What's the best way of paying utility bills?

sunnysam

Good morning everyone!

My husband has always paid all our utility bills by direct debit but the time has come for us to tighten our belts and sort out our finances a bit.

I was just wondering if anyone could give me some advice on whether DD payments are the best way of paying utility bills or if it is more sensible to pay them monthly/quarterly by cheque or debit card etc??

I have only just got involved in this side of our finances and don't know too much about it. I thought (in my naivety) that by paying DD they would take a set amount each month, meaning you could budget for exactly how much leaves the bank, and any left overs would leave you in credit. The credit bit works but the companies seem to take varying amounts so that doesn't seem to be a benefit.

I would like to hear how other people go about it!

Many thanks

Sam
xx

DGJsaver

Bsically nearly ALL utility companies penalise those who DONT pay by DD

libra10

EBICO don't! And that's who we are with, paying quarterly and knowing exactly where we stand with regard to fuel costs.

DGJsaver

libra10 wrote: »

EBICO don't! And that's who we are with, paying quarterly and knowing exactly where we stand with regard to fuel costs.

What part of `nearly all` did you misunderstand ?

BexTech

DGJsaver wrote: »

What part of `nearly all` did you misunderstand ?

'Nearly' I would have thought.

SwanJon

As above, most suppliers will give you a discount for paying by DD.
It's usually cheaper to get an online tariffr.
There are also some fixed tariffs out there, bit more expensive now, but you put off any price rises.

If you find the amounts are going up and down too much, give them monthly readings - either through a free phone number or online. That way you make sure you are only paying for what you use, and any estimates will be as accurate as possible.

albertross_2

monthly fixed direct debit

If you are paying varying amounts, you probably aren't getting the DD discount.

beedeedee

We pay quarterly - actually we like having more cash available to us (by smaller bills) during the summer months. Used to pay by D/D, but it's not for us anymore. Each to their own.......

BexTech

beedeedee wrote: »

We pay quarterly - actually we like having more cash available to us (by smaller bills) during the summer months. Used to pay by D/D, but it's not for us anymore. Each to their own.......

I'd rather pay monthly by DD, as at the time it meant over £200 per year saving paying monthly DD as it did by the next cheapest payment.

For us, spending the least amount of money is our top priority.

beedeedee

Wow - your bills must be enormous. Our savings by D/D were never that big..
To us, quarterly makes more sense as we can up our income in the winter if need be ( when we don't spend so much on going out) and in the summer months, ease off a bit and have cash for holidays and days out. (We make sure we have plenty of those!) It's just our choice and it works for us.

BexTech

beedeedee wrote: »

Wow - your bills must be enormous. Our savings by D/D were never that big..
To us, quarterly makes more sense as we can up our income in the winter if need be ( when we don't spend so much on going out) and in the summer months, ease off a bit and have cash for holidays and days out. (We make sure we have plenty of those!) It's just our choice and it works for us.

No, our bills weren't really that big, in fact they were low compared to most others, it's just that back in March 2005 EDF (SWEB) had such a great tariff for online and DD, it was a lot lot cheaper. This was with us having fairly low bills, the savings would have been a lot more for those with higher bills. The gas for example we were paying £12 per month, but that was still over-paying, so a few times we had refunds of the over-payment, the same happened with electricity as we had kept the payments on what we had previously been paying.

For us we prefer to save save save as much money as we can, we don't like paying more than we have to. Same with shopping, I'll walk 20 minutes to the next shop just to save a few pennies. I hate wasting money.