Energy increases - complain, complain, complain. It can work

[nukecad]

Well I knocked the wifi router off yesterday after posting the above and have been tethering through the phone.

It's not fibre speed of course but there is no noticable difference in general browser use.
Youtube vidoes play fine, so does BBC iPlayer, but I'm not someone who streams TV a lot.

As I thought they would the data add-ons reset overnight to give a full 5GB again today.
Thinking back I seem to recall that these were promotions of "Top up your credit by so much and we will give you XXX data ongoing." so I've now got ongoing 3GB+1GB+1GB add-ons that last for a day and are being applied each day.

That's a total of 5GB a day free, which is plenty for my usual useage.
I can take the laptop down to use the wifi in the pub for any really big downloads I want.

Looks like I'll be ditching the landline broadband and saving the cost.

[StarBright]

That sounds like you could save a lot there Nuke, with ditching the phone line & home broadband

[nukecad]

Yes, as I said tethering/mobile hotspot was something I was doing during lockdown.
It was averaging at about £18 a month for what data I needed, some months £25 then £15 (or only £10) the next and so on.

But with these add-ons that I now have it's basically going to be free, well £1 a week which I'm already paying anyway.

One thing is that the phone is 3G+, and I know that EE 3G will be ending service in early 2023.
Not sure if my current SIM only account with the boosts can carry over to a new 4G/5G phone, but at least I should have them for 6 months or until I get a new phone.
There again I'll look out for any phone upgrade offers for existing 3G customers nearer the time.

[StarBright]

That money you have saved will help with the food increases

I've read & heard a lot about people who can't afford the increased electric & gas prices is they have completely stopped having gas. If you just stop using it, you still have the standing charge so people have totally cancelled it. Martin Lewis is now down to giving people tips on heating the person & not the home. People are sitting in sleeping bags with hot water bottles when it was colder

[nukecad]

Aye, when I was younger everyone wore vests and jumpers we didn't just walk around the house in T-shirts.

Central heating has made us all that bit softer.

I'm now considering using the money I'll save by not having broadband to pay for a new phone on a monthly contract.
Like I say I'm going to need a new phone in 6 months or so anyway when 3G stops broadcasting.
Depending on what I go for I can do it for the same money or less.
So I'd basically be replacing the current broadband router, which has only one use, with a new phone which will still give me internet/wifi and can be carried about as a mobile phone too.

I've been checking my records from during lockdown and my current useage, and whilst fibre broadband with unlimited downloads is nice I don't need it and I'm not using anything like what I've been paying for.

About the only times my download speeds actually go above 10mbps are during a big windows update - (Or if I run a speed checker to test it, LOL).
I've just done a check and while watching a Youtube video at full screen it's not going above 7 or 8 mbps even on the fibre broadband, my current 3G+ phone can easily handle that. (and a new 4G/5G one would be faster).

Windows says that for the last 30 days I've used 3.55 GB of data, and that includes all updates to various softwares and Windows itself.
Looking back at my old records that's about right for my normal usage.

I reckon I can get a new phone on a monthly contract which will do what I need for about £17-£25 a month, maybe cheaper if I can blag a deal out of them.

In these days of tightening belts it might be worth checking what you are actually using, and considering if it's worth getting rid of your broadband bill and just using your mobile as a router instead. Especially if, unlike me, you don't need a new mobile phone and can stick with your existing one.
As said before - why pay for a sports car if you are not going racing? Particularly if you already have a runabout that you could use instead (your smartphone).

[nukecad]

Due to the current price increases new regulations have been passed - The Social Security Benefits (Claims and Payments) (Modification) Regulations 2022

Which mean that as from tomorrow (26th April 2022) companies supplying fuel can not make any new requests for payment of ongoing fuel costs direct from benefits, or increase any existing direct payments for ongoing fuel costs.
This block will be in place until 6th April 2023.

They can still apply for direct payments for arrears, how much they can get for arrears is still capped.

This memo applies and is easier to understand than the regs themselves: https://assets.publishing.service.go.../adm-12-22.pdf

Note however that the claimant (ie. you) can still make a request for direct payments from benefits for fuel, of for an increase of existing direct payments.

So if you get any letter from your gas or electricity supplier about direct payment from benefits then be very careful with how it is worded.
If you sign/return something then you may be inadvertantly making such a request to the DWP.

[StarBright]

Aye, when I was younger everyone wore vests and jumpers we didn't just walk around the house in T-shirts.

Central heating has made us all that bit softer.

I remember life without central heating. I was at primary school & remember getting up in the mornings to get ready to go to school & the inside of my bedroom window was frozen over the pains of glass I used to put the tip of my finger on it & watch it melt the ice

[StarBright]

Energy price cap adjustments could be every three months under regulator's shake-up plan:

The energy price cap, the mechanism that determines gas and electricity bills for 22 million households, could soon be reviewed every three months under plans announced by the industry regulator.

https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-l...-plan-12614328

[davy]

I remember life without central heating. I was at primary school & remember getting up in the mornings to get ready to go to school & the inside of my bedroom window was frozen over the pains of glass I used to put the tip of my finger on it & watch it melt the ice

First 2 houses i lived in had no type of heating. I do feel weaker because of the heating we have now.

[nukecad]

I've just had a similar experience to that scotleag did in the original post of this thread.

I was on my energy account online and noticed that for electricity they had increased the direct debit amount from £27 to £49.
WTF? I hadn't had any notice of the increase at that time, although I got an email about it last night.
(I was concerened they were going to take it in my next payment on Monday, but the emails said from July so it was a full months notice).

Luckily there was a breakdown of how they had calculated it, so I could see that they had calculated usage/cost for the next six months and divided by 5 payments.

Of course they had taken no account of the £400 energy rebate, or the £150 Warm Home Discount.
TBH if they had put them into the 6 months calculation then the DD's would be zero and I'd still be in credit come Christmas.

A phone call this morning with my calculations for the next 12 months, including those discounts, and they changed it back to the current £27 a month which should still cover it in 11 payments.
Unless the standard rate goes up again as expected in autumn, but we'll deal with that if/when it happens.

(Interestingly their website allows me to change my monthly DDs myself, but only by +/- £5, and I wanted it changed much more than that).

For some reason they haven't recalculated the gas yet, from my calculations I'm expecting that one to almost triple and there is not much that I can argue there.

EDIT Saturday teatime - email confirmation today that my DD for electricity will be staying at £27 'at your request'.
Along with the usual warnings about what happens if it's not enough.