Electric bill (UK)- help with basics.

[Tell]

Well you could photograph the screen and cover up the personal stuff if your friend doesn't want to show it. I put it down to the caper of meter reading, estimates, corrections and increasing prices. Smartmeter and a direct debit plan should take out any wandering of the bill with estimates / meter reading errors. The plan would be adjusted by the company as required.

The old fashioned way of doing stuff with postal bills, red reminders, cheques, estimates is all a bit fraught and you pay more as I said because the energy company covers its overheads of people with erratic payments on those people that could pay erratically.

 

[Zoot]

Just take a screen grab (Ctrl Shift 4 on my Mac) and then you will have pictures of all the previous bills, no wifi needed
Or if you phone supports it then turn on your hotspot function and share phone signal.

Hi tracktoy,

honestly I don't know how to do this (can you do on an iPad, without the keyboard 'ready' to use??) never done so before. And I also have never had a smartphone, so have no clue what that bit means.

Than for reply tho.

 

[Zoot]

Well you could photograph the screen and cover up the personal stuff if your friend doesn't want to show it. I put it down to the caper of meter reading, estimates, corrections and increasing prices. Smartmeter and a direct debit plan should take out any wandering of the bill with estimates / meter reading errors. The plan would be adjusted by the company as required.

The old fashioned way of doing stuff with postal bills, red reminders, cheques, estimates is all a bit fraught and you pay more as I said because the energy company covers its overheads of people with erratic payments on those people that could pay erratically.

I'm 100m away Tell you see. He'd never let me photo any of his documents anyway, far too private.

It's not necessarily getting the best deal for him, or the best situation going forward, that's not the point of my input.

I'm simply trying to establish, if it was (past tense- as I think by now he likely would have written the cheque) correct that he wrote a cheque, at that particular timepoint.?? IE once he noticed, that instead of being £300 'in credit' as he was the last time he recalled seeing his balance figure to be, over the winter sometime.. he got a bit of a shock, realising he was in fact just recently, 'in debit' instead. To this fairly big figure of £750. His mind was geared up to being in credit. So he got a bit of a fright. And I think, he felt like he was 'in the wrong', inclined to think he was owing his energy Co alot of money.

I still cannot establish, if he was owing them money. If he was correct to write a cheque (to the tune of £750). Was he?? All I'm asking, is this question. Nothing else (not "what is the ideal situation for him to do bills in the future", not going to talk with the CAB about my own bills with paperwork I don't understand, not getting an ideal situation for myself in the future using new gadgets & using phones I am not to speed with).

I could ask it differently like this: "If YOU suddenly became aware of a 'minus £750' debit figure in YOUR 'electricity balance account' what would you do? Would you write a cheque? Is this the correct thing to do? Or would you perhaps wait & know it might change to a more favourable figure sometime soon? Would you outright refuse to pay this sum perhaps, demand to know how it came to this?"

Thanks Zoot

 

[Tell]

You read the meter and check it tallies with what is on the bill. If reasonable, pay the bill. Check the next one but I guess its quarterly. See whether its headed in the right direction.

You do hear of these manual data input being wrong. Typo.

Smartmeter no such thing. It's all old school.

 

[SRGTD]

You read the meter and check it tallies with what is on the bill. If reasonable, pay the bill. Check the next one but I guess its quarterly. See whether its headed in the right direction.

You do hear of these manual data input being wrong. Typo.

Smartmeter no such thing. It's all old school.

I’ve only ever needed to read my smartmeter once, and that was when I switched energy suppliers - my new energy supplier wanted to know the current meter readings prior to the switchover. Other than that, meter readings look after themself, and as you’ve said, no incorrect ‘old school’ readings being given.

I do still check my monthly gas / electricity statements and compare them to the previous month’s statement and the same period in previous years to see if - or how - my energy usage is changing and if I feel my direct debit amount needs to be changed. When IMHO the DD amount does need changing, I just go into the energy company’s app or onto their website and change it rather than wait for the energy company to tell me.

 

[Tell]

I’ve only ever needed to read my smartmeter once, and that was when I switched energy suppliers - my new energy supplier wanted to know the current meter readings prior to the switchover. Other than that, meter readings look after themself, and as you’ve said, no incorrect ‘old school’ readings being given.

I do still check my monthly gas / electricity statements and compare them to the previous month’s statement and the same period in previous years to see if - or how - my energy usage is changing and if I feel my direct debit amount needs to be changed. When IMHO the DD amount does need changing, I just go into the energy company’s app or onto their website and change it rather than wait for the energy company to tell me.

With the 11 solar panels I have, reduce the monthly payment to £5 last year for 5 summer months, then increases... repeat as required. Octopus cut back on what you earnt exporting by 20% this year. Lot of solar being exported in the summer months. This year the £5 is £20, I reckon per month for those 5 months.

I just had to read the solar output once by fumbling with the Smartmeter buttons. That's when one went onto exporting and Octopus wanted to double check their reading they were getting with the meter. A cross check I reckon.

Other than that, automatic except my seasonal trimming back for summer sun .

 

[tracktoy]

Hi tracktoy,

honestly I don't know how to do this (can you do on an iPad, without the keyboard 'ready' to use??) never done so before. And I also have never had a smartphone, so have no clue what that bit means.

Than for reply tho.

the web is your friend just search HOW DO I TAKE A SCREEN SHOT ON AN IPAD.

Check out https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/ipad/ipad08a40f3b/ipados for the answer.

 

[Tell]

the web is your friend just search HOW DO I TAKE A SCREEN SHOT ON AN IPAD.

Check out https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/ipad/ipad08a40f3b/ipados for the answer.

Think he wants to photograph the screen on his smartphone phone else you'd be finding the image and emailing it from one to the other.

 

[SRGTD]

the web is your friend just search HOW DO I TAKE A SCREEN SHOT ON AN IPAD.

Check out https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/ipad/ipad08a40f3b/ipados for the answer.

The web is also your friend if you want (or need) to edit a screen shot (e.g. in the case of a screen shot of a utility bill, to blank out personal details so it’s anonymised).

 

[Tell]

Got a sneaky suspicion that blanking out personal details may be challenging for non IT people. But there you go. I'd check that the current meter reading is close to the bill. That is step 1. You'd get asked that by Citizens advice. You'd need to check the last bill etc. So long since one did this with paper bills.