Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

Gas and electric - does anyone 'pay as you go'?

2 replies

balancingfigure · 15/09/2016 14:45

So for years we paid the monthly estimate from the supplier and they were usually happy to adjust payments if we were overpaying. However a few years ago British Gas got really difficult about adjusting payments and when we were in credit by several hundred pounds in the Spring time I flipped. They refused to reduce our payments even though we had clearly over paid for the year (winter is when most power is used so I don't think you should be massively in credit at the end of the winter) so we switched to paying the exact bills monthly.

BG text me each month, I send a meter reading and they calculate the bill. It is obviously harder to budget because the payments vary substantially between winter and summer but we only ever pay for what we have used.

Since then the winter/summer variation has increased further as we have solar panels and so our usage in the summer can be very low (especially this year!)

However we are constantly bombarded with advice that we should switch suppliers but I never see any deals that cater for pay as you go.

So just wondering if anyone else is in a similar situation or maybe whether I should risk going back to flat monthly payments and will save money. Are suppliers usually good now about adjusting payments?

OP posts:
Gobbolinothewitchscat · 15/09/2016 14:52

We have a smart meter for has answer trucuty so only pay for what we use

They are free to have fitted and send readings automatically to the supplier. You also get a monitor that shows daily/weekly/monthly usage

specialsubject · 16/09/2016 11:10

You can make standard deals work like this. Send a monthly meter reading and keep an eye to be sure you are only just in credit. If the computer puts your direct debit up, call and demand that it is lowered. Works well for me as i am on oil heating/ hot water so my electricity bill is fairly constant anyway.

Be careful with smart meters - make sure you can still switch.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page