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Gas/Electricity Price Increases

LeMarchand

By LeMarchand
in General Chat

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jmak

jmak

Posted
Posted
You still pay by DD, just you adjust it up and down as required. What I end up doing is paying less and then just logging into Octopus and paying the difference when I'm bored
I have the Octopus app on my phone and you can change the direct debit amount and date. In theory. I keep trying to put it up but they keep reverting to £60.42/month [emoji2371]

 

We owe them several hundred pounds as we had a dumb meter and it took us a while to get round to telling them we had an electric car and electric heating [emoji57], but they've never asked for it. We were making inroads as at one point we had a direct debit higher than our usage, but they're making it difficult to give them money right now. I'm not inclined to chase very hard....

pooley

pooley

Posted
Posted
According to the energy suppliers regulator on the radio 4 (yes I listen to radio 4, must be an age thing :D) today you will be paying more if you don't have a DD, how that is fair or works I don't know.

 

I'll suck up the £65 a year saving i'd get with a DD to be in cotrol of who has my money and when ;)

Ditto

Ditto

Posted
Posted
I'll suck up the £65 a year saving i'd get with a DD to be in cotrol of who has my money and when ;)

I'm wondering if the higher rate for those refusing to accept DD schemes, which by the way I feel should be outlawed, end up being limited by the price cap anyway. Are there any 'average households' or above that can get energy at below the cap?

Garacesh

Garacesh

Posted
Posted
I'm wondering if the higher rate for those refusing to accept DD schemes, which by the way I feel should be outlawed, end up being limited by the price cap anyway. Are there any 'average households' or above that can get energy at below the cap?

Yer, but, no, but, yer, but, no, but, yer, but, no, but..

 

I don't think you're allowed penalise based on payment method, but you can give people benefits.

So no, there aren't higher rates for not being on DD. However, there kind of are, because you cay say "Folks paying by DD get £X off!" and roll that charge onto everybody's bill.

 

So same difference, really.

sigma

sigma

Posted
Posted
I'm wondering if the higher rate for those refusing to accept DD schemes, which by the way I feel should be outlawed, end up being limited by the price cap anyway. Are there any 'average households' or above that can get energy at below the cap?

 

The cap is on the unit price. In spite of what Truss implied on the radio this morning, if you use "more than the average amount of energy" you will pay for it accordingly.

 

https://inews.co.uk/news/energy-price-cap-how-work-what-2500-mean-bills-liz-truss-explained-1884466

 

Is £2,500 the max annual energy bill?

 

No, £2,500 is the maximum a typical household will pay for their energy annually.

 

According to Ofgem, a typical household uses 2,900kWh of electricity and 12,000kWh of gas in a year.

 

How much you actually use will affect how much you pay, as the cap that really matters is the price per unit, which has been frozen at 34.0p/kWh for electricity and 10.3p/kWh for gas.

 

Several other factors also affect how much suppliers will charge you for energy under the price cap. These include where you live, how you pay for your energy, and the type of energy meter you have in your home.

 

Ditto

Ditto

Posted
Posted
The cap is on the unit price. In spite of what Truss implied on the radio this morning, if you use "more than the average amount of energy" you will pay for it accordingly.

 

https://inews.co.uk/news/energy-price-cap-how-work-what-2500-mean-bills-liz-truss-explained-1884466

 

Yes, I get that bit hence my earlier mention of 'mythical £2500'. Let me try to raise the question a different way. EDF charge a higher rate, or taking on board the point @Garacesh makes, don't offer me the discount for using a DD. But, regardless of which of those two options I prefer, do they both hit the cap and mean I pay the same price per kW anyway? Or is it managed by fiddling (sic) around with the standing charge?

 

And following on from that point, is any provider offering an overall cost lower than the cap?

sigma

sigma

Posted
Posted

Sorry.

 

We are still with Bulb on the Variable 2 rate. Electricity only (Oil central heating, + solar)

 

The price is the same either way.

 

Tariff name Pay Monthly Variable

Tariff type Variable

Payment method Monthly Direct Debit in advance, or payment on receipt of bill

Electricity Unit rate 35.0564p per kWh

Standing charge 38.9361p per day (£142.12 per year)

 

Tariff name Pay Monthly Variable 2 rate

Tariff type Variable

Payment method Monthly Direct Debit in advance, or payment on receipt of bill

Electricity Day Unit Rate: 38.5928p per kWh

Electricity Night Unit Rate: 22.8375p per kWh

Standing charge 39.0274p per day (£142.45 per year)

jmak

jmak

Posted
Posted
Previous job I worked in a billing dept of a large (millions of customers) business. It costs less to collect the payment from DD customers. I don't see why that shouldn't be reflected in the charges. Same for people insisting on paper statements. I'd get annoyed if they didn't charge more for customers using a more expensive service. Why should I subsidise them?
Ditto

Ditto

Posted
Posted
Previous job I worked in a billing dept of a large (millions of customers) business. It costs less to collect the payment from DD customers. I don't see why that shouldn't be reflected in the charges. Same for people insisting on paper statements. I'd get annoyed if they didn't charge more for customers using a more expensive service. Why should I subsidise them?

