Energy Bills (Cancel your DD)

HundredRoom said:
whats the difference between paying the bill and D/D ?

if I paid a 200 quid bill how much would it be if Id paid it by D/D ?
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My DD has been £140 a month more than my actual bill for May, June and july , I get the building the pot for the winter but boll0 cks to them holding all that money and giving me it back in dribs and drabs when you ask for it.
 
JM14 said:
Paying exactly what you use now and not building a credit will lead to huge bills to face in the winter, far better to be paying over now to avoid this in a few months
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Unless you pay them what you've used, then out the rest of what you would have paid in the DD into a savings account? To extract in the winter?
 
Stopping paying for your energy by monthly DD in order to save money is a really bad idea. The tariff will be more, you will spend much more on an annual basis, and the winter months' charges will be the thick end of £1k each if the price cap predictions are correct.

For anyone with a big credit balance, figure out what your annual bill would be at the current standard variable tariff, double it to take account of the increases, then deduct the value of your credit. Divide that number by 12, and that is the amount you should pay. Contact your supplier and explain this, they will accept it.

In February you will be in debit, depending on the size of the next increase, you'll be able to increase the DD if you wish.
 
Soutra said:
Stopping paying for your energy by monthly DD in order to save money is a really bad idea. The tariff will be more, you will spend much more on an annual basis, and the winter months' charges will be the thick end of £1k each if the price cap predictions are correct.

For anyone with a big credit balance, figure out what your annual bill would be at the current standard variable tariff, double it to take account of the increases, then deduct the value of your credit. Divide that number by 12, and that is the amount you should pay. Contact your supplier and explain this, they will accept it.

In February you will be in debit, depending on the size of the next increase, you'll be able to increase the DD if you wish.
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That's exactly right and in any case the paltry pennies of interest earned in your bank will not offset that saving.
 
SmallTown said:
Unless you pay them what you've used, then out the rest of what you would have paid in the DD into a savings account? To extract in the winter?
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If you put £200 a month into a savings account for 6 months at current rates at the end of that 6 months you'd have made £5 for your effort of manually paying your bill amount. This assumes your supplier even lets you. Some do, some don't.

The reason they do this is because a huge percentage of people are fine budgeting over summer but winter hills hit and they struggle, that will happen more than ever now. The bills are big but easier to say they'll pay them in winter than it is to actually do that when they land in feb and they've not had a smart meter so they've had out of control bills.
 
I'm currently paying £135 a month DD as when i moved home, i had the 5 year previous usage from another provider and we went off the average.. Hopefully these payments from the government cover the next rise
 
ThatFragranceGuy said:
If you put £200 a month into a savings account for 6 months at current rates at the end of that 6 months you'd have made £5 for your effort of manually paying your bill amount. This assumes your supplier even lets you. Some do, some don't.

The reason they do this is because a huge percentage of people are fine budgeting over summer but winter hills hit and they struggle, that will happen more than ever now. The bills are big but easier to say they'll pay them in winter than it is to actually do that when they land in feb and they've not had a smart meter so they've had out of control bills.
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£5 on £200 in a deposit account for 6 months? I don't know any deposit account paying 5%.
 
Soutra said:
£5 on £200 in a deposit account for 6 months? I don't know any deposit account paying 5%.
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He says £200 pm so presumably £1200 by the end. Still about 1% which is higher than some standard account rates. Nothing in the grand scheme of things.
 
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I based the 1.7% rate on savings accounts available on moneysupermarket with 3 withdrawals a year allowed

Used MSE savings calculator to look at what £200 a month for 6 months would look like at that rate
 
Zoophonic said:
He says £200 pm so presumably £1200 by the end. Still about 1% which is higher than some standard account rates. Nothing in the grand scheme of things.
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No. The point wasn't the earning interest. The point was insulating (sorry) yourself from the winter fuel costs. The fact you earn a trifling interest, rather than the energy company earning it, is a bonus
 
SmallTown said:
Unless you pay them what you've used, then out the rest of what you would have paid in the DD into a savings account? To extract in the winter?
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I would just expect it’s easier for people to budget with a consistent dd amount, doing it that way won’t really make a difference I wouldn’t expect
 
SmallTown said:
No. The point wasn't the earning interest. The point was insulating (sorry) yourself from the winter fuel costs. The fact you earn a trifling interest, rather than the energy company earning it, is a bonus
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Frankly I don’t care about the energy company - I just want to do what’s best for my family’s finances and a d/d works best savings wise.
 
JM14 said:
I would just expect it’s easier for people to budget with a consistent dd amount, doing it that way won’t really make a difference I wouldn’t expect
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That was the way it used to be. However , with volatile prices , and changing them every 3 months , it's a bit more difficult to gauge. I suspect If I rang up my energy providers today and said can we agree on a new DD for the 12 months ahead,,they would build in Fridays 80pc increase, Jan 20pc increase and possibly a further 20pc increase in April into a blended figure for the next year which to me would be seemingly way too big but given the increases prob largely correct for the 12 months ahead. That's why when the figures are announced on Friday I will be setting my own DD level based on last years Oct - Nov actual use that I have , divvied by 3 . Then I'll be doing the same for Jan to Mar. So I will be smoothing it out but only over the known price period,, not the year.
 
We are currently on an old fixed rate and are (slightly over) paying £100 per month and built up about £200 in credit to our supplier. We are also over paying £200 per month into our bills account so when we end up with a big price hike at the end of the year when we go onto the SVR we can drip feed these savings towards the overall cost. Has the same effect of overpaying and giving the supplier our cash but gives us more control over it.
 
Glover_elbow said:
is it just energy companies who are allowed to take what they want with direct debit.
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They automatically adjust with renewals on things, but I think it's only energy companies who take such large variations.

A few years ago I switched from Ovo to someone else. Just 48 hours before the deadline passed for them to ask, they sent me a letter in really pally, super friendly tone essentially saying that they had undercharged me from day one, telling me the wrong figures, so I had to pay them for their error... Which was almost a grand over the course of the whole tariff.

Can you imagine a knock on the door from someone in a Tesco uniform because they forgot to charge you correctly for your shopping three years ago, and being legally backed up to do that?
 
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