I am sick of feeling the cold. The electric bill is crippling me.

[SoleSource]

Freezing.

So I can turn heating off, i have hot water bottles all day.

sole source I'm trying to pm you but filing as I have no idea how to send am pm.........could you pm me then I could reply to it? Sorry for being a bit useless with the technology

failing

Hey, no probs elf . I'll do it now :)

"Can any of you with pre pay meters change? They sound like they use an extortionate amount!"

I agree. I have just checked our monthly bill. We pay about £3.50 a day for gas and electricity to heat radiators and water and power all of our electrical items for a 4 bedroom house. I only work two days a week and OH works from home and we don't hesitate to put the heating on in these kind of temperatures.

Can I suggest that those of you who rely on electricity for heating to get a convector heater. They are far cheaper to run than fan heaters, more efficient at heating a room and are thermostatically controlled.

We pay about £90 a month for gas and electric combined - home 4 days out of 5 and heating on constantly - we're in credit of about £300 with energy company. 4 bed detached house.

We paid more when we lived in a 1 bed flat with no central heating and were constantly freezing.

I pay monthly and last month's bill was £140 for gas and electricity. I'm dreading the next bill, its so cold we've had to put the heating on more than usual. How are people managing to keep their bills so low in 4 bed houses? We have a tiny 2 bed flat and keep the heating switched off as much as possible!

I'm odd, I prefer the cold to rain! I'd much rather be freezing than getting wet!

Fuel direct (payment taken direct from benefits) is not usually available to people with no debt and even then only if the person cannot physically top up a meter (or mentally capabe to do so)

Im putting a load into my gas meter atm but the flip side of that is during the summer I can get away with £5 a month.

I work for an energy supplier and even with my staff discount ha! and dd discount I would still rather a ppm for gas.

Pre pay here with storage heaters, I only have one storage heater on in the living room and one plug in electric one and keep the door shut so at least one room is ok. I use £30 PW at least with this weather

And Hydro do not change meters for free or without a credit check unless for specific reasons (disability medical equipment or if you are moving into a property that already has ppms installed and you previously paid bills)

"How are people managing to keep their bills so low in 4 bed houses?"

a) We switched supplier and have a direct debit with Utility Warehouse and pay the same every month
b) Our house is very well insulated
c) We don't have the heating on at night

We too have a DD , per month, of £90 for gas and electric and we thought that was bad. But according to this, that is nothing. And ours is permanently warm. Set at 19 degress 24/7.

Elfbambinos/solesource that tarriff/deal whatever you want to call it is called Fuel Direct and you can do it with all energy companies - well it's actually a government thing, you have to go through the benefits people to sort it out.

Do you know about the Warm Home Discount?

If you are on income support/jobseekers with a child under 5, or on certain disability related benefits, you can apply to your energy company for a £130 credit on your electricity bill/card/key this winter.

And, hot water bottles. I spend most days with one stuffed inside my jumper in this weather!

Oh and if you have a pre-pay meter, switch to Ebico - they charge the same price per unit to all customers however they pay

Fuel Direct is only available to those on ESA, income support, JSA, pension credit and one other one which has escaped me, and then normally as a form of debt management.
The amounts are calculated by usage + a minimum amount for arrears, you don't pay any less. Also only usually an option if prepayment meters aren't appropriate.
As far as I'm aware, none of the big 6 energy companies actually provide a tariff for people on benefits, although if there are health problems, elderly or young children in the property there are other benefits worth asking about.

I second checking if you qualify for the warm home discount scheme, I ran community surgeries on it last year and we qualified loads of people.

I'm fed up with my nose being bright red and constantly running, chilblains and bright red hands. Spending my day up against the storage heater as I can't be motivated to do anything!!
It massively sucks as does my near £300 a month electric bill

Our heating has gone off for the night and already it is freezing in here again. So I have thought bollocks, it is going on for the entire night (just this once cos we are all feeling miserable with the cold)

"It massively sucks as does my near £300 a month electric bill"

That's horrendous. Get a convector heater.

Also, if you are in Wales, have a look at the Nest website, if you have a hard-to-heat home you might qualify for help in improving its energy efficiency to help reduce your bills.

I earn 9k a year and that is too much for the social tariff, but it wasn;t any cheaper than the deal I was alread on.
I have the heating on as little as possible, but it's on for an hour or two a day just to keep the house at the temperature where I am not frozen.

Here you go people

www.gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme/overview