I think the key point here is about transparency, openness and accountability. I can see getting paper based documents through the post is going to be more costly than purely online accounts. But how does having a variable DD cost more to administer than a 12 month averaged standard DD? If there weren't so many cases where so many of us find our money is stashed away in the providers accounts, proving difficult to get back, there might be a bit more trust. It's also worth reflecting on other industries - example car insurers can no longer uplift your price for remaining loyal to them - new customer deals were being subsidised by those that were not able or willing to annually shop around. The regulators decided it was not ethical to take that approach, and whilst perhaps not exactly the same, it does feel as though the energy suppliers are not held to the same ethical standard. Whilst times are tough, I'd struggle to find an energy supplier that has seen pressure on their profits - quite the opposite in fact.

Ditto

Ditto

Posted
Posted
Online request with EDF to reduce DD resulted in a drop of £140 pcm - doesn't really help with the feeling of trust. Online review with Octopus led to 'stay where you are' and couldn't get a quote even. I think the providers offering a better service are missing out on driving churn their way, especially those that offer variable direct debits without penalising you.
Ditto

Ditto

Posted
Posted

On the upside, I have enabled 1/2 hour reading update to get usage profile via the online account in Energy Hub profile. We don't have an in house display, but online suits me fine. It will be revealing to see what usage there is overnight as to a guide on how much 'standby' energy is being burnt. What sort of average kWh are you seeing between 01:00 and 06:00 are you seeing?

 

As an aside, my chat with teenage boys clearly has had some impact. Younger one was chastising the older one about having a light on and curtains shut. Then there was a discussion about lightbulb energy usage, LEDs, whether the oven used more than the induction hob and a few other items. I suspect the motivation was pure sibling rivalry to be 'knowledge king', but at least they are engaged! Overall the younger one was the winner this times, but what shone through was which parent each sibling was aligned to in thinking style :D

  • Thanks 1
mavhc

mavhc

Posted
Posted
my base load is about 350w, because I have a server running, and many network switches and google home minis etc, once I move everything to PoE I will schedule the last ones to only be on when the house is occupied, and only downstairs when people are awake
  • Thanks 1
sigma

sigma

Posted
Posted

As we have Economy 7, we move what we can to the cheaper rate overnight when we are not solar generating. That always inclues a tank of hot water 365 days a year. Our standing load probably unusually includes our sewage filtration plant (which pumps liquid about from time to time) as we are not on mains drainage. I will shortly be putting my greenhouse heater onto frost guard (after I've put the insulation back in), and run heated propagaters from time to time.

 

I am currently making new curtains for some rooms. Heavier curtains (lined and interlined) do seem to make a difference the amount of heat lost even where there is double glazing.

  • Thanks 2
elsiegee40

elsiegee40

Posted
Posted (edited)

Mr gee40 has been on the phone to Octopus this afternoon and we are moving to them. We won’t be any better off in terms of unit rate, but we can at least escape the nightmare that is EDF and have a sensible monthly payment that reflects our actual usage.

 

Mr gee40 now on hold with EDF (yet again) to try to get our massive credit balance refunded.

Edited by elsiegee40
  • Thanks 1
mikeprice

mikeprice

Posted
Posted
Mr gee40 has been on the phone to Octopus this afternoon and we are moving to them. We won’t be any better off in terms of unit rate, but we can at least escape the nightmare that is EDF and have a sensible monthly payment that reflects our actual usage.

 

Mr gee40 now on hold with EDF (yet again) to try to get our massive credit balance refunded.

 

Octopus also have a better SMart Export Guarantee

 

but that reminds me - I need to ring EDF about ours at 10:01 precisely tomorrow

They open at 10:00 and leaving it until the queues build up costs more in phone charges that we will make from the SEG!!!

elsiegee40

elsiegee40

Posted
Posted (edited)

 

but that reminds me - I need to ring EDF about ours at 10:01 precisely tomorrow

They open at 10:00 and leaving it until the queues build up costs more in phone charges that we will make from the SEG!!!

 

Race you. Got nowhere today. We have cancelled the Direct Debit which will probably focus their attention on us. It’s not like they aren’t sitting on plenty of money to pay off what we owe when the transfer is finalised.

Edited by elsiegee40
  • 2 weeks later...

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