Stop telling us what your energy DD is!

[anon2022anon]

Let's see how many don't read the post but just the title and react to that.

Stop telling us what your energy DD is or is going to be. It's just a made up number that your energy provider is using to get your money in the bank as a buffer for themselves.

If you're worried about energy (as we all are), why aren't you learning about it?
How much do you pay per unit for electric/ gas?
How much is your standing charge?
Are you on a fixed tariff or variable?
Do you give actual meter readings?
Have you got an idea of your usage? Check your bills, get a smart meter,

It's driving me a little mad, the amount of threads saying they're paying £500 a month, I can't afford it, with no actual relevant information that people can use to say- your usage is unusually high, they're putting your DD up too much you should ask for a reduction, your meter could be faulty. If you struggle with understanding it, just copy out your latest bill and someone will guide you.

@carefullycourageous I understand people are worried. What helps more- commiserating and telling them my bills are also rising, or helping them understand their bill, so they can start to look if there is any way to reduce usage or any potential issues?

We've never paid more than we've needed to on DD. We paid Avro £94 pm which was right within around a fiver and when they went bust and we moved over to Octopus, we had a credit of around £100, which is neither here nor there going into winter.

It then took Octopus about 6 months to raise our DD to the amount needed to include the approx 90% price rise seen due to moving from a very cheap fix to the April 2022 price cap so we built up quite a debt.

We're now paying that back with an extra £30 on our monthly DD amount, which Octopus say will automatically be removed early next year when we've caught up with where they want us to be.

My DD was set by the energy company (E.on Next), not by me. I just checked to make sure it was right. When we got the £150 rebate a while ago I paid it straight into my energy account and reduced my DD by £12 a month. I'll reduce it again once the £400 starts coming through (I'm on a fixed rate till March 2024, thankfully).

We set our own direct debit amount. We sat down and worked out our total annual usage plus standing charges at the current rates and divided that by 12. We rang our provider and told them that was what we were prepared to pay. They accepted it with very little argument although it was about £40pcm less than they wanted us to pay.

We're also separately putting aside a bit more for when prices rise again, but I'd rather that was in our account than theirs.

It's largely NOT energy suppliers just putting the DD upand people, it's ACTUAL MASSIVE INCREASES you utter patronising numpty and people are fucking shitting themselves.

I will keep posting what I pay again and again and again, as much as I fucking like, because it's so utterly fucking stupid to ask people to spend so much of their income on energy.

Thank god someone said it! 👏🏻

I almost replied to a thread earlier about huge “average” direct debits! But I stopped myself knowing it’ll cause a fight 😂

The averages are just that. Averages.

We submit gas meter readings every Monday to keep our direct debits low & we have a prepayment electric meter that’s variable. Barely noticed the increase in prices even with a huge standing charge.

Caveat- I don't live in the UK.

Wait, what?!

You can pay more on direct debit than you actually use? What happens to the surplus??

I’d like to know what kWh and standing charge is considered a decent rate for gas

What would be useful instead of posting patronising twaddle is to post how people can get their energy bills independently assessed and cheaply to make sure their smart or otherwise meters are working properly and the bills are fair based on actual consumption.

Is it even possible? Is there anyone who offers this service? I doubt it.

I guess it depends if you define 'helping' in terms of practical help or emotional help.

People vary in what helps them the most.

It seems you're keen to enforce your preference.

😆😆 so did I... opened the thread to see what on earth the OP was on about.

That aside - I do agree with you OP! We're currently in a fixed rate until October and our provider tried to put it up over winter as our usage was higher... we refused and obviously now it's summer we're using less and in credit.

But I'm not saying that prices aren't going up. I'm not saying it's not terrifying. I'm not saying it isn't a shitty situation. I'm saying that if you don't know how much energy you use, and give meter readings you could be paying £500 in direct debit for £150 worth of actual usage. Or that if you are using 80kwh of electric for a 2 bedroom house, then there's probably something wrong or somewhere you can make a saving. How is that not more useful than me also saying 'my direct debit is x', which also tells you nothing?

Surpluses just sit in your energy account and get used up at more expensive times of year, like winter, and after the prices have gone up.

