Another electricity one. Sse is going to tell the bank to increase my direct debit to £400.00 a month.

[coodawoodashooda]

Do I cancel the direct debit? Is there a penalty for not paying by direct debit. I can't possibly afford that.

it is easy to say you will cut back when it is august and the sun is shining.

British Gas seem to want me to lower my DD 🤦‍♀️

I upped it to £300, they recommended I lower it to £112 (paid £200 from April). Thinking it might be sensible to ignore their recommendation and actually up it to £400 to try and build up more credit for when it is even more extortionate in a few months

The price cap is higher for non direct debit- it's £3549 for DD, £3608 for prepayment and £3764 for standard credit (paying when you get the bill). So roughly an extra 6% to pay in arrears rather than DD.

By the way for everyone saying don't give them any money upfront, you'll be ££££ worse off - think about it. The money you give them now buys you gas at 8p a kwh (for example) - that maybe buys you two months of winter usage. Which you've paid todays rates for. Tell the energy company you're only paying for actual usage and that two months you would have had will end up costing you 20p a kWh when you actually use it.

Personally, I'd rather pay 8p than 20p.

Yes, we all have our heads in the sand, which is why there are literally no other threads on the subject

You’re spouting offensive codswallop, and frankly where has your head been if you think people who are ALREADY struggling pre-cap announcement, can just “give up luxuries”? We already have no sky / paid tv, haven’t been on a holiday since 2018, can’t remember the last meal we had out and new clothes… I mean if you count 2nd hand clothes from Vinted then ok, you’ve got me!

If I couldn’t afford to eat I wouldn’t be in the supermarket in the first place. I would also expect people to be complaining if supermarkets were charging 4 x the price of your ACTUAL spend to “build up credit” and saying “well, food prices are going up soon so shouldn’t you be saving?

Honestly it really fucking great that you can simply stop going out for swanky meals and change sky packages, but some of us have real fucking issues here, not just wondering what luxury to cut next.

I swear some people on this site… utter gimps.

That isn't how it works.

I have credit in my account. I have not already paid for my future usage. Come October 1st, that credit will disappear fast when my unit price increases, as that is when the gas is used. I pay the price at use, not tbe price that the money goes into the account.

Sadly that's not how it works. You're putting cash in account , not KWh, and will buy your units with that cash as you use them at the rate at the time.

The only way to pre-buy units is to make sure you charge your car and all your devices, and do several loads of washing the day before the prices go up - but that won't get you very far in the grand scheme of things.

My bill came in and my kw usage is higher than my winter one!! This can’t be right as it’s so hot and I’m hardly using any, certainly not more than I used in February. I tested the meter which seems ok and the provider can’t shed light on it but acknowledges it doesn’t seem to make sense. I’m feeling very worried because if my summer usage is higher than my winter how can I even start to reduce costs. My old provider was one that folded so I can’t look online at historical statements. I do know that my last and final bill from my previous one was half the usage this time last year 😕

@ScarlettDarling

Nobody who relies on wages can pay the kind of bills we are looking at in 2023.

The government will have to do considerably more than the £37billion they currently plan to give the energy companies over the next six months. It's their responsibility to protect us and our economy from situations like this.

Over the last decade the government should have been reducing our country's dependence on gas, and investing in renewable energy infrastructure to ensure energy security. Instead we are subject to the whims of markets and Putin.

It is the government's failure and their responsibility, and so must the remedy be.

Much as we will all try, and possibly may be successful in reducing our usage by as much as a quarter, the actions of individuals cannot solve this problem.

@FayeGovan

If its wrong why are people in credit who are good payers being asked to pay even more???

because people often end up in credit over the summer months and (at old prices) 'use up' that credit over the winter months using more fuel.

However, the cost (per unit used) of fuel having increased so much means that this credit will be nowhere near enough to cover the cost of their winter fuel. Therefore DD needs to be increased.l to cover it.

A lot of people will be trying to reduce the amount they use, but the prices have gone up so much, they're unlikely to be able to keep their usage low enough for their DD to cover their bills.

people going into a variable DD (paying by DD for their actual usage) are likely to get a huge shock. Especially if they feel they have drastically cut back on usage.

