How Long Would You Wait?

Saga

I submitted my usual monthly elec meter reading on 1st Oct, well inside the supplier's window of 5th Oct, and normally a bill is prepared one working day thereafter. My online account clearly shows the reading submitted and date of submission. My DD, still at pre-EPG level, was taken on 1st Oct. This DD payment, added to the existing credit on my energy account, however has not been applied to a bill as one has yet to be issued.

I had "fixed" on the only available flexible tariff a couple of months ago, when 2023 prices were looking very scary, with a unit rate now more than 17p above the current EPG SVT yet have had nothing at all from the supplier to confirm the new unit rate and SC despite the website saying they would contact all impacted customers.

My slight concern – after all I was prepared to pay albeit reluctantly – is that come 1st Nov a DD payment, 30% above my best reckoning of the new unit rate and SC, will be taken. I could try to adjust the DD amount but if the supplier is still calculating (pen, paper, india rubber & abacus??) an adjusted tariff and new DD amount any tampering by me will cause issues. A lesser probably unjustified concern is that the billing is horribly messed up and I will somehow eventually be marked as having not paid and this will be reflected in my credit history – much odder things have happened to customers in the past so it's far, far from an impossible scenario! I'm not well off and getting refunds from the supplier in the past has been very a difficult exercise, so I'd prefer not to overpay in November. But how long do I wait before trying to adjust the DD myself? I appreciate the majority on here are relatively comfortable financially so won't immediately grasp the impact of a few pounds here or there.

Another issue is that the flexible tariff contract specifies that every three months the unit rate and SC are reviewed. The supplier's ambiguous EPG info states only that a discount is applied, but does not make any explicit statement on whether or not flexible tariffs will be continue to be reviewed and therefore I have no idea if I need to expect a likely increase every quarter from Jan 2023. On the couple of occasions I've reluctantly tried it's been impossible to contact the supplier: the phone message says "you will not get through", offers options only for emergencies and cuts off; the chat bot doesn't chat but provide links to irrelevant regurgitated help info.

[Deleted User]

Let me put your mind at rest in respect of one of your points. If the PM is to be believed, the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) will apply for 2 years. In all but name, the EPG is a fixed price tariff (with the usual caveat: actual energy costs are based on actual usage).

Bear in mind that even under the terms of the EPG, the cost of an average Ofgem consumer’s energy has increased by 95% over the past 12 months.

The discount of £67/66 will be applied to your payments/account by the supplier from now until March 2023.

ariarnia

we're going to look at our forecasts and dd sometime in december. everything should have settled down by then and we should have a better idea of how cold this winter might be. then we can look at if we want a credit refund or where we want to set our dd for the year. 

Saga

ariarnia said:

we're going to look at our forecasts and dd sometime in december. everything should have settled down by then and we should have a better idea of how cold this winter might be. then we can look at if we want a credit refund or where we want to set our dd for the year. 

Great that you've put plans in place.

funny.money

Saga said:

..........      I appreciate the majority on here are relatively comfortable financially so won't immediately grasp the impact of a few pounds here or there...........

Wow! Not sure why you've made such a statement.  Many come on here for advice because they're actually not.