Just a little reminder to inform your current electricity supplier of your meter reading either today or tomorrow this ensures that as little as possible / none of the electricity you use will be charged at an estimated usage rate and at thud new prices
Artificially boosting told reading is fraud however you maybe tempted to round up
If on a prepaid key (?) it maybe worth, if you can afford it, loading up your account to the max as prepaid electricity should be charged at the old rate until you have exhausted what has been preloaded - check with your provider
And whilst the temptation to stop paying by direct debit maybe great the extra cost in doing so may not be worth it
This guidance comes from Martin Lewes "The Money Saving Expert" check either youtube or his Web site for and clarification or confirmation
He also suggests not changing suppliers for the time being but again check TMSE our other sources you trust
Re prepayment meters, apparently Martin Lewis and his team checked with utilities companies and there was only a Scottish company, iirc, that said they wouldn't honour the current price if someone 'stockpiled' their prepayment meter, all the others said that the 'hack' (why is everything a hack nowadays?) would work.
But Martin Lewis has updated this to say that some of the other energy companies might not now honour the current price, they might still charge the new higher rate, so there might, or might not, still be an advantage to doing this. Apparently, it's more likely to work if you have a dumb (as opposed to smart) prepayment meter.
Re direct debits, I get that it's savvy to pay by direct debit because you get a discount for doing so. He says the extra cost means it might not be worth doing.
For a long time, utilities companies have offered a discount to customers who pay by direct debit. (Although I've just tried to check how much Eon offers and their website says something about no discount but they charge lower prices, Hmmm...)
For some people it might make sense and might be financially prudent to pay by direct debit because you get a small discount, maybe £5-10, whatever? But for others, it's worthwhile missing out on that discount in order to keep control of your finances.
There have been so many horror stories of people with direct debits who get notified that their monthly payments are going up by, from eg £50 to £80 or whatever, and when you take into account increases for both utilities, it's a lot when they just start taking money out of your account. I think Martin Lewis is failing to take account that many people don't have a financial cushion, they can't afford for the utilities companies to just start helping themselves to more money from their bank account.
Also, the problem is that utilities companies have a propensity for randomly increasing direct debits with the result that there's a massive overpayment accruing. There's some sense in overpaying a bit in summer to help counter increased useage in winter, to pay a set amount each month rather than low bills in summer and big bills in winter, most people would rather even out those peaks and troughs so that they can budget better. But the problem is that the utilities companies take the piss and overestimate usage and then some customers end up with their accounts in credit.
Check how much your account is in credit. Sometimes they let accounts accrue credits of £hundreds. That money's better off in your account than theirs.
I don't like that they can just change the amount and take more money out of your account with direct debits, when you can set up a standing order that enables you to dictate the amount and if they're wanting more money, you can challenge them before agreeing to pay more.
Of course it's in their interests, for their finances and business plans to be in control and to be able to just change the amount and grab more and more and more money from their customers' accounts. It's the closest thing to a licence to print money, other than the National Mint. So to me, it's worth the extra £5-10 a year to be in control of my bank account and to know that they can't just dip into it and grab more money as and when they feel like it, which might fuck up my precarious finances.
