Energy bill increases

[fossyant]

its all according what they class as debt....i pay monthly on reciept of bill, but have 14 days to pay.

So my bill arrived on the 3rd August, which gives me til the 17th to pay, so they would class me as in debt.....but shouldnt until after the pay date. i get paid on the 15th of the month, so in truth i wont be in debt ( as they call it) after that date, as i will pay the bill then.

It's a bit like when I send the readings in. I don't do them on the 1st/2nd as my DD hasn't gone through yet, so submit around the 5th, that's when my DD's hit, so results in a credit.

I didn't watch the consumption very much in the past, and certainly when we started WFH over winter then I really noticed having only done a quarterly reading - gulp the bill was massive.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Back to topic now ... just checked my fixed electricity only account ending next month - wiil become variable, unit price up roughly 50%, standing charge over 100%!

 

[jowwy]

Back to topic now ... just checked my fixed electricity only account ending next month - wiil become variable, unit price up roughly 50%, standing charge over 100%!

yup same happened to me at end of March....just in time for the april price increase. But you now have both increases to contend with as octobers is on the horrizon. your bill could triple at the end of september

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

, standing charge over 100%!

Which is rather taking the whatsit

I can understand that oil and gas prices have risen - and hence electric costs more to generate - but the cost of running the company has not risen much and that is what the standing charge is supposed to be for

that is the sort of thing that the regulator is supposed to be there to protect us from - or so I rather naively thought

 

[jowwy]

Which is rather taking the whatsit

I can understand that oil and gas prices have risen - and hence electric costs more to generate - but the cost of running the company has not risen much and that is what the standing charge is supposed to be for

that is the sort of thing that the regulator is supposed to be there to protect us from - or so I rather naively thought

it was raised to pay for the bail out of the other companies, so they say....rather than putting it onto the unit rate. Which means at some point the standing charge should decrease, even if the unit rate doesnt.

We can hope lol

 

[GuyBoden]

Do you have any cite for that? I can't find any reference to it.

AFAIK, Ofcom don't charge either supplier when you switch, I'm not even sure they have the right to do so.

They are the new OFGEM rules, the new suppliers has to pay the old supplier when you switch under certain circustances. They are calling it a 'market stabilisation' charge'.

The OFGEM representative was explaining the 'market stabilisation' charge' a while back on BBC Radio 4.
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/market-stabilisation-charge-dashboard

Maybe, easier to understand on Martin Lewis' site here:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/n...e-energy-price-cap-every-three/#stabilisation
"What is the 'market stabilisation charge' – and what does it mean for bills?

The 'market stabilisation charge' is a charge on suppliers when they sign up new customers. When you switch, the new supplier will have to pay this fee to the old provider if wholesale energy prices fall significantly.

It was introduced in April to enable suppliers that have bought lots of energy in advance – to cover the higher number of customers on standard variable tariffs right now – to recover some of the costs if wholesale prices drop suddenly and they see huge numbers of customers switching away from their standard tariff, according to Ofgem.

When it was introduced, suppliers would have to pay if wholesale prices dropped by 30% on the level Ofgem uses to calculate the price cap. The changes announced today mean that suppliers will now have to pay a charge if wholesale prices drop by just 10%.

Initially, the gaining supplier will have to pay the losing supplier 75% of the cost of the energy beyond this trigger point – this has now been increased to 85% following today's announcement.

This is worked out as a pound per kilowatt hour (£/kWh) charge which Ofgem will publish weekly. The charge is multiplied by the customer's annual usage and the gaining supplier pays that amount.

This could potentially kill the return of cheap deals for switchers if wholesale prices were to fall dramatically, as suppliers would have to bake these additional costs into the price of their tariffs."

 

[jowwy]

They are the new OFCOM Ofgem rules, the new suppliers has to pay the old supplier when you switch under certain circustances. They are calling it a 'market stabilisation' charge'.

The OFCOM Ofgem representative was explaining the 'market stabilisation' charge' a while back on BBC Radio 4.
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/market-stabilisation-charge-dashboard

Maybe, easier to understand on Martin Lewis' site here:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/n...e-energy-price-cap-every-three/#stabilisation
"What is the 'market stabilisation charge' – and what does it mean for bills?

The 'market stabilisation charge' is a charge on suppliers when they sign up new customers. When you switch, the new supplier will have to pay this fee to the old provider if wholesale energy prices fall significantly.

It was introduced in April to enable suppliers that have bought lots of energy in advance – to cover the higher number of customers on standard variable tariffs right now – to recover some of the costs if wholesale prices drop suddenly and they see huge numbers of customers switching away from their standard tariff, according to Ofgem.

When it was introduced, suppliers would have to pay if wholesale prices dropped by 30% on the level Ofgem uses to calculate the price cap. The changes announced today mean that suppliers will now have to pay a charge if wholesale prices drop by just 10%.

Initially, the gaining supplier will have to pay the losing supplier 75% of the cost of the energy beyond this trigger point – this has now been increased to 85% following today's announcement.

