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Original poster

Gas and electric

51 replies

dazzlerdo · 15/11/2021 13:59

Those who live in a 3 bedroom house on dual fuel what's your monthly direct debit and who are you with?

I was with avro paying £80 a month for both, they've now gone into administration and put me with octupuss energy.
Not had a bill from them yet it's still all being finalised. Been looking at my account and it says I will be on flexi rate which averages at £1324 a year.
If I want to change to fixed rate then it will be around £1859 a year. Does this seem a lot? £145 a month!

OP posts:
Original poster
dazzlerdo · 15/11/2021 14:01

Also if you have prepayment metres how much a month would you say you put on your gas and electric?

OP posts:
unicornsarereal72 · 15/11/2021 16:07

I've been moved to shell and as yet don't have an account. It is a worry. I'm trying not to stress about it. Just wish they hurry up so I can budget for it and not get into debt with them.

Original poster
dazzlerdo · 15/11/2021 16:09

@unicornsarereal72

I've been moved to shell and as yet don't have an account. It is a worry. I'm trying not to stress about it. Just wish they hurry up so I can budget for it and not get into debt with them.
I'm the same with worrying. I've not paid anything for 2 months now!
OP posts:
poorbuthappy · 15/11/2021 16:11

£80 per month? Bloody hell that's cheap.
Our dual fuel is £185 per month.
3 bedroom semi. Decent insulation.
5 of us though - me, DH and 3 teenage girls.
No bath, only showers, tumble dryer.

dementedpixie · 15/11/2021 16:12

Don't take a fixed rate right now
Go on the standard variable rate as its covered by the price cap just now

Starcaller · 15/11/2021 16:15

Yes, stay on the flexi rate. Fixed rates are all more expensive now, Unfortunately prices have gone up a lot so a lot of people are in the same boat.

4kinell · 15/11/2021 16:38

Seems really cheap to me , we are in a 3 bed terraced house on a prepayment meter with boost energy . I put £40 electric in a week and gas is about £20 /25 a week in winter when we have heating on and about £7 a week in summer when it's just for the water . The house is empty from 9 til 3 when I'm in work and kids at school and heating only goes on for a few hours in the evening .

ScarletPower · 15/11/2021 17:24

3 bed household with Octopus as provider here. I joined Octopus at the start of October as I wanted to go onto the tarrif with the cheap overnight electric rate for charging our EV.

I provided them with actual use and they put my DD at £175 for both.

I have been providing them with weekly readings and after just 2 DD's they have written today to say my projected use indicates my DD should be £300 a month....I'm not sure how they can tell that on 6 week's meter readings? I'm not going to be sat with the central heating on in June like I am in November am I?

My weekly readings are averaging at £50 per week for both fuels which over a year would only be £216 a month so no idea where £300 has come from.

dementedpixie · 15/11/2021 17:28

Are you using an economy 7 Tariff? Do you have storage heaters? I only submit readings to Octopus monthly and have been able to change direct debit amounts online myself

DoctorWhoTardis · 15/11/2021 17:30

£145 for a 3 bed seems about right with the crazy prices nowadays.

ProcrastinationIsMySuperPower · 15/11/2021 17:39

Small 3 bed semi, good insulation, combi boiler, no bath, no tumble dryer. 4 of us here, we're admittedly pretty frugal with the heating in the day but I won't make my kids sit here cold or anything.

We switched to Eon in April on a decent fixed rate, and currently paying £74 per month. We're in credit so we should get through the winter OK. Worried about when our fixed rate comes to an end though!

Putdownthecake · 15/11/2021 17:53

With octopus and have been for over a year now. It was around £45 for both, live in a 3 bed, 2 adults, 1 kid. Work from home 50% of time. In recent months with heating etc, more like 70-80, dd has stayed at 90 so am in credit from summer. We do turn every plug off that's not being used in the day though, not sure how much difference that makes. Use tumble drier a couple times a week. Currently fixed for gas until May but electric is on flexi.

dementedpixie · 15/11/2021 17:55

My fixed rate with Octopus ends in January. Currently using about £80 of electric and £25ish of gas but the gas will increase as it gets colder

Blush21 · 15/11/2021 17:57

3 bed terrace £90 a month combined (£48 gas £42 electric) we always end up owing them for gas by our April bill but it gets paid back over the following few months when our gas usage is lower.

Changes17 · 15/11/2021 17:59

£150 a month dual fuel, Good Energy. 4 bed terrace. But we keep our direct debit down by every now and then paying extra if it goes over.

