Martin Lewis has explained three energy bill checks you must make if you’re worried about being overcharged.
The MoneySavingExpert was contacted by a worried viewer during his Money Show Live programme on ITV this evening.
The viewer, known only as Yvonne, questioned whether it was right that her energy bill is rising from £49 to £123.
“I have just received my new monthly direct debit from my energy provider and it has gone from £49 to £123 from September and then £181 per month from October 28,” she said in an email to Martin.
“I am in credit of £200, is this correct, as this will be one week’s pension money?”
Martin explained that normally, your energy bill should be roughly double what it was last year - but there are some exceptions.
“If it was £50 last year, you’d be expecting to pay around £100 now on your direct debit,” he said.
“There are some checks I have to make. First of all, are you giving regular meter readings or do you have a working smart meter?
“If you don’t, you need to get in touch and do a regular meter reading because the estimate could be wrong.
“You’re in credit, not in debt, so that would indicate it shouldn’t go up much.
“The one other thing is, have you come off a cheap fix, in which case your bill would have risen by far more than double over the last year.
“If you’ve passed all those tests, then that would seem far too high for me.”
Martin recommended using an online energy calculator, which takes into account your energy use, to work out if your direct debit is likely to be accurate.
Once you’ve got a rough figure, get in contact with your energy firm and ask if why your direct debit has increased so much, he advises.
“Get in touch with the energy firm, call it up, politely - as the call centre operators haven’t done anything wrong - and say, please can you tell me why you’re putting my direct debit up,” said Martin.
“If they can’t justify it to you, then you have the right under energy firm licence conditions to have your direct debits lowered.”
The advice from Martin comes after the Government confirmed its Energy Price Guarantee will be scaled back from April.
Instead of running as a universal measure of help for all households that pay an electricity bill, the scheme will instead turn into targeted support.
The Government has yet to confirm who exactly will receive it.
The Energy Price Guarantee came into effect on October 1 and was meant to last for two years, to protect households from hideous energy bill rises.
It means households now face extortionate gas and electricity hikes in the coming months.
Cornwall Insight is forecasting that energy bills will hit £4,347 next spring, with analysts at RBC Capital Markets predicting a slightly higher figure of £4,684.
The worst-case prediction comes from Auxilione, which said the cap on energy bills could hit £5,000 next year.
