£760 per month for energy!

[Veuvelily]

Dear God
It was £323.
There are 2 people living in this house

@VanGoghsDog have you tried changing your DD via other means?
With British Gas I was unable to change it to a sensible amount online, and with first customer service agent. Tried again and someone finally changed it. Sorry if you've already mentioned this.
Also not sure how much of a discount you get with DD

@VanGoghsDog
Not the same but I had trouble with BG when they wrongly billed me as a business when I moved here in 2010. They installed a new meter in 2012. It was still being argued by bosses at Centrica in 2015 even though I had moved to NPower in 2013.
I kept all the emails and emailed them to charge for my time in sorting the mess. They settled with wiping the business bill and wiping the domestic bill that should have replaced it. They sent a cheque for £300 which they later said should not have been awarded as they don't pay for a customer's time in sorting out errors. I took them to the County Court (cost £68) with printed copies of all their emails and through the FOI their recorded phone calls with me, CAB (that one was 2.5 hrs) and the Ombudsman. They were informed of the date, didn't turn up and I won by default £4251. No idea why such an odd amount but there you have it.
If you're sure of your facts you will always win.
Do not despair.

[quote FoundYouThen]@VanGoghsDog have you tried changing your DD via other means?
With British Gas I was unable to change it to a sensible amount online, and with first customer service agent. Tried again and someone finally changed it. Sorry if you've already mentioned this.
Also not sure how much of a discount you get with DD[/quote]
It's not a case of getting a discount for paying by DD as such. It's that DD is a condition of the fixed rate.

But, yes, I have tried online, spoken to them on the phone. I've now contacted them for a second time on Twitter. I'll see how that goes then try again after my next reading which I intend to take on 31st (am doing every two weeks now).

[quote LoisLane66]@VanGoghsDog
Not the same but I had trouble with BG when they wrongly billed me as a business when I moved here in 2010. They installed a new meter in 2012. It was still being argued by bosses at Centrica in 2015 even though I had moved to NPower in 2013.
I kept all the emails and emailed them to charge for my time in sorting the mess. They settled with wiping the business bill and wiping the domestic bill that should have replaced it. They sent a cheque for £300 which they later said should not have been awarded as they don't pay for a customer's time in sorting out errors. I took them to the County Court (cost £68) with printed copies of all their emails and through the FOI their recorded phone calls with me, CAB (that one was 2.5 hrs) and the Ombudsman. They were informed of the date, didn't turn up and I won by default £4251. No idea why such an odd amount but there you have it.
If you're sure of your facts you will always win.
Do not despair.[/quote]
They don't owe me any money though. They will soon, if they keep taking £466pm though. This month is the first DD at that rate.

I know it will sort itself out, but I'd rather the money was in my bank than theirs. It'd be fun to charge them for my time, I am self employed as well as employed so my time really is money.

(FOI wouldn't have got you call data - an SAR would)

23/03/2022 10:41 SirSidneyRuffDiamond

A friend had just tried to fix and was quoted just over £1900 per month, for a 5 bedroomed house 😱“

That has to be an error, surely?

@Waxonwaxoff0

How are these bills so expensive? Mine is £80pm!

Not really baffling. Even before kids when both working full time we paid more than £80 per month combined.

Now I’m home all day, we have a hot tub, I use the tumble dryer daily, have heated bathroom floors etc etc. Some families just use a lot more 🤷🏼‍♀️

@MrsSkylerWhite

23/03/2022 10:41 SirSidneyRuffDiamond

A friend had just tried to fix and was quoted just over £1900 per month, for a 5 bedroomed house 😱“

That has to be an error, surely?

Nearly £24,000 a year for gas and electric? For a standard house with 5 bedrooms???

Nope ... I don't believe it.

@absolutelymental

Look at what other countries governments have done to halt this and what ours haven't done.

This country gets what it voted for.

If you're referring to France, Macron is in an election year so he's ordered EDF to take the hit. He's not funding that from public funds, so EDF will end up hiking prices next year to get it back.