Cinders15 · 15/11/2021 18:07

3 bed detached both home all day - daughter goes to work
Was with British Gas and paying a fortune
Went to peoples energy on £150 a month - considerably less than BG
Then they put it up to £198 and were estimating bills, totally ignoring my readings!!
Went to Octopus for £212 per month for 24 months - I knew it was going to go up and this seemed a good deal
Peoples energy gave me £350 back as overpayment (3 days before they went t*ts up!)
Octopus then said I had been overpaying for a very long time and put it down to £138 - very happy bunny!!

Onmyown1 · 15/11/2021 23:34

I’m with Ovo. I paid £80pm for both together. My fixed rate ended 13th nov and the cheapest fixed rate is 3 yrs £159pm or 2 yrs £178pm. I’ve checked the daily standing charge etc and it’s cheaper on the variable rate so I’ve gone to that. I’m quite a bit in credit as I normally leave it because they pay interest on credit balances.

TinyDancer91 · 15/11/2021 23:47

Moved in to our new home on 1st oct, 3 bed semi detached. Was quoted £120 per month dual fuel with Scottish Power. They asked for meter readings last week, which we provided. My direct debit has since been increased to £196!! Even though according to the bill I am using approx £97 a month? Can't understand why they are charging me over double Confused

BarbaraofSeville · 16/11/2021 06:55

If you go onto the fixed rate, you're voluntarily paying hundreds of pounds more than you need to over the coming winter, whereas if you stay on the flexible tariff, you effectively have a six month cheap fix until next April, so it's a no brainer to stay where you are.

We're in the same position as you in that we've just been moved from Avro to Octopus and haven't paid anything since the last direct debit that was taken on 7 October. We also have a credit balance of around £200 and we were paying £94 pm to Avro but expect it to rise as that was on a fix that was to run until February and much cheaper than the price cap or anything that's now available.

Octopus had hundreds of thousands of customers imposed on them overnight so it's bound to take a little while to get everything set up and running. When my account details appear in my Octopus account, I'll just check that my credit balance and payment that was taken after Avro went bust have both been carried over and see what payment they ask for.

I'm not particularly worried, it all comes out in the wash in the end, we've effectively missed a payment, but we also have a credit balance and if we do get behind, Octopus will just bump the direct debit up a little to cover it. If you're concerned that you might spend the missed direct debit money, just mentally account for it, or move it to another account so it's safely out of the way.

BarbaraofSeville · 16/11/2021 06:59

@TinyDancer91

Moved in to our new home on 1st oct, 3 bed semi detached. Was quoted £120 per month dual fuel with Scottish Power. They asked for meter readings last week, which we provided. My direct debit has since been increased to £196!! Even though according to the bill I am using approx £97 a month? Can't understand why they are charging me over double Confused
What tariff are you on with Scottish Power? They've been a bit dodgy in that they've been offering cheap sounding 2 year fixes but basing these on very low usage so once they see your normal usage they increase the monthly payment.

If you were on a cheap fix that you took out around a year ago, the price per unit and standing charges have just about doubled, so it should be expected that they want you to pay double if you've just signed up to a new fix.

Angel2702 · 16/11/2021 07:03

We moved to a new supplier in September when our fixed rates ended. Who then went bust so have been moved back to British Has. Prices are a lot higher but waiting to hear still what the DD will be. We haven’t dared put the heating on yet.

AlmostAJillSandwich · 16/11/2021 07:39

So since the end of 2019 we've had estimated bills (case of just forgetting to send readings with no man coming to read it over the pandemic Blush) Had a guy come early Nov do a reading, we are £1009 in debit on the elctric! Shock So our £200 - £250 quaterly payment has now switched to a £203 a month direct debit until Oct 2022, to cover the estimated years usage plus the £1000 we owe. Will hopefully be able to make a few one off payments during those 11 months to bring down the monthly DD a bit, and will get in the habit of sending monthly readings. The £140 warm home discount we are due over winter will reduce the monthly DD by about £15 to £185ish. We will then be reviewed Oct 2022 for the new monthly DD once the extra debt is paid off.
Our boiler broke 12 years ago and isn't replaceable without relocating and re-plumbing the whole house and new radiators, which we just can't afford, so our gas is only £8.95 a month as shower and oven are electric, only gas we use is the hob.

GingerAndTheBiscuits · 16/11/2021 07:46

Three bed semi, two adults, two DC, I wfh, ours is £124/month and that was slightly above our usage cost for October - now with Eon. Was previously £57 a month before the increases 😩

AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair · 16/11/2021 07:51

I hope everyone is aware that your monthly DD is not how much energy you use and is meaningless as a comparison figure

The current energy crisis has really highlighted how little understanding there is in general about how energy costs work. It concerns me that so many households could be getting into financial difficulties

The amount of energy you use isn't connected to how many bedrooms you have, that's simplistic in the extreme. Can I suggest that everyone takes some time to read up and fully understand this

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