can I ring the company up with my meter reading and also pay by direct debit

lkmc01

I will be moving into our first house where we will have to start paying our gas and electricity bills soon.

I want to pay by direct debit but I also want to ring the company up with my meter reading.

This is so that I pay for only what I use and not what they expect me to have used.

For example -

the bill arrives and I ring up with a new meter reading.
the new bill then arrives with the meter reading I gave them so is now correct.
the company then take it out on a particular date.

Sort of like the same way a mobile contact works. You use it and then get a bill for the previous month and then it come out of the bank after 14 days, on the same date each month.

Can this be done with any / all / which ones of the gas and electicity companies.

Its just I won't want to pay for what they expect me to have used when I could have used less. But I still want to pay by direct debit.

anniecave

all the providers should do this.

If they've issued you a bill and the meter reading is incorrect, then they should re-issue the bill. Sometimes they have a tolerance level, like the meter reading has to be more than say 20 units out.

And if you pay by variable direct debit then you can do just that, they send you a bill, they take the value of the (correct) bill out by direct debit.

If you do a search on one of the comparison sites, just pick "variable direct debit" as the payment type.

Over the last year or so meter readers seem to be coming around more regularly. Previously a reader only seemed to read the meter once a year. Now it seems like at least every other bill has the correct reading on. The supplier just requests a meter reader to go out a few days before your bill is due. Easy really.

Mikeyorks

Except it best works where they advise you a bill is imminent, by email, and you then update your online account with the reading(s) within the next 7 days ... and before they issue the bill? That avoids the sheer waste of them issuing an estimated bill ... and having to correct it, every time?

My previous 3 suppliers (EDF / EON / Scot Power) have all worked that way ... if you choose an online tariff (which is normally cheaper). They still send meter readers around periodically ... as they have to validate your readings once in a while.