A Nice Little Earner (for my Energy Supplier that is)

Now I know energy prices are rising, but 25% increases each. That is ridiculous.

So I sat down and calculated exactly how much Gas and Electricity I had consumed last year, then took the current tariffs after the price rises and calculated how much I should pay for the year. I then either took off what they owe me (I am in credit on Gas) or added on what I owe them (not so good in Electricity) and calculated my monthly payments to make me break even at the end of the year. This turns out to be a modest rise in electricity £52 per month to £58 per month, and a fairly large decrease in gas (from £75 per month to £52 per month)

I then rang them up to ask how they calculated their numbers. Do you know what they said. “There is something funny with our calculations sometimes it gives numbers that are too high. What do you want to pay”. I told them the result of my calculations, and the call centre person said “yes that seems about right” to both numbers.

What a winner. If I had done nothing they were going to change to the new amount at the next monthly direct debit – and I would have been paying £65/month or £780/year too much. At 6% interest (for an average of 6 months) thats £23.40 extra from me. Multiply that by the 3 million or so customers they have thats around £60 million extra – now that is a nice little earner!