Does anyone understand their electricity bill?

[Awayfromburnley]

Kind of a straw poll, partly for help too.

Does anyone really understand their bill?

My bill with EDF is bonkers.

Fluctuating each month with no discernable reason. Credits and Debits galore.

Is there a way to address it?

[Bow]

It’s complicated on purpose

[ChrisG]

I guess it depends on your tariff and usage.

Your usage will naturally fluctuate every month, so your bill in terms of what you actually owe will vary from month to month.

However most companies average your usage over a year and allow you to pay the monthly average, and of you use less than the average you have a credit balance, if you use more then you pay the deficit

[Claretitus]

I was with British Gas dual fuel for 6 years, and switched to Octopus in April. I paid £145/ month to BG for the last year or so, and was £80 in credit when I switched, which they refunded. I started to pay Octopus £153/month, and was relaxed about it. In early August, they wanted to put up my bill to £360/month. My usage is actually down, as I got rid of my electric car, and have never been at home all summer, as we have a holiday home. I told them to do one, ( they didn’t object), my payments are staying the same, yet they say my account is in a negative position to the tune of £2,100. They say this means if I choose to leave , I owe them this. EH? after 4 months? I very much doubt it.

[ICL]

Electric bill is straight forward…but gas, not so much!

[Quickenthetempo]

I was with British Gas dual fuel for 6 years, and switched to Octopus in April. I paid £145/ month to BG for the last year or so, and was £80 in credit when I switched, which they refunded. I started to pay Octopus £153/month, and was relaxed about it. In early August, they wanted to put up my bill to £360/month. My usage is actually down, as I got rid of my electric car, and have never been at home all summer, as we have a holiday home. I told them to do one, ( they didn’t object), my payments are staying the same, yet they say my account is in a negative position to the tune of £2,100. They say this means if I choose to leave , I owe them this. EH? after 4 months? I very much doubt it.

Do you submit meter readings monthly? That should sort any over estimating.

They do try and blag you to pay higher DDs so you build up credit, which then their company will have far better cash flow.

[ollieclarets8]

I was with British Gas dual fuel for 6 years, and switched to Octopus in April. I paid £145/ month to BG for the last year or so, and was £80 in credit when I switched, which they refunded. I started to pay Octopus £153/month, and was relaxed about it. In early August, they wanted to put up my bill to £360/month. My usage is actually down, as I got rid of my electric car, and have never been at home all summer, as we have a holiday home. I told them to do one, ( they didn’t object), my payments are staying the same, yet they say my account is in a negative position to the tune of £2,100. They say this means if I choose to leave , I owe them this. EH? after 4 months? I very much doubt it.

I too am with Octopus and not convinced with them all at all. But they might be the best of an absolute horrendous bunch.

I do random checks of the meter - if it's lower than their prediction online, I update it. If it's higher, I don't.

[evensteadiereddie]

I've been with Octopus for quite a while and smart meters fitted.
Fabulous until things go awry which they did last December. No signals, no data. The bills I received were, of course, estimated but when compared with the previous year's useage they seemed reasonable until I received a bill that, honestly, made no sense and, even worse, was massively inaccurate.
To be fair, after a few firm yet polite emails, the meter was fixed and the figures sorted out.
Blow me if not four months later another set of figures arrived, reverse billing this, reverse billing that and, again, none of it making sense.
Even the agent I had dialogue with didn't have a convincing explanation .
I reckon I'm still a £150 quid down so I've decided to scrap the monthly DD and pay only for the energy used per month.
I know you've got to be careful and plan ahead for the colder months but I'd rather do that than lend Octopus my money.
So, while the meters were doing their jobs, no problem but I'm not sure Octopus know how to retrieve the correct data once it's gone.

[Claretitus]

Do you submit meter readings monthly? That should sort any over estimating.

They do try and blag you to pay higher DDs so you build up credit, which then their company will have far better cash flow.

Hi, Quicken, yes I do. Religiously when they e mail requesting my readings. Even more mysterious, they always say my usage is lower than expected, which, for reasons I’ve explained, IS. But they still tried to increase my monthly payment by over 100%, and say I owe them over £2000.

[ecc]

Electric bill is straight forward…but gas, not so much!

Do they run "Understanding your bill" courses?

