Fuck me, my energy bill has doubled to £150 a month!!

[notwhatineednow]

It's doubled.

I can't tell how much of it is the energy prices going up, and how much of it is because I haven't done a meter reading for ages and so maybe I'm paying off debt? I can't tell, it's not at all obvious (I'm with Bulb).

Is this the kind of rise the rest of you are getting on normal bills?

Does anyone know if I can find out from the Bulb website if it includes debt? If it's there I'm missing it.

By my smart meter today . We are going to be paying £459 a month

@Bedsheets4knickers

By my smart meter today . We are going to be paying £459 a month

Gas aside, it seems to me that a lot of people need to look at their electricity usage first and foremost. The average household uses 8.5kwh a day of electricity. That's £2.46 a day at 29p/kWh, the new rate. Or £74 a month.

How are people mounting up hundreds unknowingly is bizarre. Is everyone running a hot tub and aircon 24/7?

@Drywhitefruitycidergin

I'm with Bulb too. Do you get a PDF with your updated situation after the meter readings? Your usage since XXXX is YYY updated balance is ZZZZZ - but they take payments in advance, so that is before your latest payment so if your direct debit is the same or higher than the balance then you are not in debt. Haven't figured out yet whether they have updated estimated annual amounts based on new standing charge and unit rates, but hopefully coz that works out at £166 per month and my DD is £172.

No, I haven't had anything from them, but thanks for the suggestion! While looking for it, I've found the PDF with details from my last bill, sent earlier this month.

This has shed some light, but also, the plot thickens...

I can see now that I was paying £77 because my account had been in credit for a long time. The actual amount of estimated energy a month was in fact £115.

The £149 a month is based on an estimate they made 3 weeks ago, it's on that bill. So this rise has nothing to do with the meter readings I sent.

It looks like they've updated the electric with the new reading on the website (which has gone up from their estimate), but not the gas (which has gone down) but not re-estimated the amount I'll use this year (yet) so goodness knows where it'll leave me when they've processed it properly.

I'll call them.. probably not for a few days though as I'm crazy busy at work.

My dd has gone from £180 pm to £309.

I'm with utilita, pre payment meter, last month I used £28 electric so not sure what it's going to be since prices went up but the last 3 days it's been around £1.40 a day.
Gas wise I have barely had my heating on for months as can't afford to, once or twice a week at best.
Those on direct debit seem to be worse off than those on pre payment meters now.
3 bed house, wfh, do everything I can to save on usage of electric, not much more I can do.

And they are expected to go up another 25% from October and probably again the following April. How is this going to end? Are we all going to end up up to our eyeballs in debt to the energy companies?

I have kept paying little top ups each month as panicking about the rise, just checked and my account is nearly 900 in credit, so I can relax a little bit now, however my service charge has gone from 35 a month to 400 a month so not really a good financial year ahead (roof damage to all the flats came in at 59K and as I own my flat along wit 9 others we have to pay 4k each)

A lot (most?) people simply cannot afford these price rises. So the extortionate bills just won't get paid. Yes, some will try to reduce useage as best they can, but there will be untold millions who end up with significant debt to their energy suppliers.

So what then? Everyone has a ruined credit score, can't then get a loan, and house prices crumble? Doubt it. I predict the government will at that point jump in and write off these debts. Because the alternative is cataclysmic for an economy completely focused on ever increasing house prices.

Therefore my suggestion is - if you can't pay - don't. Reckless maybe, but does anyone disagree with my prediction?

Ours has gone from £170 a month to £360. its ridiculous. We can afford it but it will mean cutting back on other things.

I read a Tweet from someone which basically said: Martin Lewis has gone from telling us about 3-for-2 deals and which building society offers the best mortgage, to advising us on how not to freeze or starve to death.

This government has a lot to answer for. They can find billions of pounds to waste on track and trave, dodgy PPE contracts etc but not to support people who literally cannot afford to heat their houses

Mine has been £166pm for years (3 bed semi, 2 people, very frugal with heating). Am expecting a rise to £300 plus but no figures yet, just warning letter.

