Help understanding Octopus bill

Hasbeen

Bane84 said:

Wow. Nothing like coming on MSE forum to be lambasted. I came on here looking for advice. We have smart readers installed. When we moved from our flat to our home all meter readings were accurate.  When we rang to change address we were told we were in credit by £228, they told us they can put this money back into my acc. Which I readily agreed too. Had I known this would roll over to my winter balance I wouldn't have. 

Oh well, life's a learning curve. Thank you for all the explanations. I've always gotten confused between credit and debit as daft as that sounds.
Question now is do I pay it all off in one lump sum or do I wait til summer and let it work it's way down?

You will learn on here, you get hard sensible advice, that will help. Some people do not like the facts/truth/advice given and throw their toys out of the pram and stumble onwards themselves. 

Smart meters are not infallible and it is recommended to check your actual bills against the smart meter readings.

As I previously posted at the moment your direct debit does not appear to be enough, but early days in your new property.

But personally I would up the DD by £20 per month. I do not like any debt, but my own opinion only. 

And see what transpires later in the year regards your credit /debit balance?

As Robin9 asks what is your heating? Are you on an cost effective tariff? When did you switch last? If not recent or perhaps not on exit fee tariff.  Then:

Try here click on LINKY

Bane84

Robin9 said:

@Bane84 My apologies if I've come over as "lambasting" I am the others who replied are trying to help you.

I have another concern -  you say that a credit of £228 was carried over from you previous flat.  Please double check on your bills that this is the case  because if was not for that your debit would be £512 which is a staggering amount bearing in mind the monthly |DD you have been paying.  That is implying total bills to date of over £1000.

Which bears another question - what is your heating ?  If electric what form does it take - storage rads, panel heaters, underfloor. ...........   and if electric watch out for those showers.

Please do revisit those bills and check the meter reads - computer errors are not unknown and there have been cases of the new meters not being correctly recorded, if at all. Check the serial number of the meter itself and that on the bill.

We had that balance paid out and used the money on paint lol. Again had I know or had it explained to me when changing address I would have just left it. Again, leading curve.
We have had brand new verticle radiators fitted, and then a month after that our 1999 ferolli boiler packed in and has now been replaced with new combi boiler.

This Is out first house for either of us and we could probably do better with managing our energy consumption

Robin9

@Bane84 -  is this a gas or electric combi ?

Your meter reads from when you moved in and today will help please.