Does Anyone Understand Their Utility Bills

[emmie]

say your electricity bill, the rates you are charged, how it set out and the many options of costs, i don't and now my company is dropping the rate i had been on and after speaking with one of the advisor's am none the wiser as to which option is cheaper, blue rate plus, blue rate non plus and standard tariff, its another world...

[emmie]

if i don;t respond to the company which option, they will simply put me on the standard tariff which i still don't really understand, KW this cost and so forth

[albaqwerty]

It's another world? You're right, it's all gobbledegook and I think 'they' like to blind us with science.

I gave up trying to translate it into English a few decades ago :-)

[emmie]

never know whether its the right rate or not, whether paying too much, would a different provider be any better, totally lost

[mikey4444]

Simple answer to this...re-nationalise the utilities. I'm convinced that if Labour were introduce this into their next Manifesto, it would be a vote winner.

[LazyGun]

Its one of the things that OFGEN should be looking at with some urgency. For years, consumer rights organisations - like Which! - have been campaigning for simpler, more transparent energy bills, together with a much reduced number of price tariffs.

There is more than a suspicion that utility companies want to keep the status quo precisely because it leaves the consumer confused and therefore reluctant to consider changing, especially to another company.

There were some positive signs emanating from OfGem - but really, they should have done something long before now.

This would be EDF energy, emmie? I suggest telling them that you simply want the cheapest tariff for your useage requirements, taking into account the size of your property and the pattern by which you make use of the energy - things like if you are attempting to run dishwashers and do laundry during the night, that kind of thing.

[Old_Geezer]

The trouble is that it costs a lot to re-purchase the family silver back once the black sheep of the family has flogged it and spent the proceeds. Not easy in troubled economic times.

I have noted bills seem deliberately obscure these days, under the pretext that it's more info or whatever. Wrong I know but I tend to just pay the last figure and not worry about if I'm on the best rate. All too much stress for me now-a-days.

[LazyGun]

@ O_G I can empathise :) I think you assessment is spot on. I think the energy utility companies do as little as they can to simplify the bills or the tariff because they know that most people will just give up and pay the bill unquestioningly.

[theshedman]

I found the hardest part of changing companies is finding the rate the company I am with put me on. They gave me a name for the rate yet when I go on the comparison sites I can't find it. Then they ask how much you are paying for each of them when you just pay a set amount for both every month.

[mrs.chappie]

No, but I'd like to be able to.

I once had a long chat with a representative of a utility company, and he couldn't understand it either. :o(

[Robinia]

No I can't make head nor tail of them anymore and it all used to be so easy. If bills had been this complicated when I left home 40 years ago I'd probably have moved back home after the first 3 months.

[gness]

I could once, Em...but then they changed it to make it easier to understand and now I haven't got a clue...

[Hypognosis]

Yes, I understand my Utility Bills.

There's plenty of stuff that I don't understand though.

Such as why anyone thought having half a dozen companies competing against one another, splashing out on advertising, hiring sales teams and a regulating quango on top would ever be cheaper for the customers than the (supposedly) "inefficient" state-owned British Gas.

We were robbed.

[boxtops]

I won't change companies, but I used their website to sort out which tariff was best for us. https://my.edfenergy.com/blue

[thumper93]

i'm with OVO power a straight ***P charge per unit... not some many at this **p per unit then so many at this **p per unit

[DJHawkes]

it's ridiculous, i have online billing and they send an email to say the bill is there but i sometimes miss the email and then when i look for the bill it's always a pain having to sign in and then i print it off and it makes no sense anyway as they use daft terms, also they fool you with these estimate reads, i think we get a real read once a year.

[baza]

my recent gas bill said that i could save £29.89 by swiching tariffs, to change would cost me £30. no brainer.

[emmie]

LG, it is, and having had a letter stating the tariff i was on is to stop then i have to now sort out another rate, and i confess that it's like talking gobbledegook

[emmie]

boxy, i don't pay anywhere near those rates listed on your link, my last quarterly bill was under 40 quid. I can't understand this as if they are saying sign up to the standard variable and you will pay 100 per month, or do you have to give them all your details, as per the link and they will work it out.

[mrs.chappie]

I'm with British Gas for both gas and electricity and manage it online. I email my readings to BG once a month and pay exactly what I owe.

I don't have to do anything other than forward the two readings to them. Shortly afterwards they send an online bill, telling me how much they are going to take by direct debit. So far it's working well.

[emmie]

i pay quarterly, by paper bill, it works ok. however when you look at the actual bill the KW *** doesn't make a lot of sense, i never know if i am paying over the odds, or perhaps will be paying more now they have dropped this tariff.