@MrsSkylerWhite

23/03/2022 10:41 SirSidneyRuffDiamond

A friend had just tried to fix and was quoted just over £1900 per month, for a 5 bedroomed house 😱“

That has to be an error, surely?

Current fixes are very expensive, well above the April 22 price cap, which on its own is more than double the best fixed rates from around a year ago.

If they were paying £4-500 pm then, then it's not inconceivable to be looking at £1900 pm for a fix now.

There was a thread a few weeks ago where the ops MIL insisted on keeping an electric heater on 24/7 leaving them with a £10k pa bill.

Usage like that plus a hot tub, heavy tumble dryer use, an Aga, electric showers and maybe a couple of gaming PCs and you can see how it could reach that amount.

@BarbaraofSeville

If you come off a very good fix on 31 March and go straight onto the new variable cap it's perfectly possible that your costs could double

Exactly. We were paying £94 pm, which was about right for our usage and based on a fix we took out in February 2021. Build in all the increases and by April I expect it to be around £200 pm for the same usage.

This whole energy crisis has highlighted how poor the general understanding of the cost works is

I know. I've seen endless threads on here where people seemed completely oblivious that the £60 pm they agreed to a year ago wasn't 'all you can eat' and now they're facing increases in April 2021, October 21 and April 22 so a more than 100% doubling in the unit cost, a standing charge that's also gone up a lot plus a three figure debt that they've built up so are surprised and upset that their energy company now want £300 pm off them because they've just signed up to a fix at 50% above the new price cap as they've missed months of Martin Lewis telling people not to fix without comparing unit rates because cheap fixes no longer exist and the least worst option now is to usually just roll over onto the price cap.

I hate how it's always advertised as "£x per month" and it being difficult to find out the unit rate and standing charge.

I found it interesting that the energy companies compare your postcode type thing.

This partially answers any disbelief about my supplier asking for a pie-in-the-sky £650/month.

Granted I’m Scotland and electric only, nonetheless even at hiked prices my usage figures indicate £200/month in winter… however, a friend with the same postcode spend £4K in one quarter about 5 years ago - her husband was apoplectic…

I refuse to play the direct debit game to save me a whopping 80p a quarter or whatever nonsense it is.

We fixed in October at around 25p per unit day and 15p per unit night, so we use about £150 per month but pay £180 because we know the hit will be bigger come the end of term in October and want to build a buffer.

I have no idea what the combined bill will be as we're on oil and prices are just so volatile. If we're lucky it's an extra £40-50 per month, on recent prices nearer £120-160 per month.

I hate how it's always advertised as "£x per month" and it being difficult to find out the unit rate and standing charge

It really isn't difficult, the information is always there on the same page or screen, or a click/page turn away.

We paid £96 for gas and electric this month. Family of 4, 2 teens so constantly charging devices. I work from home, don't have the heating on much as we have very good insulation. We are a year into a 2 year fixed price deal.

I just cannot fathom how you were even paying £300+ before the price rises! That's insane!

Just had estimated bill (Octopus energy) from December 23rd - March 23rd and they're saying we owe them £1,400 for gas for three months!!!! WTF.

I'm in shock, I could actually cry. I can't make sense of that. We use maybe a higher amount of gas than an averager user as we're a family of five, but I cannot believe this. It doesn't seem right. I've always had roughly a zero balance on my energy bills and now, with electric on top, I'm plunged into nearly £1,800 worth of utilities debt!

This just doesn't make sense. Surely working families cannot afford this.

TheDoveFromAboveCooCoo wow thats a good deal- have you checked how much electricity you use, with two teens I would say thats really cheap even before the hike

@Longclaw88

Just had estimated bill (Octopus energy) from December 23rd - March 23rd and they're saying we owe them £1,400 for gas for three months!!!! WTF.

