No wonder this country is Donald Ducked

Time to switch suppliers me thinks. I bet you're on either British Gas or N'Power.

 

I only ever pay what I owe, I refuse to be drawn into those stupid monthly direct debit amounts, it never works and you either end up paying too much or not enough.

 

Can your current supplier still block that if you're in arrears? I think that used to be the case.


EDIT: Our last quarter's fuel bill for a 3 bed semi with electric heating (and everything else) which would have been a slightly below average bill was only £205.81 for 13 weeks, so £68.60 pro-rata to one month. Off to cut down some more trees & collect some more pallets..........

 

Gosh, FC!!!

Not quite sure who the right person is to get in contact with, but, I'd be starting with my MP!!!! I work on the principle, "if it doesn't *feel* right, it probably isn't" and to me, this does *not* feel right; not at all!!!! That is an almost triple increase!!??? It is certainly not "reasonable" and I really feel is completely unethical!

Start with your MP, then take it from there. Hopefully, someone more knowledgable on this issue will be along to give you more definitive advice; but, I do know that if they tried that on with me .... oooooooooh, I'd be spitting feathers!!! (and that says nothing about what they would be sh1t-in )

To clear a £400 arrears between now and March does *not* warrant a £260 increase in monthly payments!!

 

I used to be with Npower untill i noticed that they where own me £500 of overpaying , called them and told me to wait for the next month as the bill was already issued , done the same for 3 months untill they even try to increse my monthley direct debit , I had enough and moved to EDF , my bill from £100 , went down to £70 and they even sent me money back at the end of the year without any phone call .

 

Watchdog is another option!

 

Ok then, the daily papers: give them the publicity they do not want! (Gosh, I'm steaming sitting here!!!)

 

Possibly; but, this would be a good opportunity to have a look at your usage and think about how you could economise?

For example: are you boiling a full kettle each time? (pour the excess into a flask and use that for the next cuppa; alternatively, only fill the kettle with the amount of water you actually *need*)
Are lights being left on unnecessarily? (Surprising how that adds up!)
Are your rads/hot water on a timer?
Do you add extra clothing before turning to heating?
Do you "cook" economically? (E.g use a slow cooker instead of an oven? Cook batches of food when the oven is on?)
Do you line dry rather than turn to a tumble dryer (or, even , dryer racks?)
Remember the humble hot water bottle? All my family have one: either as a warming "cuddle" while watching a film, or for bedwarming.
Are there any appliances which are left on when they don't need to be? (Mobile phone charges are a classic!)
Is your freezer running below full capacity? Fill it to the brim with cheap bread to make it more efficient.

There are so many more things which may help (little by little) which I'm sure I haven't covered; hopefully others will be able to offer suggestions, FC.

 

How about getting a slot meter, you dont get onto arrears that way.

Have many happy memories as a kid sitting under the stairs pushing shillings into the meter.
Then the bloke come round and emptied the meter, divided up the money and we got some back to put in the meter again.

 

We have a key meters (took over from the slot meters). They are a nuisance, because if you forget to top them up, sometimes the power or gas goes off.

They were here when we moved in, and I was going to get them taken out and proper ones put in, which I will still do at some point in the future, but for now apart from the slight inconvenience, they are serving us well in that we always know how much we're spending on gas and electricity on a week by week basis. It makes it much easier to manage the cost, and a few times I've had to tell the wife to be less wasteful (she went through a phase of leaving the immersion heater on until after she'd been in the the tub, effectively heating the water twice for every tub, and costing me a fortune.

 

Aren't you on a much higher tariff that way? Pretty scandalous as it directly overcharges the poorest people.

 

Those were my thoughts too.