MONEY saving expert Martin Lewis has revealed his top four tips to make sure you aren’t overpaying on energy bills.
Lewis explained on this evening’s episode of his ITV show how customers on direct debits can save as much as £200 as prices spiral out of control.
The personal finance guru explained how to slash your bill if you think your direct debit is higher than it should be
The personal finance guru explained that if you think you’re overpaying, there’s a simple process for checking how much you should be charged.
First of all, he reminded viewers that it is essential to provide suppliers with regular meter readings, so that the price you pay is not based on estimates, which can lead to being overcharged.
If you still think you are overpaying, you can use an online direct debit calculator, which will work out how much you should be charged based on usage.
Once this is done, Lewis recommended “politely” calling your supplier to query the charge, which will often see them reduce your bill.
He said that the calculator results have been “very powerful” in getting people’s bills down in his experience.
Finally, if you still think you are overpaying, you can ask to move on a variable direct debit, where you pay precisely based on what you use.
This eliminates the “smoothing effect” which sees bills staying roughly similar all year round, instead seeing customers pay higher in the winter when they use more, but less in the summer.
However, Lewis warned against moving to paying when you receive you bill each month as that can be up to 10% more expensive.
His tips clearly make an impact, as one viewer emailed in to the show to say that his mother saw her bills reduced by £207, from over £500 per month to just over £300 based on the figures from the online calculator.
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