[Corway]

I saved by switching to Octopus and can’t get a smart meter to connect so submit monthly readings. My 12 month contract started last October but they started basing my payments on an April end meaning two winters.
By last month I was over £300 in credit but couldn’t reduce payments yet it predicted I’d by £600 in credit by October.
Wrote asking for an explanation and a refund of all my credit. I got it in 3 days. Their new tariff is for £30 a month less than they wanted last year. So they do need watching but seem helpful when you contact them

[Quickenthetempo]

Hi, Quicken, yes I do. Religiously when they e mail requesting my readings. Even more mysterious, they always say my usage is lower than expected, which, for reasons I’ve explained, IS. But they still tried to increase my monthly payment by over 100%, and say I owe them over £2000.

If you can't resolve it just ask to pay whatever you use monthly.

As others have said DDs are only estimates and convenient for collecting money in.
As long as you can afford winter bills.

[timshorts]

I had a client that was over £1,000 in credit. He then moved into a care home, so the bungalow was empty thereafter.

The energy company wrote to say that they estimated that his bills would go up, so I told them the above. After their response that they would put it up anyway, i, told them that their position was bordering on criminal fraud and taking advantage of their consumer's vulnerability. They relented, but didn't reduce the payments, so he was owed £2,000+ when the house was sold about 6 months later.

I also had a gas company (with the initials bg) trying to break into a home to fit a coin meter because there was about £1,000 owed. A neighbour thankfully intervened. Not only did they know that the owner was dead, but they started issuing bills to a fictitious owner (so they didn't get redirected) but the meter showed that only one (1) unit had not been paid for, and the meter was outside - but they hadn't been assed to look.

[claretburns]

Was with EDF a couple of years ago paying £70 a month and received an e-mail one day saying they are increasing my bill to £1,700 per month, got in touch with them and told them they absolutely weren't increasing it. They asked how much I could afford and I said £70, they said what about £400, I said no £70, they asked for £200, again I said £70 and they said £75 after almost an hour on the phone I agreed.

3 weeks later I got another e-mail off them saying they were increasing my DD to £800 a month, what followed was another back and forth conversation until it remained at £75 and I left them a week later.

[boatshed bill]

I am with Octopus (for business electricity only) and we are with them for gas and electricity at home.
We submit meter readings monthly (not smart meters, ours are reliable), not a problem whatsoever. They take their money by DD agreement.

[Down_Rover]

I've been with Octopus for quite a while and smart meters fitted.
Fabulous until things go awry which they did last December. No signals, no data. The bills I received were, of course, estimated but when compared with the previous year's useage they seemed reasonable until I received a bill that, honestly, made no sense and, even worse, was massively inaccurate.
To be fair, after a few firm yet polite emails, the meter was fixed and the figures sorted out.
Blow me if not four months later another set of figures arrived, reverse billing this, reverse billing that and, again, none of it making sense.
Even the agent I had dialogue with didn't have a convincing explanation .
I reckon I'm still a £150 quid down so I've decided to scrap the monthly DD and pay only for the energy used per month.
I know you've got to be careful and plan ahead for the colder months but I'd rather do that than lend Octopus my money.
So, while the meters were doing their jobs, no problem but I'm not sure Octopus know how to retrieve the correct data once it's gone.

I had similar issues with Octopus when both their meters packed up. They estimated usage based on historic usage when we had three teenage children here. They have all moved out but they made no adjustment.
After many emails too and fro they reduced their refund and issued a refund

[Boss Hogg]

Has anyone received there accumulated credit back in payment ?
A word of warning never ever use Scottish Power. If your meter is faulty you could be in big financial trouble.

[Steve-Harpers-perm]

I've been with Octopus for quite a while and smart meters fitted.
Fabulous until things go awry which they did last December. No signals, no data. The bills I received were, of course, estimated but when compared with the previous year's useage they seemed reasonable until I received a bill that, honestly, made no sense and, even worse, was massively inaccurate.
To be fair, after a few firm yet polite emails, the meter was fixed and the figures sorted out.
Blow me if not four months later another set of figures arrived, reverse billing this, reverse billing that and, again, none of it making sense.
Even the agent I had dialogue with didn't have a convincing explanation .
I reckon I'm still a £150 quid down so I've decided to scrap the monthly DD and pay only for the energy used per month.
I know you've got to be careful and plan ahead for the colder months but I'd rather do that than lend Octopus my money.
So, while the meters were doing their jobs, no problem but I'm not sure Octopus know how to retrieve the correct data once it's gone.

I’m having exactly the same issues with Octopus and their smart meters.

[Inchy]

I’ve been with a few companies that obsessively message me in winter about increasing my direct debit, even though I know il be in debit as when summer comes il be in credit. EDF would automatically put up bill by a stupid amount and would only let me slightly decrease it via the app, and it would take a phone call to properly decrease it.

