How much is your water bill?

Ours is now up to £56 per month.

2 adults, 2 children. We're on a water meter.

Credit to Wessex Water. They helped fix a leak and we're out in the sticks, but have great water pressure.
 
Conscript said:
Conscript said:
I have no idea what's going on.

Southern Water. Earlier this year we had the water bill come through. £485. DD rising from £33 to £67 a month. Water usage hasn't changed much..in fact, it went down slightly compared to the preceding year. Latest average is reported as 210 litres per day, which sounded high to me, but apparently is about normal.

Had an email this morning. "To keep your account on track, your Direct Debit payment is changing to £73.64 from December." I don't know how. We aren't using any more water. I logged into the account and click Amend Payment just to review it and there's a warning that says "The payment amount you have selected won't cover your usage which may result in you owing us money. Please increase the amount to at least £79.22."

Wtaf? I am not sure how they are justifying these direct debit rises. According to their own figures, our usage averages 210 litres, or £1.29 a day.

For usage context - there's two of us in a small, 2 bedroom house. Bathroom was redone a couple of years ago to get rid of the bathtub as we only shower and aren't prone to spending that long in it anyway. Toilet was changed to a modern water saving one at the same time. Hot water system is traditional boiler and water tank, but our hot water is only scheduled to run for an hour a day and the heating is used sparingly. The most water intense thing I do is washing the car, but I try to do that less these days and almost always used a pressure washer as I understand it's more efficient. And I haven't used a garden sprinkler at all this year (did so the year before but noticed the increased usage).

Just been in the loft double checking the water tank. Nothing running, all taps closed. Went and checked the water meter in the road, couldn't see any movement so I don't think I have a leak. I'm not really sure what else I can do to reduce usage.

Am I alone in thinking that £80 a month is obscene?
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They've just put ours up another 8%, after the 52% increase a couple of months ago! Total scam.
 
joelk2 said:
£34 a month I pay. Single person 80% of the time and only there 3-4 days a week. Feel like I’m being robbed
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That does seem like your being robbed, do you have baths or showers? how many bedrooms/kitchens/bathrooms?


im a single person and i pay £19 a month, this includes 7 days a week there, shows in mornings and evenings, kitchen usage, toilet flushing, i dont have baths, i also use the jetwash now and again
 
DJMK4 said:
That does seem like your being robbed, do you have baths or showers? how many bedrooms/kitchens/bathrooms?


im a single person and i pay £19 a month, this includes 7 days a week there, shows in mornings and evenings, kitchen usage, toilet flushing, i dont have baths, i also use the jetwash now and again
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2 bedrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 bathroom and 1 downstairs loo.

Only showers. No baths. Max of 15 showers between me/kids at my house over a 2 week period.

Going to have to question it I think.
 
NickK said:
We don’t direct debit simply because their forecasting is so bad they end up overcharging you and then sitting on the interest. Quite fraudulent in my view.
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Why would you need to rely on forecasting? Just setup DD, use 6 months of water and then pay off the bill when they send it via DD. Theres nothing fraudulent about it, you are infact borrowing from them.

www.stwater.co.uk

Pay in full | Payment plans | My Account | Severn Trent Water

The Severn Trent Water website is the place to manage your account. You can keep up to date with news and learn about water quality and Severn Trent Water's services.
www.stwater.co.uk www.stwater.co.uk

Paying your bill | Account and billing | Help | Thames Water

Learn how to pay your bill quickly and easily, from setting up a direct debit, to paying with a debit or credit card, we'll explain all your options.
www.thameswater.co.uk www.thameswater.co.uk
 
Gammawolf said:
Why would you need to rely on forecasting? Just setup DD, use 6 months of water and then pay off the bill when they send it via DD. Theres nothing fraudulent about it, you are infact borrowing from them.

www.stwater.co.uk

Pay in full | Payment plans | My Account | Severn Trent Water

The Severn Trent Water website is the place to manage your account. You can keep up to date with news and learn about water quality and Severn Trent Water's services.
www.stwater.co.uk www.stwater.co.uk

Paying your bill | Account and billing | Help | Thames Water

Learn how to pay your bill quickly and easily, from setting up a direct debit, to paying with a debit or credit card, we'll explain all your options.
www.thameswater.co.uk www.thameswater.co.uk
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Can also pay with a credit card (at least for Thames Water when you pay in full at the half yearly biil). That's what I plan to do, to make the hit smaller but still not pay them like they'd prefer.
 
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Is it true you can claim £10 or £20 once a year from your water supplier if you have had an effect in your area (burst pipe in area) causing low pressure etc? its listed on the moneysaving expert site?

thinking of trying this, since they say i owe £100 and now also if i pay off the £100 to clear the balance, my water is going from apparently £19 to £40 a month because of the price increases.


I have had a look at my last 6 months reading, i have used less water , quite a bit less, than i did the previous 6 months before
 
Used to pay around £15 when i first moved in, (14ish years ago) Slowly went up to around £20 through probably a 10 year period, and then these last 3-4 years its gone up from £20 to £35

I guess when you think what you are actually getting, it seems pretty cheap to be fair!
 
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sprite1275 said:
I don't believe it is cheap. What, about 20 year ago everything was way cheaper and bills, taxes way less and everything was great. NHS, police, schools, roads etc.

Now we're paying loads for everything and everything is on its knees. We're being completely fleeced.
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Not sure about the Tax mate but yeah utility pricing is a national scandal.

My water up £100 per quarter! How are these companies able to pass on their lack of investment is mind boggling.
 
DJMK4 said:
Is it true you can claim £10 or £20 once a year from your water supplier if you have had an effect in your area (burst pipe in area) causing low pressure etc? its listed on the moneysaving expert site?
Click to expand...

It's often automatic these days, unless they've somehow managed to interrupt your supply for an extended period without realising it at the time, nor you or others telling them

Help and support during an incident | Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water

Our teams work hard 24/7, 365 days a year to provide water and waste services to our customers and ensuring that you have uninterrupted services is our key priority.
www.dwrcymru.com www.dwrcymru.com

We will always try to restore your water supply as quickly and safely as we can. If we haven’t restored it within 12 hours of knowing about the problem, then we will give our household customers £30 and our business customers £75 within 20 working days. For every further 12 hours the water supply remains interrupted, we will pay an additional payment (£30 household customers and £75 business customers).
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My broadband costs less than my water , for one person


It is stupid the pricing, concidering i hardly use any water!

What i am probably paying for, is the in negligence of the maintenance of their systems most likely. They realise they have to fix a load of stuff because of years of neglect, and its the customer who now pays through the tooth to fix this
 
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