Rebel Energy Triples my Bill

Bryn99

Hi.

My girlfriend is with Rebel Energy (never heard of them), and this morning she received an Email saying that her monthly direct debit is being increased from around £60 to £171.
The cite the reason as being that she is not being charged enough for the energy she uses.

The funny thing is that I live in the same area as her, and she spends 95% of her time at my place, and uses very little electricity.

When I first saw the Email, I was convinced it was a scam/phishing Email because I hadn't heard of them, and because the increase was ridiculous, but the Email says that she has to do nothing, and there are no dodgy links to click.

Any thoughts on this?
I know energy prices have been crazy up and down the last couple of years, but this seems strange.
If it is genuine/normal, any suggestions as to which energy supplier she could/should switch to?
We live in Wales.

Appreciate any help.

Thanks.

mr_stripey

you need to look at the actual bills rather than just looking at the direct debit.

Maybe she's not been paying enough up to now, or a new actual reading has nullified previous estimated readings?

Reed_Richards

Is her account in debit?  Is the increased DD to bring her account back into credit?  Could she have got into debit before she even met you?  Does she have a smart meter?  Or does she supply meter readings herself?  Or are all her bills based on estimated readings?    

BarelySentientAI

Bryn99 said:

Any thoughts on this?
I know energy prices have been crazy up and down the last couple of years, but this seems strange.
If it is genuine/normal, any suggestions as to which energy supplier she could/should switch to?

My thoughts - check the actual usage, actual prices, actual meter readings, actual credit balance...  A monthly DD payment by itself means essentially nothing.

Unless you know this, you have no idea whether it is right or wrong, and whether changing supplier would make any difference at all.

FlorayG

As others have said you need to check usage is correct and there's not debit, but I also had this from my supplier last year wanting to double my DD in October. I rang them and said no, you can increase it by £20 and let me know if that doesn't cover it, and they did that and it has since been reduced again

TheElectricCow

Spend some time reviewing the actual bills (i.e. not the Direct Debit notification) - these will show the actual position of her account, what usage she has been charged for and her rates, and how her past payments have impacted the account balance over time.

The email she has received is only a notification about her payments and won’t necessarily contain any relevant information about the billing of her account, and without the information in the bills it would be impossible to determine whether an increase is justified or correct.

Bryn99

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions.

We've managed to login and look at her bills, and it does seem that she's been paying £60 a month, but her bill is recently up around £130.

Again, the thing is, for the last 2 years she has been mostly at mine, with only the Fridge/Freezer and the immersion heater/boiler switched on.
The culprit has to be the immersion heater.

Clearly we have to come up with a solution while she's not spending much time at her place, otherwise it's just wasting money.

Also, her bills are estimated, which I personally would never accept, so that's something else to look into.
She doesn't have a smart meter, but maybe that's the way to go, whichever supplier she ends up with.

Thanks again.

molerat

The starting point is to get a correct reading submitted to the supplier and make sure it is done at least monthly.

400ixl

Bryn99 said:

Also, her bills are estimated, which I personally would never accept, so that's something else to look into.
She doesn't have a smart meter, but maybe that's the way to go, whichever supplier she ends up with.

This is the only thing to look at. What is the current meter reading and how does it align to that estimate reading. It could be that they are over estimating and just giving the correct reading to them (and doing so monthly until a smart meter is fitted).

Until it is accurate and not estimated the bill is just a fictitious amount that is then driving the direct debit amount to keep in line with the fictitious number.

BarelySentientAI

Bryn99 said:

Also, her bills are estimated, which I personally would never accept, so that's something else to look into.

The first thing to look in to.  You still have no idea whether the £60, £130, or £171 are anywhere near correct until you have actual meter readings on the bills.

RelievedSheff

You need to get her into the habit of submitting monthly meter readings.

It is never a good idea to rely on estimates.

Compare the estimated readings to the actual readings and work out for yourselves how much she should be paying. It is simple maths if you have the tariff information. 

It's also more useful to talk in terms of kWh of energy used rather than pounds and pence which are meaningless.