Budgeting/Planning for energy bills

RG2015

I am on a 2 year fixed electricity deal of £46 per month ending on 31st March 2023. The £66/£67 rebate from October 22 to March 23 would mean a monthly credit of £20/£21.

I have a Santander 123 Lite giving me cashback of £0.92 per month but this would not apply from October 22 to March 23. Clearly that monthly DD of £46 will rocket in April 23 to a likely £120 plus.

My initial thought is to keep my DD at £46 and build up a credit that would last me until about October 23.

My question is whether I am able to increase my DD to more than £46 to build up my credit and at the same time earn more monthly cashback?

I am about to crunch the numbers, but in the meantime I would welcome any thoughts.

eskbanker

RG2015 said:

My question is whether I am able to increase my DD to more than £46 to build up my credit and at the same time earn more monthly cashback?

The answer will need to come from your electricity provider, but is likely to be 'yes', especially if they infer that your plan suggests you'd be sticking with them after the fix ends!

Sea_Shell

Our fixed deal with Eon should work out at £140 a month, but I've upped our DD to £160 because of the 2% cashback.

I'm hoping they don't automatically reduce our DD by £66 but just credit our account instead.   Or even better, send it back to our bank...so we can recycle it 😉

I don't think anyone knows yet exactly how suppliers will handle the credits... especially those paying less than £66 a month .

TBH I'm surprised Santander are still offering cashback as, even with effectively a £250 DD "cap", they're going to be paying out 2-3 times what they were last year .

I keep expecting that email to drop any day!! 

Daliah

Sea_Shell said:

I don't think anyone knows yet exactly how suppliers will handle the credits... especially those paying less than £66 a month .

They won't all have the same policies and rules, so you need to ask your supplier / check on their website. I am with Ovo, who appear to be happy to take any amount you let them take. They also pay 5% 'interest' on credit balances up to £1,000. 

blue.peter

RG2015 said:

My question is whether I am able to increase my DD ... to build up my credit ...?

It does depend on your provider, but FWIW, that's exactly what I have already done with mine.

RG2015

blue.peter said:

RG2015 said:

My question is whether I am able to increase my DD ... to build up my credit ...?

It does depend on your provider, but FWIW, that's exactly what I have already done with mine.

E.ON Next?

blue.peter

RG2015 said:

It does depend on your provider, but FWIW, that's exactly what I have already done with mine.

E.ON Next?

Sorry, no. Good Energy.

blue.peter

BTW, I've just remembered something that might be of interest. Some providers will automatically return any surplus in your account to you once a year. It might be worth your while finding out:

(a) if yours does this,

(b) if so, when; and

(c) whether you have any control over the timing of such refunds.

It was Atlantic Energy (part of SSE) that did this to me. Money would just appear, without warning, in the account from which my DD was paid. The refunds were made in January, which I always thought was a particularly bad bit of timing. They claimed that they changed this (at my request) to April, but it kept reverting to January.

My water supplier (Wessex Water) does the same thing to me in March.

I understand that the problem here is accountants. Apparently, they don't like surpluses in customer accounts because it comes through into the company accounts as debt.

RG2015

I have just looked on the E.ON Next website and they are saying:

"Fixed Direct Debit customers will receive the money automatically as a deduction to their monthly Direct Debit."

This suggests that I will need to increase my monthly DD by at least £66.

I guess I will be best off phoning them to see what can be done.

EssexExile

RG2015 said:

I have just looked on the E.ON Next website and they are saying:

"Fixed Direct Debit customers will receive the money automatically as a deduction to their monthly Direct Debit."

This suggests that I will need to increase my monthly DD by at least £66.

I guess I will be best off phoning them to see what can be done.

Eon wanted to double my DDs, which is understandable because I have £700 of their money at the moment, so I phoned them to discuss this. The lady on the other end was obviously used to being shouted at by unhappy customers, so when I said I just wanted to lower my DDs from what they were asking by £30 she was most amenable.

I think I'm on their "we've really annoyed this customer in the past, be nice to him" list, that may make a difference.

RG2015

EssexExile said:

RG2015 said:

I have just looked on the E.ON Next website and they are saying:

"Fixed Direct Debit customers will receive the money automatically as a deduction to their monthly Direct Debit."

This suggests that I will need to increase my monthly DD by at least £66.

I guess I will be best off phoning them to see what can be done.

Eon wanted to double my DDs, which is understandable because I have £700 of their money at the moment, so I phoned them to discuss this. The lady on the other end was obviously used to being shouted at by unhappy customers, so when I said I just wanted to lower my DDs from what they were asking by £30 she was most amenable.

I think I'm on their "we've really annoyed this customer in the past, be nice to him" list, that may make a difference.

In which case they are hardly likely to object to me wanting to increase my DD.