Bord gais bill (fixed amount)

wazzer1

Was talking to a mate of mine recently who pays a set amount for his bill each month. Basically its an average of the previous years tota billl split into 12 for each month. Anyone else do it this way, or any thoughts on it, be interested to know peoples views on how it works...

Cheers

keithclancy

wazzer1 wrote: »

Was talking to a mate of mine recently who pays a set amount for his bill each month. Basically its an average of the previous years tota billl split into 12 for each month. Anyone else do it this way, or any thoughts on it, be interested to know peoples views on how it works...

Cheers

Thought that's the way it always worked ?
I just give a meter reading online every month and its the real amount not estimated.

Nody

Can cause big issues if/when something changes if you don't update with actual usage at least quarterly I'd say.

wazzer1

No what he was sayin is he pays a fixed amount every month, based on the previous years usage- total amount from last year/12. This is instead of paying the bill which he used to receive every 2 months...Just wondering if anyone else does it this way,

orionm_73

I opted to do this as it helps even out the bills throughout the year. It's pretty accurate and after a year my monthly gas bill was increased very slightly and my electricity remained the same with no big over or underpayment. It means I'm able to budget better month to month. I had tried to over pay during the summer when my gas usage would be less but this way is so much easier.

sillysocks

We've done this for the last year or so with both electricity (Bord Gais) and Gas (Flogas). Find it works great! I think they base your monthly payment on an average of the previous 12 months bills when you start . Then each year its reviewed, I think around April time to make sure the monthly amount is still in line with your usage. The monthly amount may then increase or decrease, but you only have one change per year to that amount and get notice of any change.

Generally over the summer you would be paying more than your actual calculated bill, leaving you with a credit balance coming into winter. But you never end up 'owing' them a big lump sum or anything if the year is underestimated - it would just get taken into account when calculating your monthly payments for the next year. In the same way you don't lose any overpayments by the end of the calculation year, they just get carried forward.
I don't really understand why more people don't do it!

ShaShaBear

Myself and OH do this with Bord Gais at the minute. We signed up and got a bill for €50 per month, very reasonable considering our usage and the size of the house. It went up to €70 there after the reading that was taken after Christmas (again, expected and reasonable since we had electric blankets and heaters going).

Same date every month a direct debit for the amount is taken from our account and we don't ever have to worry about surprise bills.

John Mason

I have done this for the last 8 years for both my gas and lecky.

its brilliant, no big bills and always in credit.

they will adjust the amount throughout the year, if you are in too much credit, they will reduce down your payments. if your usage increases, they increase your DD.

wazzer1

Can you do with ESB too?

wazzer1

thanks for all the insight btw

sillysocks

Looks like you can....

https://www.electricireland.ie/ei/residential/manage-your-account/equaliser.jsp

John Mason

wazzer1 wrote: »

Can you do with ESB too?

yes you can.

it is a brilliant service

MOH

Works out a lot better for the company, since instead of getting the payment every two months, they're now getting half of it a month early. Plus of course if you use less than estimated they've got your money for the year, even if it does effectively get credited back to you.

I do think there's chance it could come back and bite you a bit, if your usage was massively over the estimate for a year, your monthly payments for the next year will be a lot higher.

xLollyx

I've recently moved into a 3 bedroomed house with my boyfriend. We have been given 7 days to make up our minds about this, or opt to pay the 200e deposit and get exact bills each month instead..

We don't know which to do!! Help!

We're afraid to go with the estimated bills as we don't know who was renting this house during the last year and we'd be afraid that the bills would be very high.

A lot of people have been telling us to stick with the 200e deposit and get exact bills. After reading this thread it's kind of changing my mind....confused!

sillysocks

If you ask them will they not tell you before signing up what the set monthly payment would be? Hard to know which is better if not!

wonski

xLollyx wrote: »

I've recently moved into a 3 bedroomed house with my boyfriend. We have been given 7 days to make up our minds about this, or opt to pay the 200e deposit and get exact bills each month instead..

We don't know which to do!! Help!

We're afraid to go with the estimated bills as we don't know who was renting this house during the last year and we'd be afraid that the bills would be very high.

A lot of people have been telling us to stick with the 200e deposit and get exact bills. After reading this thread it's kind of changing my mind....confused!

This won't save you any money at all (you will pay for what you used at the end), but some prefer to pay fixed amount monthly rather than large bills every two months.

xLollyx

The customer care team said to me that it will go based on the last 12 months even if it was a rented property. But if they find not much usage there then he said they would usually charge 45-55 per month. I'd have no idea how much a gas bill would be as it's my first time renting.

A lot of friends/relatives are telling me to do the 200e deposit option as they feel we'd be robbed if we went with the estimates. Just going by this tread no one seems to want to go for that option which is why i'm questioning it now

How Strange

We pay by budget plan too and it's great. We're never hit with a couple of nasty winter time bills ad it helps manage our finances better.

I rang them after the first year and they said the monthly amount was still ok. It'll be interesting to see how it goes this year as we've had our heating on quite a lot over the last two months.

Bord Gais still read our meter every couple of months do its not just one estimated amount rolling forward.