Gas Bills.....sit down before you open yours.

[Kazz]

Has anyone else had their Gas bill in just got mine and find the direct debit has gone from £60 PM where I am always in credit I know it fluctuates between winter and summer obviously, but always in credit. To......a staggering £97 PM......................................

So a £37 rise of direct debit......forget that I am cancelling and going back to my bills.....or has anyone fixed till 2012 and is that a false saving.........as the jump UP will be so severe in 2012 I was be floored.............

What have you done??????????????apart from sit down after opening the bill.

[alexgirl73]

I pay mine by meter. Yes it probably works out more expensive, but I don't have shocks like that lol! That is a heck of a jump Karen.

[Kazz]

Yes know I am seriously considering going back to the bills. I put the money aside and I'd get interest on it too before paying, phoned them when I got in but 1/2 hour wait to speak to someone I imagine all the people getting these direct debit adjustments................as I have always been in credit never in debit.

[dandysmom]

I don't understand how your direct debit system works, Kazz. Is it something like the monthly averaging we have: they take your annual totals and divide it into 12 monthly payments, so it's about the same all year? I don't use that: just get a bill for the actual cubic feet used; s nothing in the non-heating months and horrendous in Winter...about $500.00 is the highest bill. I only use gas for heating, not cooking.

[fancyabrew]

Don't have mains gas but my electricity has gone up for 14.5p/unit to 19p/unit! And even worse for us people without main gas is that we can’t get any “cheap” dual fuel deals. We have oil for heating and that has gone up from 18p per litre 4 years ago to 65p per litre when I last stocked up in May! So I think you could consider yourself lucky!
Saying that it does make you more careful! I’ve change our thermostat to a more accurate digital one, I’ve also changed our timer to a 7 day timer so I can have different times during week days and at weekends, and I’ve trimmed 40 mins off how long the heating is switched on for, I took 20mins from the morning and 20 mins in the evening, I did this last winter (heatings not on yet) and didn’t notice by . We now make sure we set the dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer to go on overnight so using off peak electricity (which is 5p/unit)
We’ve just got a new oven so we made sure that it was A energy efficiency rated, so all our appliances are A rated apart from the tumble dryer. And tonight I have just got rid of our last ordinary light bulb, so we now have all low energy or LED bulbs.

[Mags]

We pay our bills quarterly, I know just where I am then......... two are meter read and two are estimated. If the estimated bills are too much out either way, I send in my true meter reading to them.

[Moli]

We pay so much per month by DD, then usually at the end of the year we are in credit, but reading your post Kazz, will probably need to pay more next year!!

[Kazz]

Well I am £141 in credit.........and my DD on the gas alone has gone up by £37.........................YIKES......no idea what the Electric will be I think I can find myself going back to quarterly bills too. Keep my and the interest in accrues myself.
I know you get penalised fo not paying DD but that can't be right..............£37 ...rise.

[dinahsmum]

Goodness knows how much the gas & electricity companies are holding in this ridiculously hiked DDs. It will backfire on them I'm sure, as more and more people say 'You can keep your 2% discount and I'll keep control of my spending'.
Which reminds me - log delivery this afternoon. £80 a load seems quite cheap in comparison

[Donna]

My gas and electric are from the same company and the direct debit for both has jumped from £60 per month to £110 a month!!!!

It is a struggle with the electric and gas I have to say.