Yearly energy switch farce

I am on level pay with BG, i didn't realise this. Am i paying 20% more for this service?

No, they might add 20% more to what you paid last year so that you dont have a big unpaid bill at the end of this year if for some reason you use more electricity than the previous year. If you dont do that they you get a refund.

I was on level pay previously and received a refund very promptly after I moved to Energia. I can see the benefit in level pay and at the time time it was the best unit rates I could find.
 
According to the Bord Gais website

How does Level Pay work?
We take the gas usage of your home over the last 12 months and apply our current prices to calculate an annual bill. We then divide by 12 to create a monthly payment amount which is paid by Direct Debit.
 
So this is the reply I received:

I’ve had a review of your account and can see the reason why your level pay has to go up. Your first two month bill which shows the usage in your property has come in at €278.07. This bill was issued off an actual read so is correct. If you continued to pay €81.00 a month (edit: which is what I signed up for) a balance would build up as you are using more than you are paying for. Due to this it has risen to €110.09. Level pay direct debit is a form of direct debit where regular monthly payments are debited based on your annual consumption. It reviews your last 12 months usage and splits this into 12 equal payments. It aims to spread your bills across the course for the year, therefore avoiding higher bills in winter and lower bills in summer. You build up credit during the summer, and then this is used towards your higher consumption in the winter. The system reviews itself every 2 months based on your usage and account balance, and if your usage is higher or lower than forecasted, the payments will increase or decrease accordingly. If the payments are set to change at all, you will be notified at least 30 days in advance.

I offered to pay weekly to make up the extra so as the bill would be covered - then:

Extra payments on the side wont impact the future payments in the short term the system won’t account for this. What I might advise in this case is to cancel the Level pay section of your direct debit. This would work in that you could make payments against the balance as you are saying and then the remainder would be taken fourteen days after the next bill issues. The downside to this is you would lose the Level Pay discount of two percent.


Can someone explain that last paragraph to me.
 
According to the Bord Gais website
How does Level Pay work?
We take the gas usage of your home over the last 12 months and apply our current prices to calculate an annual bill. We then divide by 12 to create a monthly payment amount which is paid by Direct Debit.

Which is what I did and they worked it out as x, but as you can see above from their reply "...The system reviews itself every 2 months based on your usage...". So that does not seem very level to me.
 
Can someone explain that last paragraph to me.

I believe the suggestion is that you effectively manage a level pay yourself, i.e., over pay your bills during the summer months yo build up a credit on your account that will reduce your winter bills.
 
BordGais - Welcome to Home Electricity, booklet page 8 reads:

Level Pay.
Level Pay helps you to smooth out the ups and downs of electricity costs over the year. Signing up for Level Pay means you can budget better as you always know how much your payment will be. Whether we're in the grips of winter or enjoying summer sun, your payment stays the same. Together, we'll agree how much you'll pay each month, based on your previous payments. All you need to do then is set up a Direct debit.
 
I believe the suggestion is that you effectively manage a level pay yourself, i.e., over pay your bills during the summer months yo build up a credit on your account that will reduce your winter bills.

This is what is annoying me Leo: Whether we're in the grips of winter or enjoying summer sun, your payment stays the same. Bordgais welcome booklet page 8, and that is what I understood I was signing up for.

Google Bord Gais Level Pay = Level Pay means a method of payment which facilitates customers making regular, payments for their electricity on a monthly basis via Direct Debit. 2. ... Payment amounts are based on your most recent consumption, your previous year's consumption and energy prices (divided by 12).

Level ie: A level payment mortgage is a type of mortgage that requires the same dollarpayment each month or payment period. Level payment mortgages allow borrowers to know exactly how much they will have to pay on their mortgages each pay period.
 
This is what is annoying me Leo: Whether we're in the grips of winter or enjoying summer sun, your payment stays the same.

And that's fair enough, it's likely they didn't explain how they come up with the monthly figure well enough, or your consumption over that initial period was significantly different to what they expected.

When you signed up, what details did you provide on you actual consumption over the previous 12 months? What did you pay in total for the 12 months prior to switching?

I'm not a fan of these level pay arrangements because the providers always seem to veer too much towards overestimating usage to protect against a situation where you might owe them extra, and also because of the stories I read here and elsewhere about consumers struggling to reclaim credit when switching suppliers.
 
Hi Leo, I was on an outside pay as you go metre which I paid online weekly as a rule. It is a more expensive option but it avoided big bills coming in and I always just paid in €25 pw every week winter and summer. I totted up the kw used the previous year and gave it to them and they said fine €81 pm (€20pw) so I thought fine save €20 pm. Remember their booklet: Whether we're in the grips of winter or enjoying summer sun, your payment stays the same. So that is my gripe. This morning I am back to paying weekly to BordGais, losing my 2% but my bill will be €30.00pm more than originally budgeted for over the winter. So it will take me a year to find out if there will be any savings at all as I will go back to paying €25pw and pay the extra when the bill comes in.
 
Well, it obviously can't stay the same forever. They do periodic reviews and if your usage levels suggest you might exceed the existing estimate, they will increase the monthly charge. If they think you'll consume less, they will lower the monthly charge.

What was your total kWh over the previous 12 months, what was the consumption for your first two months, and for the same period the previous year?

These reviews and the adjusting of the monthly amount is all covered in the terms, including:

We make no guarantee that your Payment Amount will remain the same for any period of time.
 
I think SDMXTWO you have just misunderstood the concept of level pay.
I am on level pay with Bord Gais, started off at €88 a month and they notified me two months in advance that my Nov payment would be less. So I do know in advance what will go out of my account.
What I cannot know in advance, and nor can Bord Gais, is how much electricity I will be using.
Obviously we must pay for what we have actually used, not what we said we would use.

I signed up without a contract, and can leave at any time. If you are unhappy SDMXTWO perhaps you are in the same position?
 
Remember their booklet: Whether we're in the grips of winter or enjoying summer sun, your payment stays the same.

Well this is the deal now:

Thanks for your recent email to Bord Gáis Energy.
Unfortunately that statement is incorrect. If you wish I can cancel the level pay. This would lose you a two percent discount. You can make weekly payments as you suggested before. I will void the security deposit for you as the leaflet misinformed you.
The alternative to this as my colleague advise would be to leave the direct debit set up on your account and make payments weekly and if there is a balance owing when your bill is issued the balance will be taken by direct debit 14 days after the bill is issued.

My apologies for any inconvenience caused.

So I will just pay by the week online as I used to do with Electric Ireland PAYG.
 
No, keep Levelpay and 2%, 'leave the direct debit set up on your account and make payments weekly and if there is a balance owing' etc.

Because originally they do not allow you to make any deposits and work solely on Direct Debit.
 
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