Zebra power help

Lewigreg081281

Hi all,

Prob a good few of these but is there anything you can do with the current gas rise. 

Our tarif ends at the end of Oct and we seem to be trapped and are being told our bill will be increasing from £170 to £300 a month. 

You obvs can’t switch at the moment and even if you can it’s even more. 

We had twins last year and are now facing a £1400 a month childcare bill so things are already tight. We both have decent jobs and due to this get no help whatsoever. It’s that backwards we’re prob worse off than people scrounging all the benefits and not working. 

I’ve started to look into heat pump with the grants and the boiler grants, but I’m not sure on these and nothing comes free in my eyes. I know the heat pumps come with a cost and are run on electric so is it really worth the outlay. 

Thanks all

QrizB

Lewigreg081281 said:

Our tarif ends at the end of Oct and we seem to be trapped and are being told our bill will be increasing from £170 to £300 a month.

How much energy do you use a year, gas and electricity, what is your old tariff and what new one have you been offered?

You're a household of four, two adults and two toddlers?

Lewigreg081281

QrizB said:

Lewigreg081281 said:

Our tarif ends at the end of Oct and we seem to be trapped and are being told our bill will be increasing from £170 to £300 a month.

How much energy do you use a year, gas and electricity, what is your old tariff and what new one have you been offered?

You're a household of four, two adults and two toddlers?

We have a 4 year old too so a household of 5. Our usage is 

gas 35965
electric 4768

we were in zebras online fix I can’t remember the name. 

To be honest I was that shocked at the price I thought I’d shop around and then found you can’t really switch currently. 

I’m going to ring back to get more detail tomorrow. 

It’s shocking when it actually costs to work and better off now doing 

MWT

Lewigreg081281 said:

Our usage is 

gas 35965
electric 4768

That is a huge amount of gas, how big is the house?

To give that some context, we use 14,000kWh to heat a large 5 bed house, but it is well insulated, with A rated double glazing etc.

My father-in-law uses about the same as you and he is heating a 3 bedroom bungalow to 25 degrees through winter...

molerat

Electric is above average, gas is massively so !

Is that usage from actual readings or what the supplier thinks you use ?

What sort of property and age ?

Have you checked you are being billed in the correct units for gas ?

Lewigreg081281

I’d have to check I’ve done various readings etc. I’ll have to ring and see what period that is based on. They gave me the figures and said it was based on 12 months. 

We have a 4 bed semi detached I’d say 60s or 70s. Gas central heating and gas hob. 

We have an ideal logic boiler and we was looking into the boiler grants if we qualify. 

My wife has been on maternity leave last year and only went back in Sep, but even then it does seem high. 

Electric wise I’ve also worked from home for over a year so again it will have increased. 

The gas does seem strange though. 

MWT

Have a look at your older bills and see if you can find an actual meter reading, not and estimate from around a year ago and use that together with a current reading to check ...

Lewigreg081281

MWT said:

Have a look at your older bills and see if you can find an actual meter reading, not and estimate from around a year ago and use that together with a current reading to check ...

Thanks I’ll log in and see if I can see any old bills. 

PennineAcute

So all benefit claimants are scrougers!  Wish there was a block button!

QrizB

Thanks for all the info so far. When you say:

Lewigreg081281 said:

Our tarif ends at the end of Oct and we seem to be trapped and are being told our bill will be increasing from £170 to £300 a month.

Is the new price based on taking out a new fixed deal, or is it based on dropping onto Zebra's variable tariff? Prices will vary by region but in my area, Zebra's "Born Free" variable tariff would cost £2650/yr for your consumption, roughly £220/month. That's still more than £170 but a lot less than £300.

If I chose a Zebra fix, "24 Months V12 Paperless" is £3660/yr, £305/month, similar to your quote.

Taking the variable tariff could save you a lot of money over the next 5 months, until the cap is revised in April 2022.

Lewigreg081281

QrizB said:

Thanks for all the info so far. When you say:

Lewigreg081281 said:

Our tarif ends at the end of Oct and we seem to be trapped and are being told our bill will be increasing from £170 to £300 a month.

Is the new price based on taking out a new fixed deal, or is it based on dropping onto Zebra's variable tariff? Prices will vary by region but in my area, Zebra's "Born Free" variable tariff would cost £2650/yr for your consumption, roughly £220/month. That's still more than £170 but a lot less than £300.

If I chose a Zebra fix, "24 Months V12 Paperless" is £3660/yr, £305/month, similar to your quote.

Taking the variable tariff could save you a lot of money over the next 5 months, until the cap is revised in April 2022.

Thanks. I watched the Martin Lewis show tonight too so I’m wondering if they were trying to move me to an expensive fix 

I’m going to ring tomorrow as the £300 shocked me I just wanted to compare elsewhere as at the time I didn’t know bad the market was.