just had my fuel bill!!!!

[crazecatlady2]

Anyone else in this situation..
All through the winter we turned down the thermostat, sat under blankets and dressing gown, changed some cooking methods, drew the curtains at night (we always do that anyway,) then 2 days ago I read the meters and sent off the readings. Today I got the bill - and monthly payments have gone from 256 to 188. How is that even possible?

My electricity DD has gone down because they want to use up my £600 credit (which includes the £200 alternative fuel payment). Once it’s gone it’ll go back up I expect.

It's gone down because you made an effort to reduce it?

@crazecatlady2

It is because the power companies are greedy and overestimated usage and put peoples direct debits up to silly amounts, they made astronomical amounts of interest by using your money.

Well, quite.....

Assuming you mean the monthly DD amount, this is only a guide. It will take into account your usage, any debt/credit on the account and expected changes in price. It's supposed to pay for your annual use over time, but will rarely exactly match it and can vary.

Yours could have been set before you reduced your usage and also with the expectation of prices increasing more than they did - if you remember last autumn, there were predictions about the annual bill based on typical usage going up to £4k+ pa, then it was pegged to £2.5k with a £400 credit to further reduce the price rises people experienced. So your account is probably healthier than they expected, so you don't need to pay so much.

We made some (quite small) changes to reduce the amount of heating we use and our annual predicted gas usage went from 13000 to 8000 units a year, which was a bit of a wake up call - most of it was achieved by closing one door so we just heated our living room and didn't allow the heat to leak out into the rest of the house. So we were able to take back quite a bit of credit from our account over winter and our DD stayed the same, rather than increased as expected.

You can choose the amount of your DD.

I'm coming to the end of my 2 year fixed deal and OVO offered me a 1 year fixed with a suggested payment which was just £30 more than I am currently paying. They said it was up to me whether I wanted to adjust my DD or not but made me aware through the app that if I didn't, my account would likely be in arrears of approximately X amount.

Eh? Have you proof read your op?

Oh I assumed the numbers were the wrong way around in the OP.

@arethereanyleftatall @CornishGem1975 Yes I did proof read my post and yes the numbers are the right way round. The post was written very 'tongue in cheek' because of all the dire warnings we were getting at the end of the year. I am with an energy company that makes working out costs quite difficult (especially for an old fogey like me with CSE grade Z in maths) So although I regularly send off my readings I truly had no idea what by bill would be. Apologies to those who took my post at face value.

Why not get a smart meter and then you know how much you're spending as you go along?

Our DD was always set at about £190 and only went up to £220 when the prices started going up. We'd built up a significant credit in advance of this winter as our costs last winter were already very high due to me being home ill for much of January. I'd always hoped that it would still be sufficient enough for us to get through winter and it looks like it will. We're waiting on a bill to come through (last one dated February), but it's looking like the bill will be about £500 and we're over £700 in credit still. I'm hoping they'll bring the DD down when the weather warms up.

We did do a few things to reduce the bill like closing off the conservatory completely and only putting the heating on when we really needed it, plus reducing the thermostat by a degree or two, so like you, OP, I'm pleased that it hasn't cost as much as it could have done.

Still... £738 for 2.5 months over the middle of winter is still a frightening number!

Pre price rises, our bill was around £120 a month, the DD went up to £300 after our fixed rate was up. Same as you, we made some changes over winter, got used to running a cooler but not uncomfortable house, took shorter showers, etc... when I gave meter readings at the start of the year I was well over £1000 in credit. I took part as a refund, left the account in credit and have kept the DD at £300.

Last winter was exceptionally mild here, so I'm aware that if we have a colder winter this year, our usage will be higher. If we don't, I'll receive another refund.

What was your actual bill OP?

Are you still in credit after submitting the readings? If so, that's why they'll be prepared to reduce it. Most people break about even this time of year.

I’ve had similar. BG put my dd up to £280/ month in October (I think). I built up credit of £900 odd and my latest (winter) bill was only £500, so I’ve asked them to reduce my dd down to £150 which they’ve agreed to.