Paying a bill...here's a novel idea if your owed money.

[Sid]

So i owe an electricity supplier the princely sum of just shy of £1200 for a short term supply we had till we divided off a new house from the farm buildings. So i get the bill for August through to mid December with a nice note saying the bill maybe more than i expected (isn't electricity free?) and if its an issue just call to work out how to pay so I did.
So I did just that, and the very pleasant man on the phone asked me "what i would like to do?" So i suggested "half now half in a months time ok?" " Oh we can't do that sir" (here's me thinking they want it all as its only £1200) "if you want to set up a payment plan we will have to wait until you have paid the first half today then call back to discuss the payment plan on Monday." "Oh" i said "what do you suggest?"" How about half in a months time and half in March?" so i thought about for half a millisecond and said "what a jolly good idea, sent the payment plan along and we will go for that!"

So for all you businesses owed money by someone if they ring up and say the cheques in the post , say " cancel the cheque , we can work out a payment plan if you wish!

Thanks N Power your fab!!

 

[Henarar]

we had one of those smart meters put in thinking we will just get a bill or DD for what we owe each month, do we hell as like, have to pay so much each month then they adjust the payments same as before, gets on my wick, I would rather pay what I owe and be done with it
why do they have to make paying for a bit of lecky so complicated

 

[Steevo]

we had one of those smart meters put in thinking we will just get a bill or DD for what we owe each month, do we hell as like, have to pay so much each month then they adjust the payments same as before, gets on my wick, I would rather pay what I owe and be done with it
why do they have to make paying for a bit of lecky so complicated

Next time you want to select the "Variable Direct Debit" option.

 

[Henarar]

Next time you want to select the "Variable Direct Debit" option.

they said we couldn't do that

 

[multi power]

they said we couldn't do that

Bet they will do it when you phone up to get it disconnected

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

and you think electric is bad to work out, its simple each meter unit x price per unit = is what you pay

you want to try working out the gas bill, here is how its done

Step 1
Subtract your previous reading from your current reading to give the number of units used over the billing period.

Step 2
The conversion factor from cubic feet to cubic metres is 0.0283 therefore:

• 1 cubic foot = 0.0283 cubic metres
• 100 cubic feet = 2.83 cubic metres

For imperial meters the reading (in hundreds of cubic feet) is therefore multiplied by 2.83 to convert to cubic metres (if the reading to the supplier was provided in cubic feet then this should be multiplied by 0.0283). This step is not required for metric meters as they are read directly in cubic metres.

Step 3
This figure is then multiplied by the calorific value of the gas which is a measure of the available heat energy. Calorific values vary and the figure quoted on your bill (eg 39.5 megajoules per cubic metre (MJ/m³)) will be an average of the gas supplied to your property (the regulations explain how this is calculated). Gas transporters are required to maintain this figure within 38 MJ/m³ to 41 MJ/m³ as figures outside of this range will cause problems with gas burning appliances.

Step 4
The figure is then multiplied by 1.02264 as prescribed in the above regulations. This corrects the volume of gas to account for temperature and pressure (as gas expands and contracts).

Step 5
Finally the figure is converted to kWh by dividing by 3.6. Again, this factor is prescribed in the above regulations.

Step 6
The number of kWh is then be multiplied by the price per kilowatt hour as detailed on your gas bill. You may also have a standing charge or one price for the first ‘X’ number of units and a lower price for the remaining units.

source = https://www.gov.uk/guidance/gas-meter-readings-and-bill-calculation


talk about a long way round, who the hell thinks up this stuff

 

[colhonk]

No no no. In plain English it reads..........think of a number,double it,add some telephone size numbers, and if the pleb does not argue, £££££`s in.

 

[Old Boar]

I left GB Energy at the end of October because of their price rise. They then went bust and were taken over by another company. It took me 3 months to get what I was owed. Yesterday I had an email from them threatening me with legal action as I had missed a payment in December!
After a very polite phone call, the agent suggested making payments for a nil balance, I said I would send a cheque with nil written on it and they agreed! I then told them I would charge them £5 for this service and was put through to a "supervisor" who agreed to call it quits!

 

[Steevo]

I left GB Energy at the end of October because of their price rise. They then went bust and were taken over by another company. It took me 3 months to get what I was owed. Yesterday I had an email from them threatening me with legal action as I had missed a payment in December!
After a very polite phone call, the agent suggested making payments for a nil balance, I said I would send a cheque with nil written on it and they agreed! I then told them I would charge them £5 for this service and was put through to a "supervisor" who agreed to call it quits!

Nice! Common sense is indeed a rare thing!

That said, I joined GB Energy in Oct on a very cheap fixed energy deal, who as you say then went bust. Co-op Energy took them over, agreed to stand by the current tariff (I was warned any company coming in would likely not honour the deal), and it is fixed until Oct 2017. I had a quote on MSE's Cheap Energy Club last week and any other supplier is now at least 15% more expensive.

Very pleased with it all so far.

 

[Woolless]

Just a thought @Sid but that approach wouldn't affect your credit score?