It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

EssexHebridean

YoungBlueEyes said:

I'm with UW, nothing here so far.

I'm going to be looking with interest (from the thankful position of no longer being a customer of theirs!) to see how UW manage things as their systems don't seem to allow for credit amounts outside of the budget plan DD to be applied.  Nothing mentioned by GEUK as yet -  but my bill isn't due until tomorrow. They are showing my readings from Friday though which is something at least. EDF had a gas reading from me both via their system AND over the phone, yet they're still choosing to use a massively underestimated reading instead currently. I've sent a message asking why this is so we'll see what comes back. 

I've made the interesting discovery at work that I'm absolutely fine with using dried skimmed milk in my tea (we had a few days without an office fridge a few weeks ago and Mr Boss bought the powder then). I use an absolutely tiny amount of milk  in tea anyway, I buy a 2pt skimmed bottle as a rule as a compromise between the added costs for buying in individual pints, but a 4pt bottle needing at least half frozen immediately which I don't always have space for. That 2 pint bottle easily lasts me a couple of weeks even if I use some of it for porridge a couple of times. I'm now debating about just switching to powder at home too - if I wanted skimmed for porridge I could easily make up the required amount. the thing that surprised me is that I always used to find powdered milk had a very distinctive taste, but it doesn't seem to any more. There were certainly be a cost saving though, and also the potential to avoid waste on occasions. (Although the beauty of skimmed milk is that it does go on just about forever after it's date of course!) I'd need to thoroughly train Mr EH on the amount to use in tea mind you! 

flamingo747

Nothing extra on the meter here from British Gas, I am smart prepayment

linz

basketcase said:

Nargleblast said:

Shell Energy have kept my DD the same and added the government discount to my credit balance. I am now over £500 in credit. My bills run mid month to mid month, so I won't know until mid November what a month at the new prices looks like. They suggest I increase my DD from £200 to £304. I think not.

Looking carefully at the latest bill dated mid September, it states they do not have a full year of data to be able to accurately predict my usage based on last year. In that case they have used their magic formula - my house size, my postcode and the time of year! In other words, they have based their estimates on nothing to do with the way I actually use energy at all.

Lesson - If you have been with your supplier for less than a year, take their estimates with a pinch of salt. If you have a credit balance, sit tight and refuse to increase your DD until you feel it is the right thing to do. You might find next month they're telling you to increase it by a lower amount, or even leave it the same. Just monitor your usage and watch and wait.

An almost identical situation to mine, though my bills run 6th-5th.

I think they also based their earlier estimates on the fact that, when I was moved to them from Pure Energy, it took them so long to sort it out that my entire usage from Oct  to April was lumped in April.  So I assume that'd send their estimates out somewhat.

That may well explain why, in the early days, I noticed that I'd been advised to up it to nearly double (going into summer!) then was told to increase by c £50 round the time of the first rise, but by the time I logged on again a few hours later, the amount had changed again!

In fairness, a couple of months ago they did say I could drop it - but that was just as it was announced that the charges were going to rocket.  Now it's recommended I change it to £223, taking into account the £66 and, by the look of it, my credit!

Like you, I think not...

Same as you both. Was £518 in credit, now £580+ but they're still encouraging me to increase DD from £58 to £81 🙄

London_1

i think its the algorthim on their computer systems that suggest increaed amounts

 I just think if I went into Sainsburys (other supermarkets are available ) and got to the till and the bill was for example £30.00 and the assistant said 'Hmm well its £30.00 this week but perhaps the prices will go up between now and the next time you come in here so you had better pay £50.00 just in case'

 I'm afraid I would be rather rude and tell them to jog on. The same with energy companies I am £334.31 in credit and no way do I need to increase the monthly direct debit just yet, as including the Governments £66.00 my payment this month to the company has been £102.00 so no way am I increasing it just yet. Nor would I pay a surplus amount to the petrol station 'just in case the petrol  price went up between filling up my car The companies have got "our cash " in their tills at the moment 

JackieO xx

Brambling

I'm with Octupus (via M&S) and they emailed at the weekend to advise me my DD which is usually just under the £70 will be £2 this month it goes out on the 8th. I was hoping they were going to add the government money to my credit each month and still take the usual DD from me.

Currently I'm £200 in credit and had to call them in August as they increase my DD to £100, it wouldn't let me amend on online.  With my credit and the government money I wanted to monitor it myself and top up if needed.  I made the decision to make a one off payment this month to cover my usual DD amount and will do this each month rather than amending my DD.  When i checked my account on line it advised me against paying only £2 a month and that i should be paying £98 to keep on track with a graph showing me sinking into debt, obviously their Balance Forecast is not taking into account that the government money is topping that back up, i'll check again after the 8th

EssexHebridean

I presume from what you say that with Octopus you can at least manually pay the amount that your DD would have been thus ensuring the correct amount including the goverment help ends up on your energy account - sadly that's not the case for people with UW. I can see a lot of folk coming unstuck over that situation. 

