My electricity bill has just tripled: how about yours? Alternative suppliers?

[cupid_stunt]

To be honest, I don't really see why you're having this much trouble . . . it begs the question are you doing something wrong??

I've had my full credit WITHIN the 5-7 working days that Bulb (a company, by the way, in the hands of the receivers or whatever they're called), in LESS than 4 working days - pretty impressive

No I am not doing anything wrong! You cheeky fucker.

I am submitting electric & gas meter readings every month, they use the gas ones fine, but ignore the electric ones, because they are far lower than what their system thinks the reading should be, they have already admitted to the billing errors in their submission to the ombudsman, but the problem just keep rolling on.

I am glad you got your credit refunded quickly, the problem with OVO is that they are showing I am over £300 in debit, whereas I am actually over £700 credit, once they re-issue all the bills from the last 2+ years, and correct the account, I expect I should be able to get my credit balance refunded as quickly as you have.

 

[High Voltage]

. . . the problem with OVO. . .

Worryingly, it looks like OVO are also being included in the group of companies that are bidding for the Bulb accounts - of which I'm one

 

[cupid_stunt]

Worryingly, it looks like OVO are also being included in the group of companies that are bidding for the Bulb accounts - of which I'm one

I saw some stats the other day, that per 100,000 customers, OVO gets more than double the number of complaints compared to the next nearest suppliers. That's only since they took over SSE customers, typical situation of a small operator taking on a much bigger one and than struggling with merging the two operations.

Oh, here it is -

Quarterly number of complaints received by large energy suppliers in Great Britain from Q1 2013 to Q4 2021, by company

GB: complaints received by main energy utilities | Statista

Utility companies EDF Energy and OVO received an average of 2,300 complaints per 100,000 customers in the last quarter of 2023.

www.statista.com

I would like to change, but they are by far the cheapest for me. My ombudsman complaint should be resolved by the 24th July at the latest, bringing my account in order at some point soon after that, plus I have smart meters being installed on the 27th July, which should end the issue with their overestimating.

Therefore my problems should soon, like haemorrhoids, be behind me.

 

[not a trot]

Have you just come of a fixed price deal?

If you are just on the usual price cap rates, DDs should only be going up by 54%, but many companies are taking the piss.



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https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/05/energy-direct-debit-hikes-mse-survey/

Been on variable standard tariff for past 5 years. The amount of credit in the account just about covered the latest bill.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Been on variable standard tariff for past 5 years. The amount of credit in the account just about covered the latest bill.

In that case, a jump from £73 a month to £194 a month does seem excessive, OK you may need to pay a bit more that the 54% increase from the price cap, but over 250% more doesn't look right to me.

And, as that graph shows, British Gas has been the worst for increasing DDs by at least double the amount, with 33% of their customers reporting that they are in that position.

 

[WouldBe]

For the monthly billing period up to 21st June, I used 140kwh of electric, cost £39.31 before VAT & standing charge, look what the OVO's glue sniffers are billing me for!

View attachment 328555

Have you tried ramming the meter up their arse preferably still connected to the mains?

 

[Cat Fan]

No I am not doing anything wrong! You cheeky fucker.

I am submitting electric & gas meter readings every month, they use the gas ones fine, but ignore the electric ones, because they are far lower than what their system thinks the reading should be, they have already admitted to the billing errors in their submission to the ombudsman, but the problem just keep rolling on.

I am glad you got your credit refunded quickly, the problem with OVO is that they are showing I am over £300 in debit, whereas I am actually over £700 credit, once they re-issue all the bills from the last 2+ years, and correct the account, I expect I should be able to get my credit balance refunded as quickly as you have.

I had the same overbilling on electricity error across multiple suppliers and despite hours talking to customer service and submitting photos of meter readings, the only thing that got it fixed was when they switched back on my old smart meter.

 

[cybershot]

Have you just come of a fixed price deal?

If you are just on the usual price cap rates, DDs should only be going up by 54%, but many companies are taking the piss.



View attachment 328563

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/05/energy-direct-debit-hikes-mse-survey/

Sadly there's a lot of mis information in the 'It should only have gone up 54%' line. That's only true if you went from whatever the price cap was in March, to the new price cap in April.

If you've just come off an existing fixed rate deal where you were probably paying less than what the price cap was in March, then it's very highly likely your bill will go up way more than 54%

Without the full breakdown of when people's fixed rates ended etc, it's going to be numbers that are all over the place.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Sadly there's a lot of mis information in the 'It should only have gone up 54%' line. That's only true if you went from whatever the price cap was in March, to the new price cap in April.

If you've just come off an existing fixed rate deal where you were probably paying less than what the price cap was in March, then it's very highly likely your bill will go up way more than 54%

Without the full breakdown of when people's fixed rates ended etc, it's going to be numbers that are all over the place.

I know that, that's why I asked if they had just come off a fixed price deal, and said IF they are just on the usual price cap rates, it should be around 54%.

They confirmed they have been on standard rates for years.

 

[donkyboy]

Well it arrived this morning. the email I didn't want

 

[donkyboy]

anyone else with EDF? I can't locate anywhere info about my annual usage as want to at least see if any better offers anywhere else

 

[platinumsage]

anyone else with EDF? I can't locate anywhere info about my annual usage as want to at least see if any better offers anywhere else

Download a PDF of your latest bill and it should be towards the end under "About your tariff" where it gives estimated annual consumption in kWh.

