Anyone’s electricity bills not going crazy?

[ThatsNotMyCrown]

I want to start by saying this isn’t a boast post.

I keep seeing everyone saying their electricity bills are sky rocketing to exorbitant levels, but mine haven’t. I don’t have gas, I have oil (which has gone ridiculously expensive) but my monthly electricity bills have barely changed. Everywhere I look it’s in the press that bills are going to be thousands of pounds, people on Facebook are talking about washing clothes in their bathtubs room save on bills. People on here saying they make £60,000 a year but can’t afford the lights on. But is this for everyone? I can’t work out if I’m the odd one out that my electricity bills haven’t gone crazy, or if it’s just that the people who are speaking out are the ones who have the issue and most people don’t and aren’t entering the discussion?
like I said, I’m not boasting, I’m just trying to work out if I need to start panicking about my bills for the future?

I'm the same. Also oil. My electricity bill DD went up a few months ago, but the recent prediction is tgat it'll go up by £102 a year. The £67 a month discount covers my bill (for now)

Ours are only predicted to go up £20 a month based on past usage, I don't really understand it tbh.

A lot of people are being asked to pay very high direct debit amounts that bear no relation to their actual usage.

For example we’re £32 in credit and our bills are £80-90 a month but Shell is recommending we raise our DD to £215.

The price guarantee has stopped the huge October rise that was expected plus the £400 payment (6x£66) is being applied the electricity accounts so that's also helping prevent a huge increase straight away.

I think some people who mention the particularly high monthly new direct debits were probably already in debt to their supplier. Their new amount is partly a debt repayment only they choose not to mention that when telling everyone how high their monthly bill will be.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got my gas and electric bill this morning.

I pay quarterly and the last one (not estimated) was £779.51 and this morning's one was £406.63.

Having said that it's a bit confusing because there was 4 months exactly between the £779.51 bill and the previous one, but there's only 2 months between today's one and the previous.

Same OP.

Mine were predicted to go up £1.50 a week. That's a prepayment meter.

I don't get it!

(However food prices have gone mental!!)

Ours are going up £11 a month based on previous usage and we've always been a bit eager to put the electric fire on so I'm surprised really.

I luckily got a fixed deal last October for 2 years so this time next year I'll be worrying. We have gas and electric. I pay about £110 a month and we're already doing loads to reduce it now.

Are you on a fixed tariff? As if so that'll be why.

It's those that couldn't fix when their tariff ended and are on variable that are seeing the huge increases I believe.

We are currently fixed so ours haven't changed, but when our tariff ends they will shoot up to 'current' prices and we will be struggling if things haven't improved by then.

Yes, mostly this.

My combined gas and electricity dd was just over £100 a month and I had built up about £150-200 of credit. But my supplier wants the dd to go to £200+ per month. Its only gone to £140 because of the £67 discount and I'm hoping that by the end of November, I'll be able to show I'm getting even more in credit and drop it down. I'd insist on it but I'm not desperately stretched so I'll leave it a couple of months.

My electric bill has gone down this month. It’s been crazy was 190 last December went down to 110 in March up to 253 in Junenow back on 190.

Mine are lower than I expected (actual bills) and I've had the heating on timed and been submitting weekly. I do agree about some people being in minus on some occasions , but not wanting to say and I totally agree that the suppliers are all for boosting their cash flow to what they think the customer will pay- rather than it necessarily bearing relation in plenty of cases to the actual bill-- this makes them money- they invest all that money daily on money markets- it doesn't just sit there!!!

Finally some people talking a bit of sense.

there’s been a huge overreaction in the media over recent months and on here re gas & electric

just because companies want you to put up your DD it doesn’t mean you have to. People have been careful about their usage for years

the issue to worry about is mortgage rates! Especially if your deal is coming to an end

now while I do love Martin Lewis I watched him today and I really feel like he is spreading panic and fear!!! Not helped by his talking speed!!!

Are you on an old fix?

