Reducing or cancelling my dd

[Hummusanddipdip]

I currently have two dd set up for gad and electricity (1 each) both accounts are currently sat in credit, gas is fairly substantial, elec not as much but still credit there.

I've just done a check over 6 months of statements (would normally do a year, but we haven't quite been here a year yet) and averaged our bills out (we did have someone living with us at the start of the year so I did Feb - Aug to try and account for winter bills). Gas is on average £38 a month and electricity £98.

Currently dds total £230 a month. Would it be sensible for me to call our supplier and ask for them to reduce our dds to a total of £150 a month. So we will still potentially over pay some months but will lower our outgoings significantly.

Or would just cancelling the dd and paying the bill every month be sensible?

I'm trying to find ways to reduce our outgoings as I go on maternity leave after Christmas, so want to save where I can now.

You might find your energy bills increase after Christmas if you are heating the house more for a newborn and want a warmer house for night feeds/changes and maybe a tumble drier/washing machine running more. I would ensure a comfortable amount in credit coming into winter. If you dont use it you can ask for it back as a refund in Spring.

Your electricity may not increase that much but averaging your gas bills for March to August is no way indicative of what they'll be Sept to Feb.

My August gas bill was £22. Over the peak winter months it can easily be £150-£250 unless we want to freeze.

It's highly unlikely you'll be overpaying if you reduce to £150 a month...depending on how much credit you have you may be left with significant debt by Spring.

I’d keep paying as you are until January. You’ll have a good idea of how much you’re using in the winter plus you’re still “saving” that money.

As above gas will increase markedly from next month on as the need for heating starts.

In December/January I used 2800kw/h gas. In August/September it was 215.

There's probably a discount for paying by DD so cancelling it altogether might be nose/spite/face territory. If you think you're either paying too much or they hold too much then you can adjust it.

Thanks for all the advice, I usually just call them every so often and jiggle the money around to bring the balances to a similar value. The elec account was in debt until June but has slowly built up credit over the past 3 months and gas is hugely in credit. To the point that the money they take tomorrow isn't even for the bill it's just adding credit.

I've just has a look at the readings for after when we moved in at the end December last year, we used 308 units of electricity and 299 units of gas. Last month in comparison was 244 units of electricity and 16 units of gas.
I know everyone's situation is different, so asking if that's normal for a 3 bed house with 2 adults and one school age child won't really give me a hugely clear picture. Dh also works for home 2 days a week, which will skew the usage.

For a bit more info the house sat empty for almost 8 months from start of May until we moved in at the end of December, so the house was freezing and heating was running solid for 5 days just to build heat in the house, I can't imagine we'll be doing the same thing this year?

I'll leave the dds as they are for now, and have another look in March/April time to see if reducing or requesting a refund is a likely route to take.

Thank you again for all the replies and thoughts.