Is anyone NOT paying as much for gas and electric as they thought?

[GasAndElec1]

I am aware that this issue is really affecting a lot of people and genuinely this is in no way a post to rub anything in. I'm concerned that something is wrong with the way provider is calculating what I'm using because my gas and electric doesn't seem to have gone up at all.

I am not on a fixed rate tariff. I'm with e.on who for ages recently were changing their system to e.on Next which meant I was unable to use their portal for a while or put in metre readings, I couldn't even use it to up my direct debit so was expecting when it finally finished that I'd be in a lot of debit with them as I'd just been paying the same as I always had prior to the April increase.

Anyway, the system move has been completed for a while now and I've been putting metre readings in and I'm still in a lot of credit on both electric and gas and I'm just a bit confused about it.

We live in a 3 bedroom with 3 kids and me and DH, I've been on maternity too so been home a lot and we were sort of bracing ourselves for a huge issue. We pay £70 a month for electric and £100 for gas, that's what we were paying prior to April and it appears it's still enough (I appreciate it'll go up again in Oct).

It just worries me that something has gone wrong when I see people talking about spending hundreds and hundreds every month. It seems like we're the only people who don't appear to have been massively affected by the increase and it's worrying me that they'll suddenly notice an error and go 'oops now you owe us hundreds'.

Is anyone else finding they aren't paying as much as they thought they would be after the April increase?

We are with British Gas and I have changed my direct debit loads of times, I just check if it looks on track and if not change it, the actual bill is only twice a year I think but I have changed my DD 3 times this year so far

I moved at the end of last year and live alone in a 2 bed house. Initially paid £60pcm for gas and electricity, but dd was reduced to £40 after I built up £150 credit by April. Modern 20yr old semi detached house.

My direct debit (£47) hasn’t gone up since I went onto the standard tariff either. We still have a few months of credit that we aren’t eating into so o guess there’s no need to put it up yet.

You should be in credit for your gas because it’s summer so you build a buffer ready for winter
tbh sounds like you were paying to much before and now could be paying the right amount
however impossible to say when we don’t know usage or rate per kwh

We're on a standard rate with SSE atm. We had fixed but was far too expensive to go to fixed when we had to renew in January.

As it stands they say we have £269 credit in Electric and £228 in credit for Gas. DP pays £75 each per month.

I know we won't have so much credit soon when the summer is over. Apparently from March-June we used £110 gas 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I did the same and I'm with Octopus.
I pay a combined bill of £143 pm but that's on a fixed rate.
If I didn't, my monthly bill would be £430+ (can't recall the exact amount. I was too busy choking on the letters W, T, and F when they presented me with their absurd figure).
I will say one thing, I am a happy Octopus customer. If you can't pay the suggested (ridiculous) amount, they will go easy and let you stick with the fixed rate.

Mine's gone up about £15 for combined. I am on prepayment and still pay way less than most I know. Mainly because I actually pay what I use, not some random overinflated guesstimate

@WinterMusings

i don’t mind you asking
I’m not poor, I have no mortgage and have no debts and live a relatively easy stress free life The cost of living isn’t going to affect me

I mean it will but I can afford the extra cost - if I couldn’t I wouldn’t have just bought a hot tub

It was there when I bought the house years ago and I was skint back then 😂and I’ve never bothered to change it even though I’m no longer skint .

I prefer pre pay because even though it’s a bit more expensive - I can control what I pay and I won’t ever go into debt or get a massive bill
My gas is also on a pre pay bill .

And after reading what some people are paying by DD mine seems to be way cheaper
if I didn’t have the hottub the increase would have been around £5 a week and that included 56p a day standing charge

@Bubblebubblebah

same here - people are always surprised when I say I’m on a pre pay and it’s only gone up by a fiver for electric

Pre pay you only pay what you use & no debt
even with the daily standing charge of 56p my electric bill is way cheaper than pretty much everyone I know who is on DD

When the tariffs increased in April we got an email to say that although the tariff's had gone up, our direct debit wouldn't change until our next review (Oct) unless we chose to increase ourselves (we're on standard variable with EDF and were in credit at our last review in March) - so we did up it. Seems like we are paying a lot more than most but we can afford what we are paying now and hopefully will build up a buffer for winter/when the prices increase again in October.

