Another energy / budget question please

[Decafflatteplease]

Hi all can someone advise on energy use please for me

So we currently pay £300 a month the same every month. We are currently using alot less than that (August and September bills were £170 each) so we have a build up of credit for winter.

We pay 30p per kWh for electric and 10p for gas.

We use around 4500kwh electric per year and 22000 of gas (very old boiler but no money to replace plus large old house)

If we get out use down how long would it take for them to change our direct debit?

I hear lots of people saying they can't afford heating but how do I know if we can?

Sorry if this sounds basic it's just so hard to get my head round, a prepayment meter would be easier I think as then you can see how much you have left although it's more expensive in the long run.

Can anyone advise thanks?

Id ask your energy supplier. Getting the wrong advice here could be a disaster.

Who are you with? I'm with Scottish Power and every time I submit a reading it revises our annual consumption figures and then you can drop the direct debit figure in line with that new reading all from the app. Do you have anything like that?

I think my supplier reviews the direct debit once a year. It's probably worth speaking to your supplier to find out what they do.

Use the MSE calculator to work out how much your energy costs per year.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/#calc

The other question is 'can you afford £300 pm'? If you can, you'll be fine, that looks like approximately the right amount for current prices, taking the £400 bill credit into account.

However, if prices rise next April, your bills will obviously go up, unless you get your usage down and/or you qualify for whatever 'targetted help' the Government comes up with.

As for reducing the DD, if you contact your supplier and ask for a reduced DD, or even do it yourself in your online account, it will change straight away. You might get some resistance from your supplier, who won't want you to get into debt, because they're probably concerned about increasing bad debt, but if you're determined to reduce your usage, you should be able to reduce what you pay.

The other thing to consider is that if you're currently paying 30 p for electricity, that looks like you're on a fix that will end at some point, then your costs will rise to about 34 p for electricity and there will be a slight increase in gas too as I think that's about 10.3 p per unit on the price cap.

I submit readings every month and Bulb raise an account a few days later. They seem to review my monthly payment monthly as the amount I can reduce my payment to constantly changes.