Gas and electricity. How much do you pay?

[Art Vs Science]

It is wasnt meant to be a personal 'slant' on you, but it is a scam by them and you and others embrace it.

They stock pile £millions of our money for a service/product they are yet to deliver.

You might see it as a worthwhile discipline, but ultimately I am sure you are capable of paying for this when they have delivered their energy.

Hey, I have also signed up to a current competitive tariff that insists I pay a monthly direct amount based on my annual usage, but I aint that stupid not to see their greed.

It is not a favour by them.

You get Energy before you pay or get billed for it. It is not a scam at all. Ppl pay by monthly DD to cover the following anticipated usage be it either on monthly or Quarterly billing. Would you get 3 months of food shopping that way? Ultimately you pay for what you use if you give them regular readings.

 

[BigGully]

You get Energy before you pay or get billed for it. It is not a scam at all. Ppl pay by monthly DD to cover the following anticipated usage be it either on monthly or Quarterly billing. Would you get 3 months of food shopping that way? Ultimately you pay for what you use if you give them regular readings.

You must be one of those door to door utility salesman !

You received energy and then got billed because they could't be sure just how much each individual user might use.

Historically quarterly billing became the period of preference due to those companies having to collate the relevant information before offering accurate invoices.

Nowadays slick accountancy offered an estimated usage linked to monthly payment schedule, all geared towards a positive cash flow for those companies.

So when you spend most of the month in credit to those companies then you are in effect paying pro forma for the supply, so yes I still think it is unacceptable.

By the way your shopping analogy is quite simple, if you committed your total shopping expenditure to tesco for a 12 month period, then yes they would happily allow you to have that period to pay, but you wouldn't be expected to firstly pay £1000 before you were allowed to by a bag of potatoes on your first visit !!!

 

[Art Vs Science]

You must be one of those door to door utility salesman !

You received energy and then got billed because they could't be sure just how much each individual user might use.

Historically quarterly billing became the period of preference due to those companies having to collate the relevant information before offering accurate invoices.

Nowadays slick accountancy offered an estimated usage linked to monthly payment schedule, all geared towards a positive cash flow for those companies.

So when you spend most of the month in credit to those companies then you are in effect paying pro forma for the supply, so yes I still think it is unacceptable.

By the way your shopping analogy is quite simple, if you committed your total shopping expenditure to tesco for a 12 month period, then yes they would happily allow you to have that period to pay, but you wouldn't be expected to firstly pay £1000 before you were allowed to by a bag of potatoes on your first visit !!!

That is simply wrong. You have no idea what you are talking about. If you moved into a property today, you would not get your first bill until after either 1 month(if that is what you requested) or AFTER the first Quarter, if you provide a reading just before that bill is due, they will bill you for that exact usage. So, if your monthly DD was £50, and your Quarterly bill was £110, you would be £40 in credit. This period is Billed AFTER you have used it.


Your monthly DD will change dependant on historical usage, NOT historical Payments

 

[BigGully]

That is simply wrong. You have no idea what you are talking about. If you moved into a property today, you would not get your first bill until after either 1 month(if that is what you requested) or AFTER the first Quarter, if you provide a reading just before that bill is due, they will bill you for that exact usage. So, if your monthly DD was £50, and your Quarterly bill was £110, you would be £40 in credit. This period is Billed AFTER you have used it.


Your monthly DD will change dependant on historical usage, NOT historical Payments

Rubbish ....

If your at the beginning of your quarter you have a credit balance of £300.00, you have pre paid for your estimated usage for that forthcoming quarter.

I havent bothered googling, but no doubt if we did it would tell us how many of the companies are stock piling our money.

If you think these companies have implemented their accountancy procedures based on fairness to the customer then you deluded.

 

[Art Vs Science]

Rubbish ....

If your at the beginning of your quarter you have a credit balance of £300.00, you have pre paid for your estimated usage for that forthcoming quarter.

I havent bothered googling, but no doubt if we did it would tell us how many of the companies are stock piling our money.

If you think these companies have implemented their accountancy procedures based on fairness to the customer then you deluded.