YorksLass

We're with EON Next (Yorkshire region), currently £211 in credit, and they've reduced our October DD by £67 (not due until the 28th).  They've also changed our unit rates to reflect the EPG from 1st October, so we'll be paying 33.03p/kWh for electricity and 10.24p/kWh for gas.  The standing charges remain the same at 48.53p per day (electric) and 27.22p per day (gas).  All rates include VAT.  This is on a fixed price plan that is now identical to the SVR for kWh rates and marginally cheaper (a couple of pence) for standing charges.  I was waiting for this information to decide whether to change back to SVR or not but I'm sticking with the fixed contract for now (no exit fees) and will review again next March.  It's still a much bigger DD than we were paying before but at least I won't be quite so twitchy now about putting the heating on over winter.  

Brambling

EssexHebridean said:

I presume from what you say that with Octopus you can at least manually pay the amount that your DD would have been thus ensuring the correct amount including the goverment help ends up on your energy account - sadly that's not the case for people with UW. I can see a lot of folk coming unstuck over that situation. 

Octopus do allow you to make additional payments to your DD which is what i have done, I prefer to carry on paying my DD which is budgeted for and will allow me to keep on track, I could have moved it to a saving account but decided this would suit me better.  I can see people spending their DD money either on essentials like food etc or for some none essentials (there are some who will gamble or drink it away, I've seem it happen with my niece's ex husband who would take the grocery money from her purse to do both and leave her parents to feed the children) and then will be unable to find it to pay the winter heating bills.  

YorksLass

Today's grocery delivery arrived with mixed results.

Pluses: Arrived on time, helpful driver, just one (acceptable) sub, everything else present and correct.  A nice size gammon joint and a piece of pork shoulder that should yield a fair few meals, not to mention a pot of pork dripping.  

Minuses: A 2kg tray of skin on/bone in chicken thighs that couldn't have looked more unappetising if they'd tried.  If they were jointed by a trained butcher then I'll eat my hat.  A pack of 2 cod fillets swimming in water - obviously previously frozen and defrosted -, very small.  They're never gonna feed two of us!  A sliced loaf - only used for toast - that must have been underneath everything else.  Aargh!   

I've managed to get the loaf back into shape, have tidied the chicken thighs up so they look halfway decent and will probably use the cod for fishcakes.  Prices are bad enough without rubbing salt into the wound.      I probably wouldn't last long as a picker as I'd be thinking "if I wouldn't want that in my basket then I wouldn't put it in someone else's".    

Rant over - I suppose there are worse things happen at sea.

CKhalvashi

linz said:

basketcase said:

Nargleblast said:

Shell Energy have kept my DD the same and added the government discount to my credit balance. I am now over £500 in credit. My bills run mid month to mid month, so I won't know until mid November what a month at the new prices looks like. They suggest I increase my DD from £200 to £304. I think not.

Looking carefully at the latest bill dated mid September, it states they do not have a full year of data to be able to accurately predict my usage based on last year. In that case they have used their magic formula - my house size, my postcode and the time of year! In other words, they have based their estimates on nothing to do with the way I actually use energy at all.

Lesson - If you have been with your supplier for less than a year, take their estimates with a pinch of salt. If you have a credit balance, sit tight and refuse to increase your DD until you feel it is the right thing to do. You might find next month they're telling you to increase it by a lower amount, or even leave it the same. Just monitor your usage and watch and wait.

An almost identical situation to mine, though my bills run 6th-5th.

I think they also based their earlier estimates on the fact that, when I was moved to them from Pure Energy, it took them so long to sort it out that my entire usage from Oct  to April was lumped in April.  So I assume that'd send their estimates out somewhat.

That may well explain why, in the early days, I noticed that I'd been advised to up it to nearly double (going into summer!) then was told to increase by c £50 round the time of the first rise, but by the time I logged on again a few hours later, the amount had changed again!

In fairness, a couple of months ago they did say I could drop it - but that was just as it was announced that the charges were going to rocket.  Now it's recommended I change it to £223, taking into account the £66 and, by the look of it, my credit!

Like you, I think not...

Same as you both. Was £518 in credit, now £580+ but they're still encouraging me to increase DD from £58 to £81 🙄

We are getting the same (albeit with a smaller credit balance).

I will manually adjust as required but will not leave huge amounts in credit on the account from principle.

It says they will add this to the account so if they still take the full DD (possibly with the exception of the first days), then this will surely be a mistaken DD taken?

Our usage will go nowhere near the DD (currently £128) + £66, but they physically won't let it be set to lower on their site. A call may be in order in this event.