Water bill payments higher than usage - is this typical?

[Whatisapension]

Before I moved into this house, I had always been on rates so I am not sure what is the norm with a water meter. For the past few years, my water bill has been max £300 for 12 months (I am billed every 6 months). Last 12 months have totalled to £290.

Whenever I try to set up a payment plan, it calculates payments which would total up to nearly £450 per year. When I have queried it they have said the payment plan is calculated based on the previous 12 months usage, which makes no sense.

They have also said that once the balance of the latest bill is cleared, I can get the payment plan adjusted, but I have done this in the past and it just reduces it by about £1 a month. The same thing happens if I make a payment upfront to clear, say half of the bill, the monthly payment reduces by a couple of quid. So whichever way I do it, if I keep to the plan I will end up paying a lot more.

I enter my readings when required so it’s not an estimated bill.

Is it typical to pay so much more than you use when on a meter?

I had exactly the same with our water company after we moved into our house. I even provided them with copies of our water bills from our previous home showing how much we used. Even after stacking up loads of credit they just wanted to keep it as credit on the account rather than refunding the over payments as they originally said they would. They wouldn't budge, so I refused the direct debits payments and asked to be billed every 3 months instead. It works out well!

Oh dear, that does not bode well!
How did they try to justify not refunding your credit?

I didn’t think about requesting a bill every 3 months, I will see if its possible with my provider as it would be easier to pay that amount in full.

Yes we just pay for what we have used , 2 payments a year. The monthly direct debit payments would have had us paying too much every year and the money just sitting with them as credit.

We are about £250 in credit with the gas/ electric over just one year but the payments have been reduced a bit for this year so it should start to come down ( hopefully ).

@Whatisapension I'm guessing you've already checked for leaks and made sure the meter doesn't move when you are not home or not using any water and that the meter they have on their system is deffo the one attached to your house
I'd refuse dd and pay when you get the bill

Just make them send a bill and then pay it, reading your meter to check if you want. In my area they do two readings a year themselves so the bills are very accurate (recently only one was missed due to covid).

As it's not a really high bill there doesn't seem any need to pay instalments which can build up credit- not in your favour, of course.

If sewerage applies and is with another company you would get four bills a year instead of two- they use the same readings in general.

I had this when I moved.
Previous home was still a water meter and I was billed for what I used twice an year.
Moved and again on a water meter, but this time without any warning they must have put me on a payment plan. Once I noticed they were billing me a regular amount when I was actually at times the same amount in credit I was very frustrated. Though not frustrated enough to actually ring and challenge it.
Instead I started sending them the bare minimum which meant they would have to use the credit as most of the payment. It did not go very well as they threatened me with court for non payment even though the credit would cover it.
They now seem to have automatically put me back to twice annual bills, which I think they see as some kind of punishment.
The system is ridiculous, I know energy providers are not allowed to hang on to your credit if you request it to be returned to you, why should this be any different.