Energy firm raising my monthly payments

lauriehart59

Hi,
Last year I switched my energy provider through MSE to Shell Energy on a fixed term rate of approx. £550 per year.  The Monthly direct debit payments was approx. £45 per month.  Shell have now raised my monthly payments to £60 per month.  Are they allowed to do this bearing in mind it was a fixed term contract?

Robin9

Fixed means that the unit rate and the standing charge are fixed  --  if you use more kWh then you pay more. The DD is only a contribution towards the bill.

Give us details of your actual consumption please ?  The opening reading with Shell and todays reading.

lauriehart59

My opening readings are:
Electric = 17918
Gas = 13087

My latest readings are:
Electric = 19416
Gas =14251

Robin9

Date of opening read ?

lauriehart59

August 2020

bagand96

As Robin says, energy is not a fixed cost contract (like your broadband or mobile).  The standing charge and unit rate are what is fixed. You pay for the energy that you use.  The annual costs and monthly DD you pay are based on your estimated use.   If you use more then you pay more.  It's been a cold winter.  Do you look at your bills, do they show a debit building up?  Are your bills based on actual or estimated meter readings?

lauriehart59

Thanks for this

matelodave

Fixed doesn't mean all you can eat for a fixed sum but that the price per kwh and stsnding charge per day will remain fixed for the duration of your contract.

You still have to pay for every kwh that you use, so if you use more than you estimated then your direct debit wont cover the cost so you'll have to increase it to pay the difference. However bear in mind that we are still in the winter period when you'll be using lots more gas and more leccy than you do in the summer so you might find that you'll be using a bit less in the coming months.

TBH £45  a month  (£540 a year) sounds incredibly low for a combined leccy & gas bill and even £60 a month (£720) isn't a lot. If your first payment was in August and the last one was in Feb, thats 7 payments of £45 = £315 and if you assume that you've got five more at £60 = £300 then you'll end up paying around £615. How much is your bill now after seven months.

Do you send in monthly readings, do you check you bill monthly to see if the readings are being used and how well your DD is tracking your expense. If you don't then you'll get a surprise like this when they do get around to sorting out a bill.

Robin9

Very roughly - 

Electricity is 19416 - 17918  = 1398  for six months = 2800 kWh for a year @ say 16p = £450  (that's very average)
Gas is 14251 - 13087 =  1164 m3 for six months = 24000 kWh for a year @ say 3p = £700 (that's double average)

Add standing charges and VAT gives about £1300 a year ie £110 a month.  This is more than double your DD -  how was that calculated  - the actual consumption you gave Shell   or what ?

£45 was a silly amount  - £60 seems no better.   You've probably been at home which explains part of the usage .

Do you read meters every month ? How do reads of today compare with Shell's guestimate ?

dunstonh

lauriehart59 said:

Hi,
Last year I switched my energy provider through MSE to Shell Energy on a fixed term rate of approx. £550 per year.  The Monthly direct debit payments was approx. £45 per month.  Shell have now raised my monthly payments to £60 per month.  Are they allowed to do this bearing in mind it was a fixed term contract?

When you shopped around for deals did you input your actual usage kWh over the year or did you just give an amount to pay?
The latter is a flawed method and nearly always results in people underpaying and being required to up it later.

Additionally, depending on when you switched, you may not have built up any summer credit.   From late Spring through to early Autumn, you use much less energy.  So, you build up credit.   In the colder months, you use more than you are paying for.  So, that credit you build up in Summery goes towards the Winter use.      Switching can mean little or no credit is available from the warm months.