Budgeting/Planning for energy bills

Sea_Shell

I'm going to "attack" this in 2 ways.    Firstly, as I'll be ~£380 in credit, once todays DD clears, then I shall request back £200 of it.

They happily did this for me a few months ago.

I'll then see what happens to the October DD.    If its reduced automatically from £160 to £94, I shall then increase my following 5 DD's by £80 to compensate, if the system will let me?   (£66/5 = £13 + £67)

RG2015 said:

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.

Just log on and see what it lets you increase it to.

I've just tried this myself, and you get a warning message that you can't REDUCE by more than 10%....however, I get no such message if I increase the amount (before hitting submit)

The only downside with my plan (above), is that they may not allow me to reduce my DD back down to £160 from £240.

But whilst Santander ARE paying 2% cashback....     

RG2015

I think I will attempt to increase my October DD anyway so I do not miss out on the cashback.

However it is on 1st October, and my first £66 credit may not be applied until 1st November.

PS. They say they will reduce my October bill which is on 24th October.

RG2015

By coincidence, E.ON Next just phoned me about a separate issue..

I asked about the rebate, and they said that my direct debit will remain unchanged and I will receive a credit to my bank account of £66/£67 from October 23 to March 23.

This is encouraging, but is at odds with their website saying that my DD would be reduced my the monthly government rebate.

blue.peter

It could be that they simply don't know how it'll work. But if that's the case, it would surely be better to say so.

The government's explainer is here. As you'll see, it's not exactly definitive:

direct debit customers will receive the discount automatically as a reduction to the monthly direct debit amount collected, or as a refund to the customer’s bank account following direct debit collection during each month of delivery

Good Energy sent me an e-mail about it on Friday. Inter alia, they said:

We are currently working through the latest guidance so that we have a clear plan for how we will provide your discount, as the process may be slightly different depending on how you pay your energy bills.  
 

Please rest assured that we will be in touch with full information on how you will receive your discount as soon as we are able to. Currently we have the same information as has been made public by the government, so there is no need to contact us.

In other words, they don't know how they're going to approach it. I'm guessing that other energy companies also haven't yet thrashed it out. I'd quite like it if my DD was left unchanged but a rebate (or series of rebates) then appeared in my bank account, but that's only because it'd be simpler for my accounting than a temporary reduction in the DD. The end result would, for me, be exactly the same.

Incidentally, everything I've seen seems to assume that everyone buys both gas and electricity from the same supplier. I've no idea what happens if someone buys them from different suppliers. Given that the £400 is supposed to be per household, that could get complicated. (My interest in this question is purely academic. It doesn't affect me, since I do buy both gas and electricity from a single company.)

blue.peter

blue.peter said:

Incidentally, everything I've seen seems to assume that everyone buys both gas and electricity from the same supplier. I've no idea what happens if someone buys them from different suppliers. Given that the £400 is supposed to be per household, that could get complicated.

Hmmm. I've been thinking about this a bit more. Although all the talk is about energy bill support, the government's explainer says

All households with a domestic electricity connection in Great Britain are eligible

and

all domestic electricity customers will be automatically eligible. Electricity bill payers should enquire with their supplier if they have not received their first instalment by the end of October.

(My emphasis.)

So I'm guessing - and it is only a guess at this stage - that the rebate will be paid by electricity suppliers only. If I'm right, folk who buy their gas separately won't get anything from their gas suppliers, but will get the whole lot from their electricity supplier. This makes a degree of sense, since there are homes without a gas supply. (I lived in one in the 1980s. Night storage heating is not great - especially in the event of a nocturnal power cut, as happened to my flat on 15–16 October 1987.)

sheramber

According to the Government response to the technical consultation on the Energy Bills Support Scheme

the payment will be lade to the electricity supplier

ZeroSum

If anyone is with British gas, you can just whack your DD upto £250, to get the full £5. Then go onto your online account & request a refund after DD has been paid/cleared. They'll pay this back in about 3 days & doesn't reduce cashback 

RG2015

Just seen that Santander are doubling the energy cashback to 4% and the monthly cap to £10 for September and October.

See my posts on the link below.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6376391/santander-doubling-energy-cashback-for-2-months#latest