My New DD from Shell Energy is in!

Thejambo365

I have steadily been increasing my account to manage the change in payments through the winter. I am currently in credit by £1100+. My bills have been around £200 per month until last month when it was £197. So I think I am in a good place. I have just received an email from Shell to say that they are putting my DD up to £718! This is after they have reduced the monthly amount for the £400 relief. I have gone on to their website and reduced it by the maximum they will allow which brings it down to £574. I have a smart meter so I can see how the prices have changed since the start of this month and even for allowing for colder weather I cannot see my bill being much more than £400 per month (and remember I am in credit by £1,100 with 4 months left of my anniversary) I am now going to have to wait until next month to see what they predict my usage to be before I get the opportunity to lower my DD. Be careful peeps! It certainly will not be the energy companies losing out here!

MattMattMattUK

What is your annual usage as per your last bill?

Thejambo365

They haven't provided annual usage but in the email they state that my predicted usage over the next 4 months would be £3,918. This is not realistic even with the increase in tariff prices.

Robin9

@Thejambo365     You can calculate it yourself -  read your meters now   and find a bill of 12 months ago with ACTUAL  not estimated readings on it.  Then do some sums.

[Deleted User]

Thejambo365 said:

They haven't provided annual usage but in the email they state that my predicted usage over the next 4 months would be £3,918. This is not realistic even with the increase in tariff prices.

Realistic? Energy prices have doubled in the last year for an average consumer.

Before crying foul, you need to calculate your cost going forward based on kWh/year not what you paid in September (£200 in September seems very high to me). Just pick ACTUAL readings 12 months apart.

From the cost, subtract your credit balance and divide by 12. You then have something to discuss with your supplier.

[Deleted User]

Thejambo365 said:

They haven't provided annual usage but in the email they state that my predicted usage over the next 4 months would be £3,918. This is not realistic even with the increase in tariff prices.

If Shell Energy are way off the mark that your posts suggest they are,  I'd suggest you have a look in depth at what is provided by Shell on your Online account if you need to be sure about what sort of DD needs to be paid (at least over the next 6 months).  As you have a smart meter, your usage totals (in kWh) can be easily pulled from 'My Energy' within the account such as below. This is for the gas account.




Total the usage figures (for electricity (and gas if appropriate)) from each of the 12 months from October 21-September 22 OR you can download the data and import into a spreadsheet if you are able to do this.  Shell also give an estimated annual usage figure for your utiliites in each bill you receive (in the tariff section)

If you know what your usage figures from last year were (ignoring any possible economies in usage) but including your present level of debit/credit you can work out what credits needs to go into your account and that should be your level of DD at a minimum.  I know you have smart meter but are Shell using these reads? or are they using estimated reads on your bills?

Shell Energy recently gave my in-laws a very reasonable DD calculation that I was able to reconcile to within a £1.  It was clear that they had used the existing credit on the account and assumed the same level of energy usage from the corresponding period 12 months before.  No complaints from me, my in-laws or the nominal level of DD set for the next 6 months.  Of course the actual DD they will pay will be lower due to the EBSS payments and lower than they were paying last winter.  The only thing Shell did not factor in was the WHD payment this winter.

Thejambo365

Dolor said:

Thejambo365 said:

They haven't provided annual usage but in the email they state that my predicted usage over the next 4 months would be £3,918. This is not realistic even with the increase in tariff prices.

Realistic? Energy prices have doubled in the last year for an average consumer.

Before crying foul, you need to calculate your cost going forward based on kWh/year not what you paid in September (£200 in September seems very high to me). Just pick ACTUAL readings 12 months apart.

From the cost, subtract your credit balance and divide by 12. You then have something to discuss with your supplier.

So do you think moving from £200 in a month to just under £1,000 a month is realistic? Shell have only been my supplier since earlier this year so they do not have 12 months usage to create the readings. I have looked at usage with my previous supplier and adopted the current cost kWh and it works out at less than £400 a month from October through to February. I will speak to Shell and ask them to justify their predicted usage.

CptSantino

Thejambo365

i think its not realistic at all, average bill for myself is £95 odd a month, DD was £128 now £158... i dont expect my bill to go up much across winter as not around too much. 
With that support scheme ill be paying £30 a month with a DD at £158.... 

[Deleted User]

Thejambo365 said

So do you think moving from £200 in a month to just under £1,000 a month is realistic? Shell have only been my supplier since earlier this year so they do not have 12 months usage to create the readings. I have looked at usage with my previous supplier and adopted the current cost kWh and it works out at less than £400 a month from October through to February. I will speak to Shell and ask them to justify their predicted usage.

Were Shell your choice of supplier, or were they the appointed SOLR for a failed firm?

OK so have you lived in the same property for at least a year?  If you have can you can work out your usage (in kWh) over the last 12 months rather than £ amount, as this is way more useful and important from the energy company perspective.  This is where you need to approach any future contact with Shell - your usage rather than what you have paid in the past.  By all means confirm that have taken into account any credit on your account.

Before you speak to Shell, perhaps having ammunition ready in the form of 'From the last 6 months I have used xxxkWh of electric and xxxkWh of gas' OR 'This is the amount of gas and electric I have used in the last year in this property' etc etc.  Or you can just do as you have indicated - they will justify it (rightly or wrongly) and you can answer?

Just trying to be constructive.    

Thejambo365

So this month's bill is in. £307.29
Less than I expected so I think I am justified in saying £1000 is ludicrous.
The big companies are making sure they are not the ones out of pocket during this crisis. 

ariarnia

Thejambo365 said:

Dolor said:

Thejambo365 said:

They haven't provided annual usage but in the email they state that my predicted usage over the next 4 months would be £3,918. This is not realistic even with the increase in tariff prices.

Realistic? Energy prices have doubled in the last year for an average consumer.

Before crying foul, you need to calculate your cost going forward based on kWh/year not what you paid in September (£200 in September seems very high to me). Just pick ACTUAL readings 12 months apart.

From the cost, subtract your credit balance and divide by 12. You then have something to discuss with your supplier.

So do you think moving from £200 in a month to just under £1,000 a month is realistic? Shell have only been my supplier since earlier this year so they do not have 12 months usage to create the readings. I have looked at usage with my previous supplier and adopted the current cost kWh and it works out at less than £400 a month from October through to February. I will speak to Shell and ask them to justify their predicted usage.

that depends on whats changed from september to now. 

as they do not have 12 months of readings from you then they are probably predicting your usage based on general trends. I think in general people use 80% of there gas over the next 4 months.

if the last 8 months have equated to 20% of your annual usage then might just be doing the equivalent of x4 to work out what you are going to use this winter. 

as someone else has said £200 in (a quite warm) september seems very high and that could be part of it.

if you have a generally high usage then you might not see such a big uptick so you might only go from 200 to 400... but that wouldn't match the national trend so you would have to do some sums with readings to figure out what your forecast should be. 

the best way to do that is to get meter readings. if you have an old bill from your previous supplier it might have usage on it.