Could you tell me HOW you would have a £300 credit from a Monthly DD on the first day you moved into a property.

Oh by the way, i am not a salesman but i worked in the industry for 5 years. Which part of what you have just quoted is rubbish then?

 

[Beach Seagull]

Just to give some clarification on billing and direct debit payments:

When you sign up to an energy company they will attempt to set up your monthly direct debits at a figure that is reflective of your consumption. The most accurate way of doing is using your consumption with your previous supplier. All energy providers are required to send a statement showing your previous years consumption every quarter (in terms of actual units used). This can be used as a basis for providing a DD quote and should be the most accurate provided the supplier has managed to obtain meter readings over the previous year.

Failing this (the customer may have just moved into the property or does not have a recent bill handy) the DD will be calculated on property type using national averages of consumption...................I.E. you live in a 4 bed semi, with 3 occuppants and you have GCH therefore your direct debits will be £xx for gas and £xx for elec. Obviously there are dangers basing the quote on property type / national averages as consumption can vary even with same size houses and the same amount of occupants (factors such as working from home, or children pre school age for example).

Once the direct debit is set its not for an amount for a fixed period of time. It may to set way to high and provided the supplier reads the meter or the customer does the DD amount can be adjusted so it is reflective of the customers consumption. Energy companies will endevour to get the DD set up as accurately as possible. Problems occur when the DD is initially set up based on guesework and then the energy provider can't access the property to read the meter for over a year, so the customer is paying the DD buts it not reflective of their consumption, then a meter reading is finally obtained and it transpires the customer has not been paying enough.

It really is in the energy companies interests to get the DD set up accurately, and they don't want to 'stockpile' customers money. DD customers are the most valued customers an energy company have and they just want to keep them happy and dont want to be endlessly 'to and froing' with them over their DD.

 

[Worthingite]

I've got a 1 bed flat just off the seafront in Worthing. We get a draught from the winds that come down our road so our flat is ALWAYS cold (Our bell end of a Landlord has put in the hookiest double glazing known to man.....)

Thanks to the previous tenants we're also on a key meter (we could change it, but its actually quite handy to monitor our usage), we pay £40 pcm on electric and, at the monment, £60 pcm on Gas. Although that goes down to about £10-15 in the summer.

 

[Razi]

Just moved into my new house, a 3-bed semi in Luton. The previous owners had a prepayment meter, which I've probably put about £40-50 over the course of the last month. However, I did receive a bill from E-On (who I'm moving away from) for the total of £83 for a single month for gas. Ouch. I did, stupidly, forget to provide a meter reading when I arrived into the house - so can't validate the one they've advised. However, their estimate of the final reading is a fair bit lower than the actual - so I could end up paying even more once the account is closed down. Grr.

 

[perseus]

£125 per month E.ON "saveonline 11" for a 4 bed detached.

Based on the information we have, we estimate
you will spend £624.34 (including VAT at 5%) on
electricity over the next 12 months. One bedroomed flat. £52 per month.

 

[Slippery Seagull]

Think I win hands down. just bought a big old place in Worthing that was being used as a guest house, and been here a month (I have 5 kids!). First bill just in and I have just soiled myself. £546 for both.

I have suddenly started to enjoy the cold darkness.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

2 bed flat just got the winter bill in £134 for both on Ecotricty who knit all your power by hand, coming to an offshore windfarm near us soon.

Our Green Energy - Ecotricity

 

[Since1982]

I pay £117 / month for gas and electric for a 4 bed detached with three of us living here. Lots of appliances and a hot tub in the garden so I'm no unhappy with the cost compared to some others.

 

[Weezle]

£240 a month which is a complete joke as well as another £85 a month on water.

I know a lot of the cost comes from heating the place. It has really old an inefficient underfloor heating. I really don't know where the rest goes though.

The water costs frustrate me. There's only two of us living here with a two year old child. Heavy usage should apparently be half of what we pay. The water company says we need to install a meter to measure the usage if we want it reduced but the landlord won't allow it.