This is worked out as a pound per kilowatt hour (£/kWh) charge which Ofgem will publish weekly. The charge is multiplied by the customer's annual usage and the gaining supplier pays that amount.

This could potentially kill the return of cheap deals for switchers if wholesale prices were to fall dramatically, as suppliers would have to bake these additional costs into the price of their tariffs."

FTFY

 

[GuyBoden]

No they are not, Ofcom might be a total waste of taxpayers money sitting in their Ivory tower with no concept of what is going in in their industry, however they have Rockall to do with energy/

Ok, it's OFGEM.

Easy mistake, sorry.

Edit: It's just too hot.

 

[GuyBoden]

Ofgem new rules include charging the new supplier if you move.

I did state Ofgem in my original post.

 

[PaulSB]

Oh I sympathise and agree but I'm very pragmatic in life. If a company or someone is not offering what I need....I move. I dont get to set the rules, I find something that works for me within the framework someone sets out, if I cant, bye bye.
Tbf, I didn't realise BG did this, I pay DD fixed amount to Bulb and it works well, gives you a solid start and some reassurance the bill will at least be mostly covered. Thats the way I thought they all operated.
Sounds like BG are making sure they collect every penny as soon as possible where the likes of Bulb effectively let you carry some debt or credit over the year. Swings and roundabouts, some people don't want to overpay and have a company holding their excess money, personally, that suits me fine.

Did Standing Order die over the years because I always thought, DD was a variable amount a company could take from your account, a Standing Order was a fixed amount you set , the company couldn't take more without at least giving you notification/ notice .

My experience is yes they do all operate this way with the exception of BG. We have been with a variety of smaller energy companies for perhaps 20-25 years and all provided the service we wished to receive. Unfortunately when People's Energy went broke last August we were moved to BG as the "supplier of last resort." Never has a company been more accurately described, the customer service, billing etc. is utterly appalling and I could never recommend BG because of this. I must though emphasise we have used their boiler maintenance service for years and been very happy with and impressed by the engineers who arrive annually.

Yep, SOs died many years ago though of course one can still chose to set one up and I'm considering this as one way in which I tackle the looming crisis. I would love to move but now is not the time and when I did check other supplier's prices I couldn't get anything at a lower cost.

There are two types of DD, fixed and variable, self-explanatory really.

 

[midlife]

Not gas or electric but heating oil. Just pondering when would be the best time to fill the 1000 litre tank. Fuel on the forecourt seems to be going down.....

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Not gas or electric but heating oil. Just pondering when would be the best time to fill the 1000 litre tank. Fuel on the forecourt seems to be going down.....

Sister moved back into her house after failing to sell it, in the meantime somebody has been in & drained the full tank

 

[ColinJ]

Sister moved back into her house after failing to sell it, in the meantime somebody has been in & drained the full tank

My sister had a load of old copper central heating pipes in her back garden which she was going to take to a scrap dealer but someone sneaked in while she was walking her dog and nicked the lot!

 

[mjr]

Sister moved back into her house after failing to sell it, in the meantime somebody has been in & drained the full tank

Some people have all the luck! Took us ages to find someone willing to drain our old heating oil tank...

 

[Alex321]

They are the new OFGEM rules, the new suppliers has to pay the old supplier when you switch under certain circustances. They are calling it a 'market stabilisation' charge'.

The OFGEM representative was explaining the 'market stabilisation' charge' a while back on BBC Radio 4.
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/market-stabilisation-charge-dashboard

Maybe, easier to understand on Martin Lewis' site here:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/n...e-energy-price-cap-every-three/#stabilisation
"What is the 'market stabilisation charge' – and what does it mean for bills?

The 'market stabilisation charge' is a charge on suppliers when they sign up new customers. When you switch, the new supplier will have to pay this fee to the old provider if wholesale energy prices fall significantly.

It was introduced in April to enable suppliers that have bought lots of energy in advance – to cover the higher number of customers on standard variable tariffs right now – to recover some of the costs if wholesale prices drop suddenly and they see huge numbers of customers switching away from their standard tariff, according to Ofgem.

When it was introduced, suppliers would have to pay if wholesale prices dropped by 30% on the level Ofgem uses to calculate the price cap. The changes announced today mean that suppliers will now have to pay a charge if wholesale prices drop by just 10%.

Initially, the gaining supplier will have to pay the losing supplier 75% of the cost of the energy beyond this trigger point – this has now been increased to 85% following today's announcement.

This is worked out as a pound per kilowatt hour (£/kWh) charge which Ofgem will publish weekly. The charge is multiplied by the customer's annual usage and the gaining supplier pays that amount.

This could potentially kill the return of cheap deals for switchers if wholesale prices were to fall dramatically, as suppliers would have to bake these additional costs into the price of their tariffs."

Thanks.

Makes some sense when you read that. I had wrongly thought it was OFGEM actually making the charge.

It does only apply if wholesale prices fall.