Better to increase the DD or make occasional one off payments?

fly-catchers

As I have several heated greenhouses I know my energy costs will rocket this winter. They are heated from October to early May. So my spring/summer usage when I am not heating them is much more average. As I was moved from PFP energy it took BG ages to sort out the bills. So at that point I just paid the bills as they arrived as for that period there was no financial benefit in paying by DD. Once they moved me to the current SVR I went to DD. It started at £530 for the first month. But there after they suggested I drop it so it currently stands at £141. They now suggest an increase to £298 or make a one off payment. Currently I am about £800 in credit. If I make a one off payment I can use my cashback credit card and get 0.5% back. But as I still have £800 credit with another £141 going in at the start of October I am rather loathed to give them any more of my cash just yet while it is earning interest for me. So I intend to stay as I am until my credit goes down and them make a one off payment to keep the DD at a reasonable level. Does that sound sensible or will BG raise the DD anyway?

Section62

If you don't have one already then consider opening a Santander 123Lite current account and get 2% cashback on your energy bills (much better than the credit card's 0.5%).

That way considerations like lost interest don't matter much - to an extent the more the energy company DD's you, the better off you are. (also consider claiming back excess credit from time to time)

Do it quickly and you may be eligible for at least some of the 4% energy bill cashback being paid for two months in September/October/November  (*T&C's apply)

Ultrasonic

Section62 said:

If you don't have one already then consider opening a Santander 123Lite current account and get 2% cashback on your energy bills (much better than the credit card's 0.5%).

Note that there is a £2 monthly fee for the account and a maximum of £5 cashback per month on energy bills (so no cashback on any part of the monthly payment above £250). I have a 123 Lite account myself but just pointing out the limitations.

Edit: full details under Cashback dropdown on this page: 1|2|3 Lite Current Account | Santander UK

brewerdave

Re BG's "algorithm" for calculating future DDs - I've never been able to make sense of their "requests", and the apparent "end of plan" balance.
Without any input from me in terms of meter reads or bills raised , BG asked me to increase the DD, then decrease it ,then increase it........ad nauseam over the last 5 or 6 months. The latest is that after one month of paying the new amount they have decided it's too much and suggest a figure lower than I paid in July. Absolutely useless if you want to budget !!

Ultrasonic

@fly-catchers do you have any good data on your past energy use, in kWh not £? What I'd be trying to do in your position is figure out what a sensible monthly DD would be, to then either try to convince BG of or at least be in a position to tell them if their latest suggestion is silly or not.

fly-catchers

Ultrasonic said:

Section62 said:

If you don't have one already then consider opening a Santander 123Lite current account and get 2% cashback on your energy bills (much better than the credit card's 0.5%).

Note that there is a £2 monthly fee for the account and a maximum of £5 cashback per month on energy bills (so no cashback on any part of the monthly payment above £250). I have a 123 Lite account myself but just pointing out the limitations.

Edit: full details under Cashback dropdown on this page: 1|2|3 Lite Current Account | Santander UK

If I have read it correctly the £5 cap is separate for each type of Bill you have a DD with them? So if you exceed the £5 cap for energy you can still get up to £5 for water and up to £5 for Council Tax etc? Do they need a Photo ID for applications as that has stopped me in the past. I might have considered transferring my Nationwide to them for the £175. But I currently have a regular saver linked to my current account which doesn’t mature till December.

fly-catchers

brewerdave said:

Re BG's "algorithm" for calculating future DDs - I've never been able to make sense of their "requests", and the apparent "end of plan" balance.
Without any input from me in terms of meter reads or bills raised , BG asked me to increase the DD, then decrease it ,then increase it........ad nauseam over the last 5 or 6 months. The latest is that after one month of paying the new amount they have decided it's too much and suggest a figure lower than I paid in July. Absolutely useless if you want to budget !!

Absolutely as even this time when they suggested I increase my DD the first screen I came to told me l was paying too much! How such a big mature company can be so incompetent beggars belief. But perhaps it is because it so big it couldn’t care less!

Brie

I'd be telling BG or any energy provider that there's no need to increase your DD at all when you are so much in credit.  personally I might also be telling them to refund some of my hard earned money if I had a credit of £800.  As you say - better in your bank account than theirs.

fly-catchers

Ultrasonic said:

@fly-catchers do you have any good data on your past energy use, in kWh not £? What I'd be trying to do in your position is figure out what a sensible monthly DD would be, to then either try to convince BG of or at least be in a position to tell them if their latest suggestion is silly or not.

I do have complete readings in KWh use for the last couple of years. So have a fair idea of roughly how much it will be. Of course how mild or cold the winter is can drastically affect my outgoing. Though this winter I no longer have any tall conifers shading my greenhouses so hope that will help!

Ultrasonic

fly-catchers said:

Ultrasonic said:

Section62 said:

If you don't have one already then consider opening a Santander 123Lite current account and get 2% cashback on your energy bills (much better than the credit card's 0.5%).

Note that there is a £2 monthly fee for the account and a maximum of £5 cashback per month on energy bills (so no cashback on any part of the monthly payment above £250). I have a 123 Lite account myself but just pointing out the limitations.

Edit: full details under Cashback dropdown on this page: 1|2|3 Lite Current Account | Santander UK

If I have read it correctly the £5 cap is separate for each type of Bill you have a DD with them?

Correct. How much interest will you get from your regular saver? My bet is it's considerably less than £175...

fly-catchers

Ultrasonic said:

fly-catchers said:

Ultrasonic said:

Section62 said:

If you don't have one already then consider opening a Santander 123Lite current account and get 2% cashback on your energy bills (much better than the credit card's 0.5%).

Note that there is a £2 monthly fee for the account and a maximum of £5 cashback per month on energy bills (so no cashback on any part of the monthly payment above £250). I have a 123 Lite account myself but just pointing out the limitations.

Edit: full details under Cashback dropdown on this page: 1|2|3 Lite Current Account | Santander UK

If I have read it correctly the £5 cap is separate for each type of Bill you have a DD with them?

Correct. How much interest will you get from your regular saver? My bet is it's considerably less than £175...

I notice that the offer doesn’t apply if you ever used a switching offer from any of their banks in the past. I did switch from Cahoot years ago to M&S which included a switching offer. However my old Cahoot account seemed to stay open and was eventually closed by Cahoot a couple of years later! So whether that rules me out I am not sure! Also does the condition of having two active DD mean you can set them up after the account is transferred or usually it means the account you are transferring already has at least two DD.