 

[AnnaKarpik]

anyone else with EDF? I can't locate anywhere info about my annual usage as want to at least see if any better offers anywhere else

IIRC when you click on an EDF tariff it takes you to a page which gives estimated annual usage; how accurate this is only you can judge, they are miles out with me.

 

[donkyboy]

Well. the little shits increased the price from £67 in early July to £70pm month. I think I will have to go for the fixed rate till 2024 for £70pm

 

[platinumsage]

Smart meter customers could be paid to reduce usage at peak times this winter:

archive.ph

 

[MickiQ]

Folks are reducing usage anyway since the stuff is so sodding expensive how do they expect people to reduce it further turn everything off and sit there in the dark and the cold during peak hours?

 

[alex_]

Folks are reducing usage anyway since the stuff is so sodding expensive how do they expect people to reduce it further turn everything off and sit there in the dark and the cold during peak hours?

Not putting the washer, drier, dishwasher, oven or kettle on in the couple of hours of peak time, will make a huge difference.

Alex

 

[Artaxerxes]

Not putting the washer, drier, dishwasher, oven or kettle on in the couple of hours of peak time, will make a huge difference.

Alex

Yeah grand, nothing like eating after midnight

 

[High Voltage]

Not putting the washer, drier, dishwasher, oven or kettle on in the couple of hours of peak time, will make a huge difference.

Alex

How does this save money? - unless you're on an Economy 7 / 10 package when, of course, it will. But if on a "normal" it won't

 

[alex_]

Yeah grand, nothing like eating after midnight

Peak is 1700 to 1900

 

[MickiQ]

The basic idea is sound but the implementation is flawed, the best way is to just cut prices outside peak hours with no change to the standing charge. We used to have Economy 7 back when we had an immersion heater but without that it's not cost effective.
If however they declared a 20% drop in price for every KWh outside peak load times or even just overnight with no strings attached then I think lots of people would try and migrate what they could. Both our dishwasher and washing machine have 24hr timers on them it would be no problem to set them to run at 2am except there is currently no motivation for us to do so.

 

[two sheds]

isn't that going to need smart meters? Which is also what they want to encourage.

 

[BigTom]

How does this save money? - unless you're on an Economy 7 / 10 package when, of course, it will. But if on a "normal" it won't

the idea is that using smart meters you would pay people to not use electricity during those hours. I assume they take a baseline from average usage for your household specifically if they have enough data, or against the national average for a house of your size. So if normally you would use 3kwh during the peak evening time, and you use 1kwh instead, they will pay you - according to the article - £6 per kwh, so you would get £12 off your bill.

And yes, it would need smart meters, and it's the first time I've heard anything that makes me interested in having one.

 

[MickiQ]

the idea is that using smart meters you would pay people to not use electricity during those hours. I assume they take a baseline from average usage for your household specifically if they have enough data, or against the national average for a house of your size. So if normally you would use 3kwh during the peak evening time, and you use 1kwh instead, they will pay you - according to the article - £6 per kwh, so you would get £12 off your bill.

And yes, it would need smart meters, and it's the first time I've heard anything that makes me interested in having one.

If they are going to use my smart meter to establish a baseline then during the run up to this scheme it makes sense to do everything in peak hours to pad it out and thus get back more when the scheme starts.

 

[Chz]

The basic idea is sound but the implementation is flawed, the best way is to just cut prices outside peak hours with no change to the standing charge. We used to have Economy 7 back when we had an immersion heater but without that it's not cost effective.
If however they declared a 20% drop in price for every KWh outside peak load times or even just overnight with no strings attached then I think lots of people would try and migrate what they could. Both our dishwasher and washing machine have 24hr timers on them it would be no problem to set them to run at 2am except there is currently no motivation for us to do so.

We used to have a thing from EDF called Eco 20/20, which was a more convenient Eco7 deal. There were more discounted hours, but the discount was less. EDF only offered it for a few years though, and no-one else would take that up when we left so we're back to putting the appliances on whenever the hell we feel like it. But at least we have experience of running things off-hours.

 

[High Voltage]

the idea is that using smart meters you would pay people to not use electricity during those hours. I assume they take a baseline from average usage for your household specifically if they have enough data, or against the national average for a house of your size. So if normally you would use 3kwh during the peak evening time, and you use 1kwh instead, they will pay you - according to the article - £6 per kwh, so you would get £12 off your bill.

And yes, it would need smart meters, and it's the first time I've heard anything that makes me interested in having one.

And if you use electricity during "peak times" then, through the use of Smartmeters, they'd be able to charge extra . . . surge pricing

 

[WouldBe]

Peak is 1700 to 1900

So if you normally eat at 1800 after getting back from work you would have to wait untill after 1900 to have your evening meal. Of course if everyone does that then the peak usage period would change as well. Then what happens ?

 

[alex_]

So if you normally eat at 1800 after getting back from work you would have to wait untill after 1900 to have your evening meal. Of course if everyone does that then the peak usage period would change as well. Then what happens ?

In the scenario I was replying to - it sounds like your electricity provider would pay you 12 quid to have salad for dinner not jacket potatoes, or cook your jacket potatoes earlier.

 

[WouldBe]

In the scenario I was replying to - it sounds like your electricity provider would pay you 12 quid to have salad for dinner not jacket potatoes, or cook your jacket potatoes earlier.

Who the fuck has a salad for their evening meal let alone in the middle of winter.

 

[platinumsage]

isn't that going to need smart meters? Which is also what they want to encourage.

This is an emergency measure for this winter due to the Ukraine war, yes the article says it's for smart meter users, and no it's not some covert smart meter encouragement program.