Watch your energy bills on Direct Debit

Story link: Watch your energy bills on Direct Debit

If you pay your gas and electricity bills by Direct Debit you could accidentally rack up surprise debts.

The warning comes from Citizens Advice, in the wake of ever increasing energy bills which means that Direct Debit payments could be costing more than originally accounted for:

BBC: Warning on estimated power bills

Energy customers with estimated bills could be racking up debts of hundreds of pounds without realising it, according to Citizens Advice.

The charity says thousands of people have got in touch over their estimated gas and electric bills.

In the worst cases people have found they owed over £1,000 when they thought their direct debits were covering their energy costs.

The lesson is clear – ensure you read your meter and that you bills are updated to keep on top of actual usage.

I’ve had a problem with this myself, where the estimated bills I was paying were much less than actual usage, so when the meter was eventually read some time later, my bill was shockingly high.

As ever, the best way to manage your finances is to keep on top of expenditure and debt in the first place.