to be trying to work out how we can live without using any gas/electricity cos I can't afford to use the little we do!?!?!

[nakushita]

Our "energy supplier" has jumped on the bandwagon and increased our direct debit AGAIN so - even though its summer and we are in credit with them - they are going to start taking over £110 A MONTH!!! We live in a 2 bed semi FFS and have not used the central heating for months and months since we can't afford to. We live in Scotland by the way, so it can get a bit nippy in the winter.

Anyway, with food prices going up along with fuel bills and bloody well everything else APART from salaries/wages, how the f+*king hell are we expected to survive unless you are totally minted???????????

Tell me about it. On paper we are loaded but we got paid on tuesday and I have a grand total of £60.00 left in my bank account until the end of the month.
I know that dosen't help you but I feel your pain

that sounds a ridiculous amount.

i know they are more expensive but maybe it would work out more managable to get a pre payment metre? that way during the month you can stockpile some credit and use it up during the winter. you can keep an eye on what your spending too.

Ring them and ask them to explain how they got that figure and refuse to pay it! Tell them you will switch supplier if they refuse to leave it as it is.
We had a big row with our supplier when they wanted to nearly double our direct derit eben though we were over £400 in credit as soon as we threatened to leave they looked at the figures again and actually DECREASED the payment

Dont let them walk all over you

Good idea about taking it off DD. It's not like they give you much of an incentive to pay by DD anyway. Think its about £15 off total bill which is nothing now it is so high! I've complained and asked them to break it down like you say. They're going to "look into it"

I would never pay by direct debit, why should MY money sit in THEIR account for most of the year?

presumably you are using low energy bulbs, not leaving things on standby, drying laundry outside instead of in machine? draughtproofing? see if you are eligible for warmfront type grants?

also try looking at the comparison sites, like uswitch , moneysupermarket , energylinx. I've only used uswitch personally, but saved quite a lot of money by moving.

I agree with taking it off DD, that's a good idea.

If your accounts are in credit just tell them you want to lower the payments not increase. It is a computer generated exercise.

Taking it off DD is brill idea, what is a bad one which i did was put both on meters, omg getting stung every week but now they want £200 to take me off it. what do u do in a situation like that then

When I lost my job I took off DD and went onto pre-payment card. Basically I have to put £15 pw on but I can add more if i'm feeling flush (never am though!) I's almost like having a meter in the sense that you manage how much you put on, it's def worth asking. I'm with e'on but i'm sure other suppliers will do them aswell.
Hope that helps!