on this matter, feel free to post a reply in this thread