MSE News: One in five households 'owe energy firms cash'
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How do I know that in 9 months time, they wont come to me again and say I owe them more money?
The meters are in your home. You ought to know how much you use in a typical year. How much does that cost on your tariff? How much are you paying?
If you don't want to do this then you can pay quarterly instead.0 -
I'd rather be owing money to the utilities than them owing it to me,
It is not that long ago they used to insist on larger and larger direct debits, building up a huge credit balance and then being difficult when consumers asked for it back.
Agreed, I run a really tight ship. My DD matches consumption and npower hate that. After the winter bill I was about a tenner in credit. They never miss an opportunity to try increase the DD by unrealistic amounts always saying they'll refund me after the next review... From experience it is incredibly difficult to secure that refund...0 -
wakeupalarm wrote: »In reality it means 80% are in credit to their energy company. Perhaps the articles title should be Energy companies earning millions in interest holding onto customers money.
Yes, I like that. 4 out of 5 households do not owe money to their energy company. I wonder how that compares with the proportion of people not owing money to their credit card company.
Or is this a play by the energy companies to be allowed to start charging interest on the "debt" owed by the 20% (whilst not paying interest on the credit to the 80%)?0 -
A few years back I built up a debt with E.On of around £650 because my DD was set too low. The difference here compared to others posting is that I knew how much I was using and how much I was underpaying so the extra money was keeping itself cosy in a savings account. When they eventually got their act together and decided I had to pay more they gave me a year to do it, again the money came slowly out of the savings account.
The moral here is that it is down to you to keep an eye on what you are using. The problem is that most are too busy or too idle to bother and blame someone else when it comes back to bite them on the bum.
I have a simple excel spread sheet set up where I can enter my readings and it will instantly show me how my account stands. It is not difficult if you can be bothered.
Currently my account is £200 in debit and forecast to be £100 in debit by annual reconciliation date, I know that my DD is £10 too low so that money is tucked away safely for when it is needed, why should they benefit from my money0 -
I currently owe about £371 having paid in my Winter Fuel Payment of £200 in November. I am dreading the next bill, but realise that my monthly dd should be higher (it's £37 per month for dual). I will watch it over summer and see how much I can catch up.
We have just had a new rate announced so I'll be checking that on uSwitch soonest. I keep a monthly spreadsheet of usage with a graph showing how it's going.0 -
I would love it if they let me pay in advance to secure a good price. Imagine, if they let me pay for 100,000kWh at E.On FixOnline 8 prices three years ago.
If they created a Luncheon Voucher type currency, it would stop grannies using the money to buy presents for ungrateful grandkids and use it for not freezing to death. The currency would be denominated in Gas kWh. Conversion into Electrical kWh should be by a published multiplier. It should be redeemable online or by phone by reading out the voucher number. The DWP can send out the vouchers with a Christmas card. Relatives of poor people can send them as birthday presents.
It's like a first class stamp, once you paid for 1,000kWh, that's fixed. The standing charge will still have to be paid for by the account holder, unfortunately.
Assuming there's a good take up of these vouchers, there would be a cash reserve. This allows the creation of a National Gas Reserve. In normal circumstances, you don't want to tie up £millions in the form of gas, but this is gas ALREADY PAID FOR. We wait for low spot rate to buy in gas on the cheap, but the intention is to fill up the reserve over summer, and run it down during winter. Obviously, voucher redemption implies releasing gas onto the National Grid. As we buy the gas, we know how much we paid for it, and we can set the price for a tranche of vouchers. which will reflect the wholesale purchase price. The DWP gets the cheapest price for the Winter Fuel vouchers.
The vouchers can be investments. Householders can buy them to hedge against price rises: use them if price goes up, keep them for next year if price stays low. The government can hand them out to Benefit recipients. You can give them to elderly relatives.0 -
Jennifer_Jane wrote: »I currently owe about £371 having paid in my Winter Fuel Payment of £200 in November. I am dreading the next bill, but realise that my monthly dd should be higher (it's £37 per month for dual). I will watch it over summer and see how much I can catch up.
Not wishing to insult your intelligence but if you turn everything off and don't use any gas or electric it will take exactly 10 months to pay off this debt.
If you use more than £37 worth a month (I don't know your circumstances but I would be very surprised if anyone living in a house/bungalow used this (or less) once standing charges etc are included - even in the summer) then your debt will increase.
My advice, for what it is worth, is work out your average use over the year, then revise your D/D so that the total annual payment covers this usage.
That way your debt will not increase any more. Nor will it reduce so you will still need to work out a plan to pay off the £371 debt.
Your energy company should be able to help/advise you with all of this.
HTH0 -
Personally, I think this "story" is merely an opportunity for MSE to ADVERTISE its cheap energy club.
Shall we now call MSE the Cheap Marketing Club.
Warning: In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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It's not just on MSE. It's been in the Guardian as well. I do agree the story is stupid though. It's the end of winter and it's been a very cold March.Sealed Pot Challenge #239
Virtual Sealed Pot #131
Save 12k in 2014 #98 £3690/£60000
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