To ask many of you are trying to build a bit of balance with your energy supplier?

[Creditcrunchhh]

I’m quite worried about the winter and what it may bring…
I’ve been trying to build a bit of balance for the winter months, it’s currently at £300 but that will be nothing for the cold months.

can I ask how much more you have been paying to build a bit of extra up?

I'm £600 up on my gas and £300 up on my electricity, that's just with paying the recommended monthly direct debit ( but £260 a month for both,) Hopefully it will build up to a bit of a buffer but I'm still expecting a large bill at some point!

I’m paying £180 atm and building up a balence of about £40 per month. I should have about £200 by October which in previous years would have been enough to see me through but this year will be gobbled up in 2/3 weeks!

Yes we have since April. I worked out our new annual cost based on last years' use and increased the dd accordingly. We're £1000 up currently. I appreciate we're fortunate to have been able to do this.

I'm about £1300 in credit. I feel fortunate to be able to do this

I'm £400 in credit and have also worked hard at cutting our consumption. I've still got the £150 government money tucked away too, so that will go in the pot.

Currently paying £200 per month, against their recommendation of £180. Small increase I know.

We've got about 800 in credit . Heating normally goes on October but going to try and leave it until December.

Yep. As much as I preach to people check your usage against the prices before you up your DD we are £600 in credit. But this is through choice.

We are £1122.96 in credit. I wanted a smart meter but they keep fobbing us off. I worry what the bill will be.

We were £800 in credit, but EDF just sent it back to us as a surprise refund. I didn’t know energy companies did that!

We’re currently paying around £230 per month for gas and electric combined and that’s just about keeping us at break even point, where normally we’d be paying half that and have considerable credit built up ahead of the winter months.

We do have around £700 saved in our separate bills account to pay a lump sum if it’s needed.

No, I am deliberately trying to exhaust the credit.

The credit won't change the amount of money I'll have to pay in the winter. I'd rather it was sitting in my bank account until owed, not theirs.

Why are you letting the electric company gain interest on such a large Sum of money. Why not put it in an account and you get the interest?

No chance. I have £100 or so in credit die to an error a few months ago but any extra 'credit' will be staying in my own account, not theirs! I'll pay the bills when they come.

BG always do this with us , as soon as a meter reading is due if you’ve got more than a hundred in credit they send it back .

this. Start a savings account. Its like Park Hampers and similar....why not just save the money yourself?

If you can afford to build up credit then put that money into a savings account instead, you'll get interest! Credit in your energy suppliers account earns you nothing.
I'm deliberately paying only what I use and trying to build up my savings account ready for bigger bills to come this winter (energy, food, travel).

No - I'm a few hundred in credit. I'd rather pay the bills as they are incurred than let the utility companies hold a large credit balance.

I'm £457 in credit, i'm very lucky. Its a combination of using less over the summer plus the £150 council tax rebate and getting the warm home discount last year. Despite this octopus have told me to up my DD to £185 a month - i used to pay £124. I was able to change it down to £167 but they said if I want to lower it again I'd have to ring them, but I think I'll leave it. I will qualify for the cost of living payment so I will put that towards it too and hopefully that will tie me over until the end of the winter.

I’ll be about £400 in credit but October.

No, Im in debt with them, by the time the next quarter comes off, it will have cleared again but I would rather have a running debit, than credit

We pay 175pm

I have solar panels so only use about £1.50 a day of electricity in the summer and I only put the boiler on when I need to bath the kids (I prefer a cold shower in the summer) so currently I'm spending about £65 a month on gas and electricity. I'm expecting that to more than double in the winter so trying to build that into my budget.

We are about £200 in credit. if it was more l would take it back. I think that alone with the £400 from government will pay for our heating this winter

I worked out what our DD should be by looking at our actual usage over the last year - around 8000kWh for gas and 7000kWh for electricity - and multiplying it by the kWh price of our fixed rate tariff (remembering to add on standing charges of around £100pa for gas and £150pa for electricity) then divided it by 12.

So while I have £900 in credit at the mo, I'm only on course to break even once we're through winter.

Ovo pay up to 4% interest on credit balances up to a certain amount, too.

I’m about £550 in credit at the moment and paying about £50 over the recommended DD (I was paying the amount requested, but I’ve been using less and not changed the DD to build up more of a buffer).

I’m with Ovo though on an old style account and they pay me 5% on any credit balance, so I’m very happy to keep it there.

I am for electricity but Im putting it into Premium Bonds instead, I might win and if not its fairly easy to access when needed but wont be dipped into.

Im also paying a little too much directly to BG for my gas as it is much higher than it should be as I've had my bathroom and kitchen redone and last year I was using a gas oven and the boiler for baths but now I have an electric oven, hob, dishwasher and shower. So gas usage is less than £10 at the moment which is mostly standing charge and washing up water.