Energy price

[WingwingChan]

I have moved to England for few months ago.
Octopus energy suggested my direct debits amounts change to £350 pcm
Therefore I can save some for winter
My currently using amount is £100 pcm
Is it ridiculous or acceptable?

Not ridiculous. Energy prices have doubled. They will likely go up again in autumn. So allowing for that its not totally unreasonable. However you could decide to pay each bill as it is made (Octopus ask for monthly readings if you don't have a smart meter) instead but then you'd take a bigger hit in autumn. With higher usage and higher costs. It's a tough time for people.

No, I don’t think you have any need to make the payments so high. You can always increase the amount in a few months anyway, if you are using more if it gets colder. Octopus seem quite flexible in what you pay if it is a reasonable amount. I would go for £100 - £150 (depending if you want to save some for winter) and take it from there.

If you can afford to pay it, I would. Prices have gone up, due to go up again in October & you'll use a lot more in the winter. I prefer to be in credit in the Autumn. However, if that leaves you short of money now then go online and change your billing to 'from reading' and pay for what you've actually used.

let us know if you are more confused after reading our posts!!

No, not ridiculous unfortunately. The amount of energy that you use over winter is huge compared to summer. For comparison, I'm using about 11kwh of gas per day at the moment, in January it was about 80/90kwh in a fairly mild winter, plus additional electricity with the darker nights and more cooked meals.

The energy bill is horrible here
I will accept octopus suggestion to save some amounts for my winter
Thank you all again

You could always pay something between £100 and £350 per month as a compromise? I couldn’t stomach paying £350 a month even if I could afford it! Also, in October the £400 energy grant thing from the government will be added onto every account, so that will help a bit. But yes, unfortunately the bills are awful and getting worse! All the best!

Yeah, it is now. There's another increase coming in October and possibly January. You can request to pay for what you use monthly/quarterly but you lose the benefit of the direct debit reduction, so about another additional £50 but as you don't know how much you will will actually be using - and their estimate may be inaccurate - you might prefer that payment method. But there's no getting around that it's extortionate.

350 in the winter when you are spending 100 in the summer?

Unless you are heated by electricity and keep a mansion at 25C all winter, 350 is insane.

We spend about 50% more on energy in the winter than in the summer.

£100 sounds like a lot to be using at the moment given you presumably don’t have your heating on. Is that definitely based on meter readings? We used £40 last month.

Some heater switches are broken
Landlord didn't fix it and I can't switch off them 🥲

Thank you all comments
I will discuss with my husband tonight

Chase the landlord about fixing that then - as well as wasting money now, that will be skewing your winter estimate

That sounds very low considering the standing charge for electricity alone is approx £15 and £7.50 for gas. Therefore making your energy costs about 40p a day!

Yes I can pay between £200-350 pcm
If I want to pay under £200, I should discuss with octopus energy assistant

Shell (who I got moved to when the other supplier went bust) wanted me to increase my dd to £320.

My bills for the last two months have been around £150, slightly less actually. Why would I want to use Shell as some kind of savings account?

Yes I told my landlord from day 1 🥲
She said she will call someone to fix it .....