I'm with Ron and get bills constantly. Sometimes 11 days sometimes 20 sometimes 24. No pattern always demanding more and more money and slapping on late payment charges. I w not had a bill since the increase though so that should be fun...

*eon

Prices haven't gone up 100% yet so bills shouldn't be going up 100% yet either.
A lot of people weren't on the previous price cap, they were below it. We were paying 15p per unit on our fixed rate. Now that has ended and we are up to the price cap of 28p. Standing charge has quadrupled.

Why is the standing charge so high? And what’s it for anyway? Surely that’s going to keep bills higher as we’ve got no way to cut that by using less power..

Maybe I'm getting it all wrong and missing something here but whilst the standing charge has gone up it equates to maybe £15-£20 per month if say gas and electric standing charge has gone up by 20p per day each?

So then the kWh have increased - so say they've gone up 15p per kWh as I've seen some say on this thread - my electric use in January was 400kwh so £60 increase for the month not sure on gas but say it's a similar

Some of you must have been on spectacularly cheap tariffs pre the increase to be seeing such massive increases? My DD for BG combined file went up £60 per month back in October last year - it's fixed to November 23 - looking at the daily cost on my smart meter it's pretty much in line with my current DD so no increase?
So did no one fix their tariffs last year or something?

@EmmaGrundyForPM

Ours has gone from £170 a month to £360. its ridiculous. We can afford it but it will mean cutting back on other things.

I read a Tweet from someone which basically said: Martin Lewis has gone from telling us about 3-for-2 deals and which building society offers the best mortgage, to advising us on how not to freeze or starve to death.

This government has a lot to answer for. They can find billions of pounds to waste on track and trave, dodgy PPE contracts etc but not to support people who literally cannot afford to heat their houses

Agreed but you've skipped over a vital piece of the picture.

The government can find billions of pounds to waste on giving lucrative contracts to their mates on track and trace etc...

I don't understand how people think the Tories are good with the economy when they are so blatant in their use of the money WE pay through tax to profit the ultra rich, while asset stripping the things that make us a civilised society.

This isn't going to get better while the Tories are in power. Those making the policies see us akin to cattle, with our labour and our lives to be used and exploited to prop up a system that benefits them, not us.

I don't understand why people aren't angrier.

We were paying £58 for gas and electric. Now £128, but this is lowering to £96 as of September. Higher at the minute as we are just paying off debts for a few months.

My tariff ended and they wouldn't offer me a new tariff to fix it before April 1st. They are now offering me this.

I predict the government will at that point jump in and write off these debts.

That will not happen, can you imagine the outcry from the people who did pay their bills?

@Walkerbean16

But what about British Gas etc?

Prices haven't gone up 100% yet so bills shouldn't be going up 100% yet either

Well that depends. A lot of people are coming off fixes set a year ago. Those fixes were cheaper than the April 21 price cap (about £900 pa when the price cap was around £1100 per year, based on the 'typical use' figures). But the price cap is now around £1900 per year, which is obviously more than double £900.

Plus a lot of people's direct debits have been too low and they've built up debt over winter. So as well as prices more than doubling since their DD was last set, they also have debt to repay. And some people have fixed at well above the April 22 price cap, so need to pay even more just to stay on track.

All that's before the higher DDs that some companies are taking to help their own cashflow, or for people to get ahead for more price increases that are likely.

I'm paying £285 a month. The fixed deals that I am being offered are double this.

3 Bed Semi. On a fixed rate until end of May 22. Paying £84pcm which is more than suggested and in credit about £170. Got a notification that my bill will go to about £155 on variable. I'll take that for now. Only fixed rate I can find is £216. Will be bases on actual figures as I'm on a smart meter.

@Walkerbean16

My tariff ended and they wouldn't offer me a new tariff to fix it before April 1st. They are now offering me this.

That's insane!! What are you paying currently if it's not fixed?

We are with octopus (electricity only) on a deal fixed until May, and it's looking like the price will need doubling for our new tariff. We have an electric car and ASHP so everything will be twice the cost next month.