Energy Bills

[bickster]

5 minutes ago, Sam-AVFC said:

Keep up. Lamda is a sentient AI 'cos it said so.

When Lamda starts sending out the bills, I'll start looking for hidden meaning, until then

[AlwaysAVFC]

38 minutes ago, Xela said:

I'd be cancelling my DD. Who's your provider?

Luckily not had any of that nonsense from Scottish Power

It's British Gas

Just trying to get my head around what we use and how much that will cost us. A straight calculation of their annual estimated usage for us divided by 12 is £222.40. So need to try and work out if that usage looks about right. If it looks about right I will try and change it to £250 rather than £300. That doesn't include the £400 help later in the year either. 

We're on a smart meter and just had the 6 month statement, which has led to the direct debit review. Our direct debit hasn't quite covered our usage and a couple of months of that we were still on a fix. So it definitely needs to go up with the price rises.

We also recently took a fix they were offering. So from now until the new price cap figure in October we're paying more but if the price cap increase of 65% turns out true then we should be paying a chunk less than the standard tariff.

 

[AlwaysAVFC]

It appears you can only increase your direct debit rather than lower it, online at least. They also say that the direct debit increase is a recommendation, if you can lower it its hardly a recommendation, is it? Sent an online message and will see where that goes.

Going through our usage it seems their annual estimate for us was slightly over our usage after 12 month living here (from Feb 21) so the estimate seems right. So unless I'm looking at it wrong it does seem £70 a month heavy not even allowing for the £400 help. 

[tinker]

I pay £200 a month and pay any extra monthly via debit card, I have spoke to outfox the market and they agree to this as long as I give them monthly readings. At the moment I am £350 in credit which is expected in the summer months . 

I'm thinking about fitting a multi fuel burner, pity a back boiler is out of the question due to hardwood flooring. If the energy crisis continues then a battery bank and solar is in the planning stage. 

Edited July 24, 2022 by tinker

[blandy]

6 minutes ago, AlwaysAVFC said:

It appears you can only increase your direct debit rather than lower it, online at least. They also say that the direct debit increase is a recommendation, if you can lower it its hardly a recommendation, is it? Sent an online message and will see where that goes.

Going through our usage it seems their annual estimate for us was slightly over our usage after 12 month living here (from Feb 21) so the estimate seems right. So unless I'm looking at it wrong it does seem £70 a month heavy not even allowing for the £400 help. 

People are different, but I’d much rather pay for whatever is used each month, month by month, rather than this pay a fixed amount which is too much in summer and not enough in winter. I mean smart readers and so on, why can’t they just bill us what we actually owe, each month?

[Davkaus]

34 minutes ago, blandy said:

People are different, but I’d much rather pay for whatever is used each month, month by month, rather than this pay a fixed amount which is too much in summer and not enough in winter. I mean smart readers and so on, why can’t they just bill us what we actually owe, each month?

I'm sure some providers do still offer this but you're right most encourage an averaged payment based on annual consumption. The reason they'll claim is that they're saving consumers from themselves and making it easier to budget by smoothing the peaks and troughs, preventing people from underestimating their winter spend and landing themselves with a bill they can't afford.

The obvious unspoken benefit for them is that for several months, they have millions of customers giving them interest-free loans.

[AlwaysAVFC]

Had an online conversation and didn't seem like it's not possible to lower the DD so that's a start, but can't do anything until after the payment (old amount) on the 28th comes out. So will try again in a week.

[tinker]

3 hours ago, AlwaysAVFC said:

Had an online conversation and didn't seem like it's not possible to lower the DD so that's a start, but can't do anything until after the payment (old amount) on the 28th comes out. So will try again in a week.

They can, just offer to settle the balance at the end of every month with an up-to-date meter reading.

[Genie]

With British Gas I can set the monthly DD to anything I want myself in the app.

[AlwaysAVFC]

10 minutes ago, Genie said:

With British Gas I can set the monthly DD to anything I want myself in the app.

I tried and when I put £240 in, it said it couldn't be lower than the the amount set. Well that was on the website, the app says something went wrong. I'll try again when my payment at the end of the month goes out.

[villan-scott]

10 hours ago, AlwaysAVFC said:

A lovely email to wake up to on a Sunday morning.

I had the same issue with BG. They’d given me a half year statement then whacked up my direct debit to have it cleared in a much shorter time frame. 

It was nothing to do with the energy cap increasing for me as we’d fixed in September for 3 years. 

