The amounts I mentioned were just for energy from BG on a two year fixed price contract started in April 2021 and ending April 2023. Our Homecare 2 we pay as an annual amount.
The amounts I mentioned were just for energy from BG on a two year fixed price contract started in April 2021 and ending April 2023. Our Homecare 2 we pay as an annual amount.
I have heard that average consumers bills will rise from £1200-£1300 up to £1900. Which is what we are trying to cover with our monthly payments.
John
We have just changed to Flexible Octopus and there estimate for 12months is £1,625.16 and our payment per month is £135.43
Like what someone says we having to found more money per month it gone up double what we was paying
Like what someone says we having to found more money per month it gone up double what we was paying
I had noticed this with comparison sites. The idea seemed to be underestimate to get you on the books and then put the monthly payments up after a few months. What you needed to do was look at the unit prices and this became obvious and what you needed to do was find the lowest unit price for the supply you wanted after looking at service, green energy and anything else that you were looking for. At the moment they are all about the same and very little point in switching.
Not sure how our supply compares with others but the estimate has gone up £60 per month.
I have gone back for the past three years and calculated the kwh used each year to get an average. Going by BGAS projection they have seriously underestimated our usage by about £700.
I also did calculation for period Sept - Dec and again our kwh usage is a lot higher than what BGAS are estimating. We are now very concerned that BGAS have seriously underestimated our usage.
I also did calculation for period Sept - Dec and again our kwh usage is a lot higher than what BGAS are estimating. We are now very concerned that BGAS have seriously underestimated our usage.
Unless they had your previous records to go by all they can do is base it on a general comparison of similar properties but it shouldn’t be that far out . When we moved here in April 2019 the reverse happened. I guess you will have to increase your monthly amount and put monthly readings in to ensure that you only pay what is owed.
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Energy companies seem incapable of taking the different usage patterns of retired people into account, especially caravanners who go away for more than 14 days/year. I know that our gas consumption is zero when we're away and our electric consumption is about half so our actual is always* under their estimate.
* apart from during lockdown and periods of illness.
* apart from during lockdown and periods of illness.
When you switch the new supplier is given your historical data which can date back many years so there is no excuse for getting it wrong. The data is supplied by the previously appointed Data Aggregator and not the previous supplier. In essence with the increase it means that we will have to increase our monthly DD by about 50%
Today I will be going over all our previous statements as something is not right and we do not want to be underpaying our monthly DD and then end up with a huge bill when we want to switch.
After doing checks I have found out why their annual consumption calculation is so low as they have based the consumption on our Sept usage. They then used that figure to arrive at the cost of our annual consumption resulting it a much lower figure and a DD that is £50 too low. In Sept we were away for 10 days so readings would be a lot lower. As we had switched to Bristol in late August I had all the readings.
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Thank you I wasn’t aware of the Data Aggregator role. There’s even less excuses then for a supplier to get estimates so badly wrong. I guess that you await the forthcoming announcement on capoed rates with some interest.
Caravanners are probably .00001% of their customer database so not worth bothering about. Not sure why you are referring to "estimates" as with all suppliers you can go Online and send updated meter readings so no estimates.
Personally I've never bothered with price comparison sites and prefer to go direct to the suppliers web site. Since I keep a weekly record of our electricty usage, which goes back almost 12 years, I just feed in the average yearly KWh rather than let the supplier make an estimate.
We're still in contract until June this year, then I'm worried about what it will be after that.
We're still in contract until June this year, then I'm worried about what it will be after that.
On my BG account the graphs look ahead and show “ forward estimate” but it is consistently above the actual usage that shows up each month as meter readings are sent in. But our bills are not estimated unless I forget to send in readings. But Alexa doesn’t let me forget.
.....I'm on a smart meter with Shell for gas and electricity fixed until September. I get a monthly bill paid by direct debit and I can alter the direct debit amount myself to a sum that covers what is owed.
All done on their website .....Simples!
All done on their website .....Simples!
Same as with BG I can change amounts as required, but haven’t bothered with Smart meter since two appointments for one were cancelled without good reason at short notice.
I read my meters every month and submit the figures to the energy companies - they also get electric figures from our smart meter (our gas isn't a smart meter) - but seem incapable of working on annual figures, using seasonally adjusted figures which are way out when we're away.
I think most people go away for 14 days or more in a year so being a caravanner is not going to make a big difference.
I do agree the companies computers do seem to be incapable of taking account of seasonal differences assuming that Summer use will be similar to Winter though and trying to add silly increases in Spring.
We do not have a smart meter though as I cannot see it would make any difference. We use what we need and would not go cold to save a few pounds.
Then they are doing it correctly as it is not their concern that you are away. They just take an average base don previous readings. Most people are on a DD that averages out the annual cost.
Your post seems to indicate that your choice is to pay per usage in a specific period rather than the usage calculated over a year.? Very few people like yourself pay the actual usage for a specific period.
Energy companies do take into account seasonal variations for all consumers so that they can average out the monthly DD payment. We prefer this as who wants to pay £60 per month in the summer and then £120 per month in the winter months. We would rather have it averaged out at £90 per month throughout the year so that we are in credit most of the time. Your choice though.
Quite the reverse - at least that's how it seems as the continually try to put our Direct Debit up above the annual average.
Mind you with the rises expected in the next few minutes, all previous estimates are uselss anyway.
Seeing Octopus energy put a Smart meter in our bungalow for gas and electric we have just increase the DD to cover the extra expected .
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Actually that has nothing to do with seasonal. They would have looked at the historic data over the past year and then made the decision whether to increase or decrease the monthly DD amount. If you are giving monthly readings, why are they using estimates?
We did have that issue with a previous supplier and estimates even though we have a Smart meter. Completing the form on their website had no effect so wrote again advising that as it seemed we had exhausted their complaints procedure we were going to escalate the issue to the Ombudsman. Issue was resolved in 48 hours as when it goes to the Ombudsman they are automatically charged something like £600. I was also paid a token compensation of about £10 even though it was unexpected.
I have had personal experience with one supplier that clearly did not take into account seasonal adjustment. Even though we were on a fixed price contract they would contact us in the winter months, when usage was higher, suggesting an increase in our monthly payment. We ignored this knowing full well that the summer months would balance things out.
(Just as an side - the early SMETS1 smart meters may soon become unable to transmit data to the supplier. They work on either the 2G or 3G mobile phone networks and already some communication providers are beginning to phase out 3G with 2G to follow later.)
(Just as an side - the early SMETS1 smart meters may soon become unable to transmit data to the supplier. They work on either the 2G or 3G mobile phone networks and already some communication providers are beginning to phase out 3G with 2G to follow later.)
No 3G in our area and we are very lucky to get the occasional 2G signal and we are only 8 miles from a major town. Maybe they need to ensure 3G coverage across the country before phasing it out. On many caravan sites signal is almost non existent!
I do remember when we were issued with mobile phones at work. One of the reasons given was to help in remote areas, the problem was that in remote areas they did not always work.
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