General Chat

I've just received a letter from my energy supplier (same for gas & electricity) telling me that due to Ofgem raising the energy cap, my bill will go up by £910 per year from 1 Apr that's an additional £75 per month :-0 :-0.

I'm on their Standard Variable Rate but it's cheaper than their fixed rate, so I'm on their cheapest rate :-0

Oh Belle thats awful . Not looking forward to getting my letter either :-( :-( :-( :-(

Gosh that is a lot and I bet you won't use as much fuel as they are anticipating.

Oh dear Belle. :-(

Our supplier went belly up and were taken over by another one. It’s doubled our monthly contribution but is fixed at the moment.
Time will tell if we can afford it fingers crossed. ;-)

Scary isn't it? We think ours will be about the same increase as yours hopefully no more but we don't know for sure yet.

AnnG, they say they are basing it on gas and electricity that I've consumed over a year :-0

A recent e mail from my supplier wanted £214 a month to meet their expected estimated bills and pay what I owe for fuel used :-0

Haven't heard back yet since we sent in true readings...........

meter reader came round and i have received a letter stating i owe £1981 and they want £423 a month just for electricity.
After half an hour on hold got through to them and im waiting with bated breath a breakdown as to how they reach that figure.
Any further increase really frightens me, my pension is not elastic

I have a smart meter so the energy supplier doesn't need to read the meter as the readings go straight to them and I should always be within the Plan amount :-)

We still can’t send in the meter readings to OVO. Our friends, further down the alphabet, still haven’t been transferred from SSE.

My 1st 2 units are going up from 32p to 52 p, rest of units 20p- 27p. But im on the cheapest tarrif and also have a smart meter so its always up to date.

Last year i didnt use heating from May til October, so i shall let my d/d continue building up credit for next winter.
We are luckier as im all electric and its a new house so well insulated. Infact yesterday i never put the heating on at all so only used 5 units which was for cooking, washing machine & hot water.

i have many friends whose bill just now is £200 a month!! so goodness knows what theirs will go up to.

Florence in the hebrides

Belle, I bet you gulped when you read that! :-0

Maddie, when the last time you gave a meter reading prior to the guy reading it? Did you not get quarterly bills which would have shown if they were estimated?

Its a huge amount to be owing?

Florence in the hebrides

I make a point of reading the meters on the last day of every month and keeping a spreadsheet of the readings plus each bill as it comes in.

Eon have managed to re-activate their link to the electricity smart meter they installed when we were with them previously but it does not record the gas consumption.

We've managed to cut our usage a bit compared to the same period last year but the monthly DD has increased from £166-odd to £200 which is a little below the current consumption as you expect in the winter months but well below their estimated annual cost of £4,000, so even allowing for the heating (gas) bill to drop in the warmer weather I'm expecting to be paying £300 or £350 soon as I don't think the estimate allows for the increase in the price cap next month.

We have gas central heating so our electricity consumption is fairly low. My letter says it will rise by an estimated £400 a year, or £8 a week.

It also says to expect another rise at the end of October - just in time for winter!!

hi florence61
i knew the bills were estimates but i cant see the meter under the stairs, should have asked for help but i dont like to impose, as to last meter reading they cant make up their minds but it must be just before lockdown,
i have been trying to work out how much electricity £1981 can buy,but no luck
i dont understand how it works
i pay on a budget plan and payments were increased at the last review
have to wait and see what they say
thank you
maddie

If you keep your old bills then you can track back over your usage. It might be worth getting a more agile friend to check the meter as it might have been read incorrectly.

I’d want to know over how long this has been building up as that sum is very close to suggested price cap for the summer.

What size home do you have as someone might be able to give you some figures to compare.

hallo
had a friend check meter and reading is correct
my mansion is a 1 bedroom flat
have asked for a break down but not heard from them since thursday
wil try them again tomorrow

My son has a one bedroom and has been working from home, he has just been informed his electric will be £37 and his gas £54. Up from£27 and £40.

He admitted last year that he found he had big water bills. He had never bothered to check the payments.. Turned out his meter had been broken. It took ages to get replaced because of covid!!

Added: if you Google you should find several sites that give you the average usage for various sized ‘mansions’.

Oh dear Maddie!
Im guessing that you are all electric? I remember years ago, my grandmother hadnt had her meter read for over 2 years. They did send her letters when a man would call but she always said they were not convenient times!!
Anyway one day a letter said she had to get the meter read by someone and so dad read it.When the adjusted accoiunt arrived, she owed over £1000. Each quarter she had used more electric heaters as she felt the cold and so the q bills were increasing without her realising.
She paid it off and after that dad went over and read it every time a bill arrived to keep it up to date.

But it sounds a lot for a 1 bed room flat. Do you have a water heater on all the time, just a thought?

Like you Brian, i have always read my meter weekly and recorded the figures etc. I knew that on average then i was using around 8 units a day.

I am shocked though at hearing peoples electricity per month is over £200?? It seems a huge amount to me.

Florence in the hebrides