Me too, ours was upped to £260, they now recommend we reduce to £70. I'm leaving it as it is and building up as much credit as possible.

I was going to post a similar response but you beat me to it 👏👏👏
people like sooveritall now are offensive, entitled twerps..but then with a username like that it sums up there level of empathy

I agree with most of your analysis but you're overstating the case by saying that no wage earners can afford to pay for it, just as Sooveritall is understating it by saying that everyone could afford it if they just cancel Sky and buy less Starbucks.

ONS spending analysis from 2019 (before the pandemic holiday squeeze) suggests that half of households were spending between four and ten thousand pounds a year on holidays and restaurant/takeaway meals.

A large minority of "normal" households will be able to pay these bills if they simply cancel their holidays and weekly takeaways. But unless the Treasury intervenes massively I'd sell shares in Mark Warner and Centre Parcs asap.

Call them and say you can't afford it and try and come to an agreement.

In the first hikes they wanted to increase our from 90 to 300 and I rang and said I can't afford that and we met in the middle at £200.

I also think the energy companies are making those in credit pay rediculous amounts of dd to make up for those in debt now or those who might go into debt when it goes up again. It is very unfair. I am with Octopus and in credit and my dd went up to £450 pcm I rang and told them no it was too much. I used to pay £180 pcm last year. They did agree to lower dd to £350 but warned me my credit would run put and I would go into debt. I just told them I would pay at end of each month for what I used but was not prepared to pay ahead of using gas and electricity.

I never knew you could ask for this! So do you just pay what is on the bill rather than a set amount per month? We pay £75 each for gas and electric with SSE. We're on standard variable at the moment and they haven't said what our new DD will be 🙄.

Sometimes I really despair and feel very worried for people. Setting aside any future price increases, right now everyone’s dd (unless you have a big credit) will have to be significantly higher than actual usage as most people use double in the winter compared with the summer. If our dd only reflected your summer use how would the energy companies get paid for our winter use?

I'm happy to get a little in credit now so I don't have to find £700 to pay for January's use. I suppose I could keep it in savings but spreading it across the year makes sense to me.

I could consider reducing the DD in the spring when usage drops but the April price rise will swallow that up.

You can set up a variable direct debit. I pay only for what I’ve actually used during the previous quarter, by direct debit.

Aaannddd I should have read right to the end of your post MintJulia, sorry.

Yes!

This.

It’s the same as putting the money into a savings account, only it’s the utility companies getting the interest on it, not you. Nice little earner for them.

Whatever cash balance you have stored up, when and if the price rises between now and your next bill, your cash balance will buy you less fuel. Or, the same number of units but at the higher price. Your cash balance will not go as far as it has done before. You are not storing up units at the current price, you will still need to buy gas and electricity at the higher price but paying for it with your stored up credit.

It's very much harder to budget each month if you have a variable DD though. It'll mean you manage fine from, say, May to September, but are absolutely crippled, in debt, or unable to eat from November to March.

I'd far rather be able to have a stable monthly budget than be paying £50 in August and £1000 in January.

Exactly @saraclara

Some of the people who are currently paying summer level 'I pay for what I use' DDs will face the double whammy of price increases and higher usage over winter and it will be a huge shock to some. Between January 2022 and 2023 there's a price increase of 54%, 80% and something else to add on, which will turn a £200 January 2022 into one that's likely to be £600+.

"It'll mean you manage fine from, say, May to September, but are absolutely crippled, in debt, or unable to eat from November to March."

This will only be true if you are very poor at cash management or spending every penny regardless of your outgoings. It is obvious that the cold month bills will be multiple times over the warm month bills. It's the same estimated 4k going on energy bills throughout the year, just split differently. If we have one person who could be paying 300 DD every month, but instead is paying 75 in the summer months, this person is not immediately rushing out to spend the 225 pounds difference just because it's currently in their bank account.

X per month all year round is by no means a universal international standard. There's also no reason to suppose Brits are all uniquely too stupid to manage money.