We received an email today with our recent energy bill, despite it only being 17 days since the last one. Such is technology when you provide a meter reading and two weeks later they ask for another one and thus produce another bill.
Anyway, they were pleased to announce that they are reducing our monthly payment from £46 to £35 with effect from the end of February.
Whoa! No, No, NO!
So I got on the phone.
I’m pleased it’s a freefone number, and they pay for the call as I had to listen to the garb about smart meters, apps and websites before getting to the bit that I wanted about payments.
Ten minutes (and thankfully not that horrible bing bong version of Greensleeves) later
I was finally talking to an individual, who seemed most surprised about me wanting to maintain our higher payments.
I explained that the winter has been very mild so far but with a cold spell coming, the revised amount wouldn’t cover a hefty bill.
I appreciate it’s all calculated over a twelve month estimation, but I had already done that when they reduced it to £46 a little while ago, and it worked out perfectly to within a couple of pounds.
I explained all this to her, and she said that we had been reassessed and it wouldn’t matter if we owed them a little bit of money at some stage. I was adamant though, and our payments have been reinstated.
We’re on a fixed tariff which is due to expire at the end of October.
If we paid the reduced amount and then got hit with a hike in price after that time, which we will, we could be in serious trouble. If they end up giving us a refund in the summer, so be it, but for now we are comfortable both in environment and bill payments, so if it ain’t broke, we ain’t gonna fix it.
pensitivity101 
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The right decision in so many situations.
More or less what we live by!
How wisely you have acted. I would have taken the reduced tariff and would have regretted later! 😉👍
We are always worried we won’t be able to meet our bills so the budget I am working on now is for 2019/20 as this year has already been catered for. We started off at £80 a month, then reduced it to £60 and finally to £46 when they refunded us with nearly £200.
We are technically a month in credit now, but if the weather turnd really cold, our heating will go up and so will our gas consumption. Electricity is stable at 3 kwh a day or thereabouts, but our last bill was over £150, so way more than three times £35! We shall see and if a balance is still accumulating, then maybe we’d consider reducing it to £40 pm.
Excellent planning.
We budget very tightly also – surprises are not welcomed.
Familiar with that “oh, why sit on the phone – you can do this on line” repeated statement as you are calling to check – and such horrid music (surely designed to make you hang up).
You have to watch every little thing. Such a bother. You re smart to stay the course
I calculated our gas usage on last winter and £46 pm was perfect for both gas and electricity. It’s so easy to rely on computers who run the numbers without scenarios.
I hate the blurb recorded messages, but as the company pays for the call, I wait. The music was quite pleasant today, except one track which was a bit too (c)rappy and up tempo for hanging on music IMO nd thus annoying.
I have to laugh that they want our mobile number for apps etc when they already have it but it only accepts calls and texts! That must play hell with their computer system!
The most annoying sites are when there is no option to speak to a human being and all you are offered is a list of frequently asked questions none of which fit the question you wish to ask. I think they must delete the most frequently asked question that of; WHY DON’T YOU HAVE A HUMAN BEING I CAN SPEAK TO?
I get so tired when it’s assumed you have the latest technology for their software. In some instances, you can’t even write to them!
They also assume you know how to do things on a computer, when I was at school we had books and ink pens, what do they expect from us?
We had books and ink too.
It sounds like it was in the dark ages but it was only in the 60’s.
and 70s. I left school in 1972 and the foster kids in my care in the 80s also had pen and paper. Gawd, I feel old! (but wait, I am!!)
It’s only a number!