Gas/Electirc Bill

tuck60

Is £60 a month reasonable for a gas/electric bill? Property is a two bed property with one living in. Price is fixed until 2019.

Robin9

The tariff is fixed but the cost will vary according to your actual consumption.

Read your meters at least monthly and read your bills to see if the DD is keeping up with the charges.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

are you talking about a bill based on usage, or a monthly DD?

The price may be fixed, meaning unit price won't change, but bills will be calculated on actual usage, which could be more or less, then DD will need to be adjusted, either up or down, depending on usage.

tuck60

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,

are you talking about a bill based on usage, or a monthly DD?

The price may be fixed, meaning unit price won't change, but bills will be calculated on actual usage, which could be more or less, then DD will need to be adjusted, either up or down, depending on usage.

I am talking about a monthly direct debit.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

it won't be fixed at £60, it will be adjusted up or down, depending on your usage.

tuck60

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,

it won't be fixed at £60, it will be adjusted up or down, depending on your usage.

This will sound like a very silly question but I will ask it anyway. So what does the £60 a month actullay mean if it could be more or less?

Thanks

BargainGalore

A fixed only means you pay x amount per kWh. £60 a month isn't a lot for two utilities depending on your usage it could go up when they reassess your usage equally if you were over paying you could pay less but I doubt you would given your amount per month unless your away a lot

[Deleted User]

Hi,

£60 p/m is what they think you will use over the next year.

If you use more than they have estimated, then DD will need to go to avoid you going into arrears.

House_Martin

tuck60 wrote: »

Is £60 a month reasonable for a gas/electric bill? Property is a two bed property with one living in. Price is fixed until 2019.

I `d say its fair. Mine was only around £30 a month but no gas central heating in the two bed terraced property I used to live in, but I did heat electric.
If you are retired the costs will be higher.
Just make sure to put in monthly reads especially in the winter months to get a good idea of a winter quarter`s costs and of course to grab the lowest tariffs and daily standing charges as possible.
I don t think its a good idea to fix for 2 years .You will be paying more for sure in the first year against the market leaders.

dogshome

I have the impression that you are 1st time Home Owner/Renter

As others have advised, it's the unit price of each KWh of Elec & Gas you consume that is fixed - The £60 a month you pay, (£720 a year), is someones best guess at what you will use in a year and it's cost.

Give the supplier regular meter reads, (Minimum once every quarter), and check the resulting bills for :
Does the Start Reading tally with the End read of it's predessor ?
Is the Start Date one day later than the End Date of it's predessor ?
Are all the D/Debit payments you have made over the billing period accurately shown on the bill ?

Make a note in your Diary to give the supplier meter reads exactly 365 days after the Start Date on the first ever bill.
By doing this you will know exactly how much Gas & Elec you consume in a year and can work out what your D/Debit values should be on any tariff

matelodave

As said above it's the suppliers best guess at how much energy you'll use over the year. What is fixed is the amount per unit that you pay for gas or leccy and the standing charge. What you use is down to you - use more and you'll pay more, use less and you'll pay less

Most people's energy consumption will vary over the year, using more in the winter than in the summer so although you have a DD of £60x12 = £720 a year you might find that you only use £30 a month or so in April, May, Jun, June, July, August and September which means you'll use around 7x£30 = £210 of energy, but you'll have paid 6 x £60 = £360 so, assuming you started in April, you'll be in credit by £150.

However, in October, November, December, January, February and March you could end up using around £500 worth of energy, most of it between December and February, but you'll still only be paying 6x £60 = £360 on your DD. Add that to your £150 credit and come the end of March you should be owed £10.

It also works the other way that if you start in October, you'll be £150 in arrears but the lower consumption during the summer should balance it out by the end of September.

If you use more than £720 then you either get a bill for the extra or they'll increase your DD and if you've used less, you'll get some money back or they'll reduce your DD.

It's really worthwhile spending five minutes a month reading your meters, sending the readings through to your supplier and checking your bills and statements to make sure that they are using the correct readings. Get estimates corrected. You can also see whether your DD is is on target to pay for your consumption.

If you keep your own monthly record (set up a spreadsheet) you'll know how much you use every month which will make it much easier to to do comparisons next year and you can keep an eye on your consumption and make economies if neccessary.