Help - Scottish Power Bill

Coates_2

posted this a while ago but no reply, hopefully someone in the know will see it this time!

Hi all, i came on here a wee while ago and took plenty of advice, unfortunately i need some more now, i just received my bill (another estimate it says) but it has me oweing £36 to scottish power, they have though reduced my direct debit by £3 a month, why is it reduced when i owe more than i paid? how can they be so accurate with estimates?
i don't really understand it, it's terribly confusing!

Woby_Tide

people use more gas/electric in winter than they do in summer i..e lights/heating

the art is to get the right DD amount so that build up a big debt over winter which you then fund with your summer payments so you get the best of both worlds. To only be £36 in debt after winter is quite good going hence you don't need to overpay as much during the summer or going forward

Coates_2

it's very strange though, the £36 is exactly the VAT on my charges for the last 6 months, it makes no sense that the estimate of £122 a month is exactly on the money minus the VAT.

i just changed to an online account, hopefully when i start inputting the numbers myself i can get a more clear picture of what is going on.

Mrs_Thrify

Hiya, I have Scotish Power on line. Every 3 months or so, I get an email asking me to read both meters for duel fuel. No problems so far. bill is payed by DD.

beecher

Scottish Power now re-assess far more often than they used to and so I'm not sure they do look at how much you pay over a year anymore. I'd phone up and ask them to keep your payments as they are - my payments went down by £12/month last year but then had to go up by £20/month later in the year to make up for it! I've given up trying to work out how they come to their figures.

If you have ann online account then try to get into the habit of inputting your meter readings once a month as it makes it easier to work out how much fuel you're using - they have really good graphs which allow you to compare consumption from the previous year, and it means you'll never have an estimate.