We are with octopus for electricity and our direct debit has increased from £65 pcm to £85 pcm ... not as horrific as expected but I'm prepared for it to worsen.

Oil costs (no gas here) are horrendous !

Hasn’t it “not gone up” because it’s summer and you are basically not using any gas?

Usually people who pay by DD accumulate a surplus in the summer. That will either be vastly reduced or wiped out altogether this year. Then come autumn gas will be even more expensive on top.

Yeah, the standing chanrge doubled for me, but the rest moved very little. I am on variable and it's never costed me more than people I know. And yes! They are all surprised. I think it's because whenever you hear about prepay people always talk about how much more expensive it is etc. The difference is not that big. If anything units are cheaper than dd but standing charge is bigger. All certainly cheaper than cash payment thing.

Well OP I am very glad you posted this when they refunded me I double checked the bill and all looked fine. Except it was saying estimated readings I'd already questioned this as we have a smart meter and the chat said it was fine.

Just gone into the account and my latest bill has just been posted with a usage of 0. There's 5 of us I've been doing energy saving measures but I doubt we have been that efficient. Turns out that they never did the connection thing they need to do with the smart meter!

So I've raised a complaint as that should have happened in March 21 and I was told everything was sorted for the move not to worry 🤦‍♀️

Luckily I'd put the refund they sent in an account and not touched it....looks like they will be getting that back!

Me! We've been with Eon (now Eon Next) on a non-fixed contract for 12 years, and for 10 of those we only paid £69 per month for gas & electric (3 bed semi, 2 adults 2 children). About 2 years ago, it went up to £99 per month. We got a smart meter so started to know what was "normal" usage for us over the year. When the prices jumped up a few months ago, it rose to £149 per month (still wayyyyy below what I see other people paying for similar properties) but we are now in credit on our account & based on our Smart Meter we are only using £80-90 worth a month, so I am happy to overpay for now, but our bills should go down. We don't scrimp on what we use, but we are sensible. Same with food, I shop online with Sainsburys and have only noticed a very small increase (£5 or so) per week to our food costs. I am aware how lucky I am as, in addition, I don't drive and can easily walk to work/school/shops etc and my partner works at sea for months at a time, so fuel prices have barely impacted us. I really feel for people it's hit hard.

I've done the same. Paying more in the summer than I usually do to try and cover winter. Hoping it will equal out overall and the monthly payments will stay the same. It did last year, but this year is very different. May not work..

Us. We came off a fixed rate tariff on the 30th May and have just had the statement for our first months usage at the new cost. Admittedly we’ve made an effort to cut back on usage but nothing that’s caused us any problems. The total is less than the same period last year. On a smart meter so should be accurate. Our monthly payments have almost doubled so now we have a hefty credit balance.

Mine has only just increased this month with EDF from £250 to £480 a month. Only billed twice a year with a monthly DD. So it’s been in debit since mid Jan I think and the increased DD is to cover the debit and the increase. I was expecting it but I think the way a lot of utilities companies bill is deliberately not clear and can be distressing for customers.

It's summer. It's warm and light. Your gas bill looks a bit high TBH.

Are you giving them meter readings?

Yes they increased it after a meter reading taken before my June bill. We have a large home and were expecting the huge increase. We are very energy efficient, have lots of insulation etc. My point was that some companies have not made the change to DD until now for some reason. My Jan bill said they would not be increasing my DD but I knew that was not realistic.

At the moment mine has increased from around 90 to £112-120. I have made significant changes to reduce usage though. I don't want to think about winter currently. I will not increase my DD to the £250 my provider wants. I just prefer to pay the excess over my £90 DD so I'm paying for what I'm actually using. I simply couldn't afford to raise it to that amount. I'm hoping we can manage to scoot through winter without getting too much into debt.

Me, ok it's summer but we are still under £100 a month, no more than the same time last year

Mine stayed the same at review. I must have been in credit.

With Octopus, our DD jumped from £78 to £163, however this month we used £70 gas and electric and now Octopus have suggested dropping DD to £151, but for the sake of £10 im leaving it!