My gas & electric costs is crippling me.

[ColinRobinsonsfamiliar]

I know it’s the same for everyone.
Its gone from £180 per month for both to £490 per month.
3 bedroom semi.
This is more than our mortgage.

I’m planning on seeing how the bills are until January then will reassess the monthly payments.
We have stopped using the dryer, turned heating down, switching off switches, filling a bloody flask with hot water instead of boiling the kettle, only doing one laundry load every other day, drying on the radiators.
Trying to pick up extra shifts.

I don’t know how long we can keep our heads above water.

Is this it now? Is this life for ever?

Some suppliers are not adjusting direct debits for the £400, but each month refund the £66/£67 a couple of days after each months direct debit is taken.

@Mummyoflittledragon
Please can you tell me more about the 500w heaters?

We were shifted to Shell when our supplier went bust last year.

We had an email last week explaining what our new DD would be. From this month they are deducting £66/month iro £400/month.
They are still planning to up the DD because our usual usage has been above the hypothetical cap.

You have the heating on for 12 hours a day and pay no more than £4 a day? If its set at 20, it must be on all day by now, unless you're in southern Spain.

Does anyone know the REAL reason why we are facing these prices alongside the reason why these companies are making billions of profit from this situation?

Have you worked out how much actual energy you have used in units over the last year?

When you have those figures, you will then be able to work out your projected bill for the year.

We are a family with 2 kids. Our estimate for this year is nearly £7k. We are querying it. It's disgusting. I am so sick of hearing how most families will pay around £2.5

I don't know what to do.

help.bulb.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/115003394031-Getting-a-refund-for-credit-in-your-account

Bulb says to email them. What amount were you trying to set the direct debit to?

Most families won't pay £2500. The 'average' household as described by Ofgem has 2.4 people living in it and uses 2,900 kWh of electricity and 12,000 kWh of gas. This works out at 242 kWh of electricity and 1,000 kWh of gas per month.

If you have more people in the house and the house is larger then you will use more than the average amount

The maths of direct debits is very simple - as long as you know your usage last year.

Look at what your meter readings were a year ago.
Look at your current readings

Look at the price of the energy price guarantee you are on.
Use that to work out the cost of your energy for the next year.

Take off the £400 you will get from the Government
If you are in debit, then you need to add that to the projected cost
If you are in credit, then deduct that from your projected cost.

Divide the projected cost by 12 and that's your monthly DD payment.

This assumes your usage for the last 12 months (from now) is going to be the same as the next 12 months. If you notice that your projected usage seems to be going down (year on year change), then you should be able to alter your DD.

How much energy have you used in KWH over the last year?

Look at your readings for Sept 21 and then Sept 22.

That will tell you how much energy you have used for the last year.

ColinRobinsonsfamiliar yes, it'd be handy to know how much your annual usage is to assess if their prediction is reasonable. Our annual bill moving forward is assessed as just 3x was it originally was, so £490 could be right if your high users. If you are high users and aren't sure why, we can all have a look at it further with you to work out why you're using more than a lot of us would.

Bulb sent us an assessment on 1 Oct stating how much our monthly payment would be moving forward. They stated our next payment wouldn't be reduced, but from November onwards it'd be cheaper. They've now taken our monthly payment and it's already at the lower amount (ie after £67), so the sum of £490 might have the £67 taken off - even so it'd be a high amount to pay.

AutumnalCosyness that's an excessive amount. What's your annual usage.

@Sunshineandrainbow

These. I’ve only just bought them. They’re supposed to be very energy efficient and recycle heat bla bla. No idea if this is true or not. But 500 watts is low energy intake and they are programmable so I am thinking a quick blast before bed as well as first thing when the winter hits. At just over £30 for 2, I thought it was worth a try. www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BFZWCNQQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

The 'price cap' - which is the quoted average use - is based on usage.

Usage in an 'average' house - is based on a yearly usage of:

Electricity - 2900 KWH
Gas - 12,000 KWH

You need to know how much energy YOU have used in the last year. You can get this by comparing 2 readings a year apart.

If you know that, you can predict what your bill will be for the next year.

only doing one laundry load every other day, drying on the radiators.

Can you dry it outside on fine days?

What a skinflint. I think that is quite rude if you have guests staying.

Some of these reactions if OP has her heating. You would think she has killed Bambi for god's sake.

As pps will have said, cancel your direct debit and pay for what you use.

I'm with bulb- yesterday I was £729 in credit- I just started the online chat and requested £500 back , it will be with me within 10 days max but he said it's often much much sooner . Also had a refund back in July when I had more credit on the account. I've found th em very easy to deal with . Sounds like your energy use is sky hight thiugh for that amount- we pay £150 a month- they originally wanted 270.

That doesn't help if her DD is accurate.
It just means some massive bills over winter.

She needs to know - and if she wants, to post her actual usage over the last year. That will enable her to take control and to see if the DD is reasonable or not.

what you can do instead of a monthly direct debit averaged out over the year is to ask for a monthly bill of your actual usage. Obviously you’ll need to pay more January and February, but at least then you’ll pay what you actually owe rather than a hyped up figure

do you know how much electric and gas you used Jan and feb this year to calculate for the same months in 2023 at the raised price?

I had a similar issue with British Gas increasing the direct debit and not being able to lower in online. I called them and the Agent was able to do this for me.

I cancelled my direct debit with bulb. Stopped paying until my credit had paid the next few bills then phoned them up and told them what I wanted to pay. So now I only pay what I use and they don't have a large chunk of my money just sat on their accounts.

Still havent put purs on yet. Central Scotland so probably wont be able to hold off much longer but so far its heated blankets and extra layers.

I've lowered my DD with bulb right down to use up the credit.