I'm in shock, I could actually cry. I can't make sense of that. We use maybe a higher amount of gas than an averager user as we're a family of five, but I cannot believe this. It doesn't seem right. I've always had roughly a zero balance on my energy bills and now, with electric on top, I'm plunged into nearly £1,800 worth of utilities debt!

This just doesn't make sense. Surely working families cannot afford this.

Do you not submit monthly readings to Octopus? I'm asked for my readings each month and when you submit them they give an updated balance almost immediately. Have you checked the estimated meter readings against the actual readings to see if they are accurate?

I'm trying to start a collective group action on these prices . If we all didn't pay our bills it would force these companies to bring prices down . We would need to stick together to make this work .

Cancel your dd and submit meter readings. Pay for what you use. I've just done this and my bill has plummeted. I had a look at reinstating the DD but the monthly payment estimate is nonsensical compared to my bill for what I've actually used. Means you have to submit meter readings and be organised but...

Even with the biggest house we have rented— 5 bed stone semi- dreadful insulation as was a converted pub our highest combined electric/gas use was £290 a month and that’s with WFH and we like it warm - however and it’s big however sort that hot water thing out— we are in Denmark at moment and had a humongous £3500 6 monthly winter bill due to underfloor in the bathroom that never went off— it basically could be off/on and it was far too cold if ‘off’ — this has now been sorted and thermostat put in and difference in Bill is it’s halved. I’m not a plumber but I wonder if having hot water on fulltime is a big part of the issue— would be cheaper to pay a £75 call out and get a plumber /heating engineer to run through it in layman’s terms

I honestly think they are making it up on estimates and DDs — lots of nice cash in bank- great for cash flow.

@Crikeyalmighty

I honestly think they are making it up on estimates and DDs — lots of nice cash in bank- great for cash flow.

And they can invest it/get interest I think estimates are way out.

I'm with bankrupt Bulb. Mine was £40 pm, both electric & gas, now it's £115. I'm frugal though. In a new build 4 bed house so well insulated. I very rarely put gas CH on, maybe 4 times this winter, just layer up & have a throw. My kids are grown, must be a nightmare to keep children warm. Next winter will be terrible, as rates are going up again in October. How are people on fixed incomes supposed to cope, you cannot just magic up another £100 pm.

[quote Hugasauras]@VanGoghsDog Quite probably a system boiler with a pressurised tank like a Megaflo . Common in bigger houses with multiple bathrooms as you get better water flow than with a combi. With a system boiler you do time the water to come on and off, but tbh we used to leave it on all the time and it didn't make a massive difference to our bills or usage. Megaflos do often have an immersion switch should your boiler fail which can be v expensive though if you accidentally leave that on! [/quote]
That's exactly the system my BIL put in in the last house he extended/redeveloped. The house was huge (5 beds plus an annexe)

The hot water cylinder was massive and had good enough pressure to run all 5 showers simultaneously without any problems. But it was also incredibly well insulated, and after it had reheated the water in the morning after everyone had had their showers, it was still warm enough for most purposes before it came on again in the evening.

They were paying £120 a month last year and were in credit when they moved out last autumn. Even if it was double the cost now it would still only be £240. That was for 4 people, all electric cooking and using a washing machine, tumble drier and dishwasher daily.

@Longclaw88

Just had estimated bill (Octopus energy) from December 23rd - March 23rd and they're saying we owe them £1,400 for gas for three months!!!! WTF.

I'm in shock, I could actually cry. I can't make sense of that. We use maybe a higher amount of gas than an averager user as we're a family of five, but I cannot believe this. It doesn't seem right. I've always had roughly a zero balance on my energy bills and now, with electric on top, I'm plunged into nearly £1,800 worth of utilities debt!

This just doesn't make sense. Surely working families cannot afford this.

Read your meter and check whether their estimated reading is much higher than the actual. It could be simplyu that they've overestimated.

If you post the readings (previous and current) and the price per kwh, I'll gladly work it out for you. I'm with Octopus too, so the cubic metre/kwh conversion rate will be the same as mine, I'm sure.