Shell Energy Not taking government help into account

mkkk

My ShellEnergy deal ran out at the end of July when I was paying £48. I upped this, as advised by them to £74 (I have never used this amount of energy).

I am currently just over £200 in credit. Today I recieved an email for Shell saying they are upping my bill again to £113. They even state that this does not take into account the additional £400 (effectively total credit balance of 600 over the next 6 months)   from the Government so my question is, how is the Government help, *helping* if Shell can still charge the same prices they would if that help wasn't in place?

Astria

Maybe the £400 is being refunded to your bank account so you can spend it on any other bills you might have? It can be placed there as a £66/67 payment each month within a few days of your DD payment.

mkkk

It isn't. It goes straight to the energy company so they can subtract it from your bills over the next 6 months. Effectively they will be taking those £66 on top of the £133 for the next 6 months the way they want to do it now.

fordyms

The £66 will be knocked off your actual bill every month for 6 months.  What you pay them every month is just an estimate of what they expect you to be billed, averaged out over the year. Often it is way over the top and not in your favour.  With such a low energy bill I would change your DD to just pay your actual bill every month.  Overpaying is just lending them your money interest free. As stated in other threads that won't work for everyone.  My last bill was £87. My actual payment after the rebate is £21.  

[Deleted User]

It’s not supposed to change the prices.  You do know that your actual bill isn’t your DD amount I hope?

Its also not supposed to be taken into account on DD setting - which is what you’re actually talking about. Some suppliers are doing a temporary DD change, but the calculation in the background is the same, whereas others are sending cash to your bank.

chris_n

£74 isn't an amount of energy.

[Deleted User]

And also, if you have come off a fix that ended in July - your unit prices might easily have doubled or more - hence the big change in DD needed even with you in credit.

Have you compared your old and new tariffs to understand this difference?

mkkk

Your payment of £20-ish is roughly what I was expecting mine to be not nearly 100 quid a month more. I've tried reducing the amount online but they limit how low you can go (90-something). Still way too high

mkkk

[Deleted User] said:

It’s not supposed to change the prices.  You do know that your actual bill isn’t your DD amount I hope?

Yes I am aware of this. My actual bill has always been well below my DD that is why I am in credit.

mkkk

Deleted_User said:

And also, if you have come off a fix that ended in July - your unit prices might easily have doubled or more - hence the big change in DD needed even with you in credit.

Have you compared your old and new tariffs to understand this difference?

My fixed price was £0.18 it went up to £0.28 (My highest bill with this rate was still only £66 and thats Gas+Elec), and from Oct 1st went up to £0.32. So yes I have checked the rates. Note these are just the Elect rates as it is mostly what I use.

mkkk

mkkk said:

Your payment of £20-ish is roughly what I was expecting mine to be not nearly 100 quid a month more. I've tried reducing the amount online but they limit how low you can go (90-something). Still way too high

They are now preventing you reducing the amount at all