To ask how much your water bill is

[someoneseatenmyapple]

Had our water bill yesterday. Direct debit is massively different from what we should be paying. Rang Southern Water Yesterday and they think we should be paying £66 a month (10 months). We have been paying £15.

Partly my fault for glossing over the previous 2 bills (we only went on to a water metre a year and a half ago) but a bit bloody annoyed they have only just flagged this up with me. We now owe them just over £900.

So a new direct debit of £66 - which does not take into consideration the debit - the guy was waffling on about capped payments and if I wanted to I could leave the direct debit at £15 but it would take me longer to pay the debt off (why leaving the payment at £15 would put us into more debt?).

We are a family of 3 (2 adults, 1 teen).

Should I take this up with them again/OFWAT?

They say this is normal use age for a family of 3 and it's unlikely we have any leaks.

Apologies, ours is per half year! Not per quarter.

Two adults and two tall teens (somfour adults really), around £60 per month

£49 a month 3 adults 1 child on a metre. No baths only showers.

Around £35 a month but I am cautious of what we use.

Wow we pay nearly £100 a month (£49 usage and £47 sewerage), 2 adults and 2 teens Essex, started a thread about it previously, can’t understand why we are so high on a meter.

Affinity water with a water meter here, we pay £23 per month for a family of 5 and I think we owed just over a pound on our last bill.

But it does really depend on your water company as they are vasts differences in costs of water between them. And unlike any other utility you can't switch to a different/cheaper supplier.

Ours is about £18 a month now I think (2 adults). It would be less if DH could remember to turn off the taps every time! Before we were put onto a meter, our bills were a lot higher, in the region of £50-£60 a month.

I pay £77 a month 😣

Rather than comparing prices you need to compare units used.

I’ve had a look for our most recent bill but it must have come in before our last shredding session.

We are on a meter and I know our six monthly bill is around £150-160 usually. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, irrigation system in garden, fish tank, dishwasher etc etc. DD is at uni but comes home most weekends. DH and I often shower twice (in the morning and then again after exercise), DS showers as often as we can make him. Loo is flushed after EVERY use. Dishwasher once a day, washing machine averages as once a day. We don’t scrimp with water but we don’t waste it either.

We’ve been on a meter for 20 years. Water rates for my neighbour in an identical property are currently around £450 pa so we definitely save money.

About $35 (roughly 27 quid) per month, average use 1000 cubic feet or so. That's for 2 adults and 2 teens, one of whom loves a long shower.

I am on a water meter, and pay £15 a month,for 1 person 3 bed house,, but i use a lot of water as i have 3 indoor cats and wash litter trays out very other day, and fill water bowls every day, plus mop my laminate and kitchen floor every day

It's so unfair.
I'm on £70 a month. It's my biggest bill. And i will probably have to make an extra payment at the end of summer. Southwest Water rates are astronomical

About £500 a year. Two people, small house, no bath, no kids. Metred.

But that's bloody South West Water for you.

We pay for the misfortune of having that long long coastline.

We are southern water and pay £55 per month for 2 adults and 2 children.

We pay £90 a month. Maybe we have a leak...

We pay £30 per month on a meter for two adults.

£50 per month so £600 per annum. 2 adults (one works away a lot) and 2DC under 5. Kids share a shallow ish bath at night and we shower once a day. The dishwasher and washing machine are on quite a lot of the time. No leaks that we know of and I'm very conscious of not leaving taps running etc.
It has gone up quite consistently for the last few years even though we're now all out of the house all day.

The trouble with direct debits on metered water bills is that the water company is always making a prediction in order to set the amount.
They are predicting your future consumption because it can be up to 6 months time before the meter reading team are in your area again.
So they look at your past readings and judge that your consumption will be similar going forward.
Obviously if you either had no meter history or previously were underpaying then the new direct debit amount will be recovering the previous underpayment.
Every single drop of water coming into the house will be reflected in the bill. So don't leave toilet overflows running, taps dripping, garden taps running, leaky dishwashers or washing machines. Get them repaired.
You can also check for underground leaks between the meter in the street and your house (the service pipe is your responsibility). If you have very green or boggy patches in your garden where you haven't watered then you may have a leak. You can double check by turning everything off in the house and going out to the meter. Even if the there is not enough water going to waste to make the dials spin most meters have a spinning disc that indicates flow.
If you are paying for sewerage too then your sewerage side of the bill (or separate bill if you have that from a different company) will be billed on the basis of the water coming in. From memory 95% of water coming into the house goes back down the drains so for every 100 cubic metres coming in 95 cubic metres go down the drain. The price per cubic metre for sewerage is higher because waste water costs more to treat.
Look into allowances that your water company may provide to help reduce the bill and use water saving devices.
10 years in the water industry

About £13 a month. One adult, one child, live in a flat with no garden so no hosepipe etc, neither of us like baths. The only water we use is for the shower, cooking, washing machine and doing the dishes.

^ oops, I meant... Ended up in arrears because the £37 didn't cover the usage, not because we weren't paying it!

Currently £35 a month because we were a little in debit from last year, am expecting that to come down to about £30 once we're back in credit. 2 adults, 1 child and numerous animals in our house, on a meter and with South Staffs Water.

I pay £15/month for a single adult. (That said, it was only £19 when there were two adults.)

I am a water conscious user but I do often have 2 showers a day cos I gym after work and am humming (and not in a good way) when I get home from there.

Hi, hoping I can help here:
The £66 a month, is that not to clear your debt + putting money in the pot towards your next water bill? Your actual water bill per month could be closer to 40, but because you've accrued some debt its got to be higher for a while to pay that off. When the debt is paid off it can then go back down to only paying towards the next bill. Hope that makes sense.

Water meter. Varies between 700 and 1000 a year.

Also with very expensive South West Water too. We pay about £86 per quarter on a meter (2 adults) but we are VERY careful with water...shower and kitchen sink run off to flush loos, 3 water butts for the garden, no baths, very short showers etc.