I rang through and managed to speak to a UK based agent. She looked at it and agreed it was astronomical. She cancelled the direct debit for me, closed the account and reopened it so the billing equalled out and the new DD was much lower and reasonable. She was great to be fair. 

With regards to the app my experience is the same as yours - I cannot lower it below the ‘recommended’ amount. 

Hope the above helps. They were helpful when I spoke to them - and this was recently. 

[villan-scott]

@AlwaysAVFC I just checked back through emails and they wanted to hike my payments up from about £100 to £557 a month. Nearly had a heart attack when I saw it at the time it went up to £212 a month in the end which is more manageable and I knew I wasn’t paying enough beforehand.
 

My theory is that they’ll whack up everyone’s payments to overpay and the majority won’t challenge so our money is sat in their hands earning them money. 
 

Edited July 24, 2022 by villan-scott

[ender4]

1 hour ago, villan-scott said:

@AlwaysAVFC I just checked back through emails and they wanted to hike my payments up from about £100 to £557 a month. Nearly had a heart attack when I saw it at the time it went up to £212 a month in the end which is more manageable and I knew I wasn’t paying enough beforehand.
 

My theory is that they’ll whack up everyone’s payments to overpay and the majority won’t challenge so our money is sat in their hands earning them money. 
 

Holy shit!!  That’s actually crazy.

[Genie]

Independent garage owner confirms that the big petrol station chains are taking the piss.

Quote

A family-run petrol station is having drivers from "all over" flocking to fill up after it started selling some of the cheapest fuel for miles.

The filling station in Wales has been selling unleaded petrol for 169p per litre, which has led to drivers claiming they have been "taken for mugs" by expensive garages.

On Friday, the prices at the garage dropped even further to 167.9pm - which means it costs nearly 20p less for unleaded at Bailey's Garage on Brecon Road, Abergavenny, than the UK average.

The garage also sells cheaper diesel, with Bailey's selling it for 184.9p against a UK average of 195.88p, reports WalesOnline. 

The garage's general assistant, Cerys Holland, said that since the price of their BP petrol went down two weeks ago it had been "bonkers" and the staff "don't stop".

Meanwhile, owner Ian Bailey said he was four times busier than he'd ever been before in the 50 years he'd run the garage - and had been left scratching his head as to why no-one else had dropped their prices.

As an independent business, he can then decide how much of a mark-up he puts on the price at the pump.

He added, matter-of-factly, that it seemed only fair that he shouldn't profiteer from the falling cost of fuel and was seemingly perplexed by the interest in his garage all of a sudden.'

"I'm wondering as well why other people haven't dropped their prices," he said. "I can't see why we're so cheap.

"We've always been cheap. I could put it up to be the same as other garages and we would be laughing.

"But times are hard and we like to pass on the drop to the customer."

The big petrol station chain bosses need to be pulled in front of MP’s to explain why they are holding the prices so high.

The Mirror

[Dante_Lockhart]

My £92.00 a month DD with EON-Next finishes next month, surprised my fixed tariff has been held for so long to be honest.

Current renewal price from them is £175 pm

[CVByrne]

18 hours ago, Dante_Lockhart said:

My £92.00 a month DD with EON-Next finishes next month, surprised my fixed tariff has been held for so long to be honest.

Current renewal price from them is £175 pm

Same here

[Dante_Lockhart]

12 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Same here

That's on the variable too. If I want to fix it for 1 year I can pay £350 p.m >_<

[Genie]

Rishi now saying he’d scrap the 5% VAT on Energy Bills (which he opposed in January) if the energy cap goes above £3,000.

Expected to be worth around £160 a year on average.

He’s obviously had a look at the polls and then walked out to the money tree.

[The Fun Factory]

When Martin Lewis says that public buildings will need to have areas in the winter for folks to come in and keep warm, I think its time to get concerned.

People will die this winter unless more help is given.

[Genie]

Russia turning the screw (literally)

Quote

Gas prices have soared after Russia further cut gas supplies to Germany and other central European countries after threatening to earlier this week.

European gas prices are up almost 2% trading above an earlier all-time high after Russia invaded Ukraine. 

Critics accuse the Russian government of using gas as a political weapon.

Russia has been cutting flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany, with it now operating at less than a fifth of its normal capacity.

——————

UK gas prices rose 7% on Wednesday so the price is now more than six times higher than a year ago. However, it is still well below the peak seen in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

link

Edited July 27, 2022 by Genie