I was 300 quid in debit with Scottish power in April. I’m now 300 quid in credit. It’s as if they don’t know how the sun and heating homes work

[Inchy]

I had similar issues with Octopus when both their meters packed up. They estimated usage based on historic usage when we had three teenage children here. They have all moved out but they made no adjustment.
After many emails too and fro they reduced their refund and issued a refund

In my old house which I move from in dec my old electric meter stopped working and they forced me to move to a smart meter. The smart meter was fitted about a week before I moved out. I’d been meterless for about 3 months.

They just forgot to charge me. Never paid for the 3 months. F*ck em

[Woodleyclaret]

I have OVO and they've been supportive in clearing my winter bill owed due to the government's nonsense about cutting my winter fuel help
Hopefully the payment this winter will clear monies owing .It's that or wearing more sweaters this winter

[dougcollins]

Electric bill is straight forward…but gas, not so much!

Have a look at Boyle's Law, that'll explain it.

[Foreverly Claret]

I'm with OVO.A few months back I was paying the £362 per month and I was in credit to the tune of £ 700. I did some calcs and worked out that £ 260 per month should see me through the winter
They wouldn't let me drop below, £300 so I'm now over £ 850 in credit. They are a law unto themselves. I was going to switch to Octopus but from what I'm reading they're all as bad as each other

[jlup1980]

I'm with Octopus and I've never had a problem with them. I have a smart meter, and so far (touch wood) everything has been spot on. No surprises, no concerns, and really good customer service when I have contacted them (updating my tariff for example). Like a lot of people, I'm in quite a hefty credit at the moment, £500, due to the summer weather, but I've claimed money back in the past and never had a problem. From my experience, they're a different world to the likes of British Gas etc.

[Tricky Trevor]

Not solely a UK problem as mine, in Ireland, is the same. I can wade through and check it but it takes a while. Solar doesn’t help as they mix the re-generation in with the units used.
What annoys me more is it is a random date in the middle of the month as we run a spreadsheet for our month ends.

[beddie]

Was with EDF a couple of years ago paying £70 a month and received an e-mail one day saying they are increasing my bill to £1,700 per month, got in touch with them and told them they absolutely weren't increasing it. They asked how much I could afford and I said £70, they said what about £400, I said no £70, they asked for £200, again I said £70 and they said £75 after almost an hour on the phone I agreed.

3 weeks later I got another e-mail off them saying they were increasing my DD to £800 a month, what followed was another back and forth conversation until it remained at £75 and I left them a week later.

I’m intrigued to know what explanation they gave you to increase payments to £1700 from £700.

[Big Vinny K]

I moved to Octopus around 3 years ago and generally I think they have been far better than all the other providers I have used down the years.

I moved to their agile tariff a couple a years ago - only have my electricity with them but the agile tariff can be really good and there are usually a couple of times a week at least where it’s free for a few hours or even better a negative tariff (ie they pay you for using electricity !!)

In the last 2 or 3 months I have had a few billing problems though. There have been a few days where the smart meter data is missing - it’s a problem at their end but it means that the bill is not generated and they rely on the customer raising this before they resolve it. They have resolved it each time and got the missing data uploaded and that has generated the bill but without my intervention this would not happen which seems poor for a company with millions of customers. I actually think their repaid growth has meant that their systems and processes have a few gaps.

Though that said it’s far better and more dynamic than anything I’ve had with other companies and when you email or ring up their customer services it’s easy to get through and they respond very quickly and efficiently.

Of all the pain in the arse companies I have to deal with I’d say Octopus are probably the least painful and they have been genuinely far less expensive than my previous electricity provider.

[Jakubclaret]

I just pay it I don't think I've ever looked at the bill to try to understand it nor want to. If it ever got to the point where the bill seemed unreasonable or excessively high I'd probably look into it. Life is too short to be worrying about money.

[dougcollins]

Life is too short to be worrying about money.

Try saying that to someone who has none.

[Jakubclaret]

Try saying that to someone who has none.

People can worry but worrying won't help matters if anything it'll make things worse. What will be will be everything will sort itself out it always does.

[boatshed bill]

People can worry but worrying won't help matters if anything it'll make things worse. What will be will be everything will sort itself out it always does.

Try telling that to someone with no money worries

[Jakubclaret]

Try telling that to someone with no money worries

Money comes money goes it's the circle of life. It's better not to worry I understand that people do worry. I've yet to come across people that worry where their fortunes have improved but in contrast people that are chilled out & don't give a sh1t things have naturally improved.

[Healeywoodclaret]

Don’t sign up to a Direct Debit is the answer. I’m with OVO and just pay for what I use. I have a smart meter. You simply pay less per month in summer and more per month in winter which is fine by me.