But I do wonder about the people who are saying 'I'm on prepay and haven't seen it go up that much' at this time of year, because they won't be using heating, lighting and tumble drying if they have one half as much as they will be in winter.

However you pay and whatever you use, you can't get away from the fact that, come January, the rate we pay for gas and electricity will have increased about 250% in around 2 years so direct debits will have increased by a similar amount, taking the various government grants into account, unless you've significantly reduced your consumption or used up a large credit.

Yes, prices are rising a lot. BUT, some of those that are worried are panicking without actually working out if the new DD amount is reasonable or not. Just because the energy supplier sets a DD amount doesn't mean that's how much it should cost you.

Totally agree OP!

People need to understand the standing charge, the unit charge, the wholesale price (what affects it and why), how that affects the price cap, the difference between an energy producer and an energy supplier.
My dad worked in oil and gas production, and watches the wholesale price of oil and gas so was able to explain all these things to me last winter, and he warned me about the price rise in April and a further rise in Oct MONTHS ago.

I wanted to set up a direct debit but my energy supplier wanted to set my electric direct debit to £100/month and my gas direct debit to £30/month.

No idea how they figured that out 🤦🏽‍♀️

I have a smart meter and currently pay £30-45 for electric a month. Use will remain similar over winter, so price increase will depend on increase in standard charge and unit charge.

Currently pay £20-30 for gas each month. Last winter, with heating the cost could be as much as £5 a day!!

So no heating for us this winter. I live in the south so praying for a mild winter. I will have a baby soon so I plan on wearing him to keep us both warm, keeping busy and keeping moving as you tend to feel the cold when sat about!

Failing that we’ll go and live in the van as it will be much cheaper to heat 😂

@youlightupmyday energy companies are well known for charging more than usage to put you in credit for the colder months. However, some are using this crisis to put up a lot more than the actual rise, to get money in the bank, which is very hard to get back.
www.which.co.uk/news/article/explained-why-are-energy-direct-debits-so-high-auAf66F6gQnb

@Rosehugger if that service exists, what information do you think they need to provide it?

@anon2022anon The ability to come round and check your meter/supply would be the first thing they would need.

I know of a development of five houses on the edge of a village where the owners have not had a gas or water bill for 15 years. Since the properties were built in fact. They are staying quiet. No idea how that can happen but they will reap some benefits. I only know because one of the owners let their property and admitted why they had not expenses to offset. One day it may catch up with them but Statute of Limitations may apply.

@carefullycourageous maybe so, however I've seen seventy million 'there, there, me too' posts, and none specifying this, so I think this one practical among all those emotional will soon disappear ane lost anyway. Not saying there hasn't been any post, but I haven't seen one, but I've seen some fantastic posts on how to cut usage in the money section too.

BUT, some of those that are worried are panicking without actually working out if the new DD amount is reasonable or not. Just because the energy supplier sets a DD amount doesn't mean that's how much it should cost you

I don't think that's true at all of what I've seen on here. MN is mostly a pretty educated crowd who are worried what their actual bills are going to be, given they have alreday gone up 80% and are set to go up a further 70%.

I got a message some months ago about fixing my electricity prices for the next year. The offer worked out at nearly £5000 for the coming year. I checked my records and we’d barely used £1000 per annum previously. I challenged the proposed increase and they said, oops, our algorithm isn’t working properly, don’t know why.

We decided not to fix our prices but could easily just have gone ahead with it and ended up paying well over the odds - caveat emptor etc. I do worry that others may have been caught in that way.

Doesn’t hide the fact that prices are due to rise significantly but does show the risk that, expecting dramatic rises, some may accept more cost than they need.

How many living in your house? I live in a 4 bed, and last month there was one other person living in it full time and another for a week and my electric useage was 8.5 kw per day. That seems a lot less than yours unless yours is an average across the year?

@BarbaraofSeville good to hear that about octopus, I don't think they are taking on variable rate customers at the minute, but I'll keep them in mind, thanks

@SwelegantParty I'm assuming eon and eon next are the same company/ parent company, and unfortunately I've had the opposite experience with them, albeit a fair few years ago.