Living in the Dark

clairus99

I just want to preface this by saying that I have a disability that involves anxiety and cognitive issues.... I'm not an idiot but sometimes my brain has to work a little harder to get things.

So if I've made a mistake in the post here, please be considerate.

So....

We just got our energy bill (gas and electric) - we're with EDF since our old ultility company went bust last September or so, and we took MSE advice to keep where we were.  Even before I had this disability I had issues understanding energy bills, as I think they're trying to rip us off, but anyway....

With our old company we were paying £55pm and that continue as we heard nothing.  Was expecting it to go up to maybe £85-£100pm, but they're saying they estimate that for the next 6 month's we're going to spend c£1800?!  we've paid a total of £307 to them between november and april, now they want £305pm?!?!?!

i mean.... this is really serious.  We are going to have to live with the lights off.  We are going to have to start using a food bank or something, as I'm disabled and can't work, and my other half is on a low-paid, minimum wage job.  we have two small pets and live in a one-bed flat.....  we use almost no gas (maybe for the combi boiler, but we barely use the central heating.... i've put it on maybe 3 times over the last winter, for about an hour each time.  we have a gas hob, but use it at most about 5 times a week, and not for long.  we probably do use quite a bit of electric, with all the gadgets and stuff, but come on £305pm?!?!  i expected it to go up, maybe even to double, but surely something is wrong here....?  

we've given readings several times....  in september (and before), in november, and again i think in march - i had trouble getting it through to them on 31 March but i think i did it on 1 April.  i need to double check the numbers against the bill (too late and too tired atm), but i don't expect them to differ.  when i can get over the shock i'll try and give them a call (but, again, easier said than done.... anxiety and cognition stuff), but obviously theyre going to stick to their guns i think.  i feel helpless, and i'm not exaggerating about the food and lighting situation.

again.... i have anxiety issues and cognitive issues (amongst other stuff), so i don't even know where to start.  i'm going to try and get an appointment with the citizen's advice and see if they can help us figure out what we should be doing but in the meantime, i'm would be very grateful for any constructive and useful advice anyone has here.  

why is this so messed up?!  from £55pm to £305?  what?!

markin

Unless you using electric oil heaters instead of Gas? Its unlikely to be that much. Just working out your daily usage will give you an estimate, And tell us some meter reading from the bills, a bill from 12 month apart is best to get a better idea of daily use.

And fill the house with 1w to 6w LED bulbs, pennies to run.

Robin9

How do you give your meter  readings ?

Dont do it by phone - use the web site or app.

Keep yout own records.

jimjames

Does that new quote use a fixed rate tariff as the base price? It will be cheaper now to be on SVT.

pochase

Can you please give us the readings for September and in March. Best would be if you have the totals for the last 12 months.

Also please give us your rates, if you don't have them tell us what area you are in.

EDF only does a debit order review and bill every 6 months, part of the problem will be that you for sure underpaid the last 6 months and EDF will recover your debit within the next 6 months, so this is included in their new calculation for the direct debit.

It still sounds much to high, but before you give us the above details we can only guess.

Reed_Richards

Your old £55 per month was based on a guess (an "estimate") that you would use £660 worth of gas and electricity in a year. at the old prices.

It looks as if from November to April you have paid about the same per month, £55 (which would be £330 over six months).  This will not have been enough to pay for your gas and electricity at the higher prices imposed by your new supplier for those months so your account will be in arrears.

Now (from April) you have to pay even higher prices for what you are using whilst also paying off the arrears, a double whammy.

I don't know how that gets you up quite as high as £305 pm, hopefully Citizens Advice can check that for you.  

daveyjp

£55 a month is low and the new direct debit may well include repayment of debt which wasn't covered by the £55 payment.

Section62

clairus99 said:

we have two small pets..... 

What are the pets.... do they need constant use of electricity? (fish/reptiles etc?)

Mstty

@clairus99

Firstly don't be anxious it sounds like you are going from Standard Variable rate to the new Standard Variable rate but please check this with your supplier that they are not offering you a fixed deal as that is not the way to go right now.

When you have time if you can provide your last year's usage for Gas and Electricity in kWh and the prices your supplier is quoting as charging you for your daily standing charge and per kWh for not gas and electricity there are some.really helpful people here that will help you calculate the real cost.

You should also include if your account is in credit or debit and by how much

👍

theoretica

Are you on your supplier's priority services register?  You probably ought to put yourself on it. 

What you want to work through is what estimate of use the energy suppliers are using for the next 12 months.  You probably want them to be using what you used in the last 12 months, and often they do.  But sometimes the estimating goes wrong, especially if data was not passed over well from a bust supplier.  You also want to look at how much of the bill is for electric and how much for gas.