Soldato
I believe that is the case. Storage capacity is not great. We’re not going to be importing any gas at the moment though.
Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)
- Thread starter DXP55
- Start date
Don
Rough gas storage is being re-commissioned, supposedly in time for this winter so that will “massively” increase our gas storage capacity if it happens.
What's stopping people from paying monthly the exact usage (DD whole amount) and putting money into savings/another account for the winter? this way you cannot complaint about being overcharged and your DD is always for your exact usage.
Its simply a case of stop spending unnecessarily and plan ahead.
Unless you are the type of the person who if you see "spare" money in your account, you have an urge to spend it.
Some companies are increasing direct debit amounts too much yes, but there is nothing to whine about when there is an alternative that cannot go over what you actually use. Specially when people know there are issues with DD calculations but don't do anything to help themselves. Don't expect companies to act in your best interest.
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Soldato
There is no perfect. Annual DD calc and pay actual monthly both have benefits and draw backs.
I am old enough to remember when no one paid equal DDs just the "actual" bill when it arrived (actual bill could be an estimate)
Lots of people complained the bills were so disparate between summer and winter, which is why it evolved for many paying monthly equal amounts was a big improvement.
You can budget yourself, pay actuals, put away the spare etc.
What this fails to take account of is that many people just don't get units (especially gas) and therefore cant really budget and put the correct amount away to cover the larger winter bills. Now maybe they would stand a chance of learning to do so if they were forced to, but for many this would be seen as a backwards step.
Also the really badly affected tend to have very limited money, this is always talked about, if your literally struggling for every penny its pretty much impossible to put money away when you need it now, even though you know you should.
Nothing, but in reality 80% of people have less than £500 in cash to their names according to Lloyds Bank.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that for the most part people just don’t have that much cash laying around and bill shock is a real thing.
It’s far easier to budget for a regular monthly direct debit that is the same every month. Generally speaking, that is actually what most people want.
The key difference between what you are suggesting and paying a monthly DD is that it’s much more difficult to access the money the energy company is effectively holding to pay for future bills.
In reality I expect the amount of people genuinely being overcharged via their DD to be very small.
The perceived issue is probably exacerbated by people not understanding the bills, incorrect energy predictions, irregular energy usage or they don’t provide regular meter readings.
At this time of year, you should be building a fairly substantial credit on your account. By late September-mid October I’d expect most people to start breaking even and from November to March that credit to get used up, perhaps even dropping into a debt position. The cycle then continues.
Soldato
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- 27 Mar 2013
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Any increase from 0 is massiveWhat from **** all to sod all?
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Don
I think our gas gas storage capacity is only something like 4 days. Rough I think will add 2 weeks to it if I remember right.
Even people who know about it can't conceptualise it.
These figures they use are just hard for the ordinary person to apply to thier circumstances
Going to be some shocks for people who pay on receipt
Soldato
Why not build a debt in the winter then pay it off over the summer to a zero balance (say by September) instead? I used to do this quite successfully in the past by managing my DD amounts but lately the suppliers don't like it.
Soldato
If you decide to change supplier, or move house you need to clear your debts so specifically targeting owing money and only "clearing the debt" at the end of the cheap period ie summer will likely cause you an issue should either of those happen.
Plus its yet another debt, if things take a downturn and you say lose your job do you want to start that difficult period potentially already having a worse position than you could have.
FWIW, British gas explained to me that my meter period was March, so all the properties around me had their account aimed to be balance at that point. I assume in that case there are people spread across the year and that there will be people who have their account targetted as being zero at the end of August so will be exactly what you describe, in a negative position from probably November/December right up until around August.
I think people need to learn to cut back on heating.
As a child I was used to not having heating every day, simply put the family couldnt afford it.
As an adult I have kept the same discipline.. I get that there is people with health problems, blood circulation issues and so forth, but I see young fit people who literally turn the heating on in September through to June getting themselves accustomed to Summer room temps all year round. I can only imagine those people literally have the gas pumping every hour they awake in December.
As a child I was used to not having heating every day, simply put the family couldnt afford it.
As an adult I have kept the same discipline.. I get that there is people with health problems, blood circulation issues and so forth, but I see young fit people who literally turn the heating on in September through to June getting themselves accustomed to Summer room temps all year round. I can only imagine those people literally have the gas pumping every hour they awake in December.
In my opinion anyone who is fit and healthy shouldn't put the heating on at any point during the year. It never gets cold enough to justify it, put a jumper on.
Pretty much agree, but sadly its a thing.
Reducing usage cuts bills, and variable DD alerts people when they using more, so if that encourages lower usage its a good thing. This is one of the issues I have with fixed DD, to a degree it masks what people are using as people start treating their energy as a unmetered service. I have seen some winter bills 4x or more the size of summer bills, which seems to be a complete lack of discipline on heating.
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If people didn't have heating on your have a lot more burden on the NHS. Which is what will happen this year
Is Simon0001 your alt account?
For people who need the heating for health issues/old etc fine, but for healthy people, there's not really any need. Put socks/jumper on if your cold in the winter time. Also yes there are going to be lots of deaths come winter time due to heating issues for people who need it.
Don't see the issue tbh? also dunno who simon is lol. Why do healthy people need to put the heating on? I've never seen it cold enough in the UK to justify it. Maybe on the odd occasion when we get heavy snow for awhile? last time that happened was years ago.Is Simon0001 your alt account?
This is coming from a someone who is very pale and hates the summer by the way, bring on the winter so I'm not melting.
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Healthy people will start becoming unhealthy. My partner is fairly healthy but I know for a fact if the house was 12c she'd get ill.
A lot of people would suffer the same.