Energy Bills and initial considerations

Energy bills should be easy to read and understand; but alas, many householders either don't know how to or don't bother to take on board the one or two significant figures which are shown on every bill.

This is only a short post where I attempt to highlight the problems which ignoring these few salient facts can produce. In a later post I will go into more detail and provide, as it were, a simple check-list of actions to be taken.

At regular intervals going back over many years, I've read horrendous hard luck stories in the press, written by people who have found themselves in difficulties which have affected their quality of life.

The majority of these sufferers will blame everyone but themselves and in particular the energy supplier.

With regards to the suppliers, they all have their 'in house' rules and regulations which don't always make sense to outsiders but these have to be accepted by the customer without argument. The customer can't win so it's no good arguing and it's not fair to give a firm's employee an uncalled for 'ear bashing.' These employees are constrained to working to a system and after all they are only trying to earn a living.

I personally rarely have to contact my energy supplier because I practise what I preach and happen to be adept at number crunching and adopting a systematic approach to most things which influence my life.

I'm an octogenarian and can appreciate the difficulties which fellow seniors may have when bills drop through the door but I know I can help if only people will listen. I think this subject is so important that I will make the reading easier by splitting my content into several posts.

The first lesson to be learned is not to think that you can have any control about what the press will often refer to as the exorbitant cost of energy. It is up to government departments and regulators to deal with this.

Your concern starts with selecting a contract to suit your purposes and then to regularly monitor your bills to ensure that everything remains valid.

Energy bills are not something to be thrown in a corner and forgotten. They need your immediate attention as soon as you get them!