About 80% of people aren't, so are paying price cap rates.

The unit rates for this are approximately twice what they were a year ago. For electricity it's 34 p a unit and the daily standing charge is also much higher.

Before it all went crazy, people were paying around 15 p a unit or so. That's what we were paying when we were with Avro, who went bust about a year ago.

You're not comparing your most recent (summer) bills with the year round picture are you? If so, shall we come back in about February next year, to see how you're getting on?

Ours are staying sensible too - however our supplier seems furious about it. They've been out to inspect our meter as our readings seem "too low" even though we've been with them 14 years and the readings are in line with usage for the duration of our time with them

My DD is £ 12 a month now the govt is paying £ 66 a month, and I'm £ 70ish in credit; EON dual fuel SVR rate for a one bedroom flat. Must admit to being surprised it's that low.

We have a big roomed old house and work from home.

It looks as if our gas and electric bills will be up about £500/year AFTER the £400 rebate having plugged our consumption into Moneysaving expert.

I begrudge paying Shell so much money, so we're paying more attention to what we're using.

We are probably paying 3x as much as we were on a fixed tariff 18 months ago (so we have had gradual price hikes ever since).

If people have smart meters, their provider should have accurate monthly consumption stats. If you are submitting readings double check to make sure you are broadly on track and submit revised readings for 1October ASAP.

In 2020 we paid £101 a month for gas & electric. At that point our electricity was 12.18p per KWh, under the new price cap it is c 34p - so our electricity costs have almost trebled. We were paying 2.17p per kwh of gas in 2020 - the cap is now c 10p, almost 5 times’ higher. Standing charges are also much higher.

Anyone not on a cheaper fixed rate will either need to pay a lot more, or use less (and still pay more). We’ve cut our electricity usage back (hardly use tumble dryer, oven on less often) but we barely used the heating anyway.

Were not on fixed and our direct debit is staying the same as well.
Our projected usage is showing as an extra £150 per year 🤷‍♀️

Fixed mine months ago before all this kicked off,.fix ends in August next year so I'm fine

With the £66 credited to my account my dd had gone down to £45.....just electric. The oil tank cost £500 for half a tank should last all winter.

So many people don't understand how energy bills work though. Many will be £££ in credit because their DD was so high in the first place. They have no idea of what they actually use.

How many people have you read here that have built up 1k+ in credit because they wanted to mitigate the price rises, but all you're doing is giving the energy companies the interest. Keep it in savings/premium bonds fgs, don't just hand it to them early.

Personally, and I'm really exception rather than the rule as I live alone, I've reduced my usage and just about flatlined with last year from being less extravagant, rather than depriving myself.

We got moved over to shell energy in January after our other company went bust.

Straight away they wanted to put our DD up from £150 to £285 which we did thinking we could hopefully build a small buffer for winter.

Well did a metre reading on Friday, they have massively been overestimating our usage and we are nearly £400 in credit.
So now our DD can come down.

Thinking we will leave things as they are and come Jan/feb we will see how the land lies since we haven't actually put the heating on yet.

Mine are estimated to be up by a third from not-much to a bit-less-not-much. Live in a well insulated, smallish, modern build with other properties around us although do have 2 quite large outside walls. Don't have anything that guzzles electricity. Large TV has been living in its box since we moved house twice which helps. Our gas bill estimate isn't that big in the grand scheme of things either but is still a bit shocking for the amount of gas we use to cook and to heat this place and don't even use the oven.

However, I have family members and friends with larger houses (that meet their needs, before anybody starts yes they are very lucky etc. blah blah) that have more outside walls and larger ones, medical equipment that is always on, medical needs to be warm, etc. - some or all of these things - and their bills are astronomical and we are trying to work out ways to get them down a bit more without affecting quality of life too much. People can't just move house overnight to deal with a multi-thousand rise in their fuel bills, even if their needs could even be met with a smaller place, and moving is expensive too. So I have sympathy whether someone's got a big/old/expensive house or not.