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Everyone’s favourite money man has issued a fresh warning to anyone who pays their energy bills via Direct Debit.
Yep, obviously I’m talking about Martin Lewis.
The Money Saving Expert founder injected a bit of humour to his email newsletter this week as he wrote: “It's that time of year when I do my best Jon Snow impression, and yell out loud and large, winter... is... coming... and it's time to prep.”
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While Storm Babet batters parts of the UK, if you’ve not been dealing with the rain this week it’s likely you’ll at least have been feeling the cold.
The weather seems to have quickly changed and well, it’s freezing. Ok, I might be being dramatic here but it’s really, really, cold.
And a lot of us are thinking about when to whack the heating on but also worrying about the costs of doing so.
Writing in the newsletter, Martin warned that for most ‘costs are likely to be higher this winter than last’.
So, he’s listed a load of checks you can do now ahead of the rising prices.
And one of those is to do a ‘2min Direct Debit (DD) check-up’. The Money Saving Expert says that while energy rates dropped at the beginning of the month, some people have still seen their ‘DDs rise’.
The handy website has a useful ‘Is your Direct Debit right?’ calculator to help here. Pop your kWh usage from your bill and it’ll tell you roughly what it should be.
His second check is also to do with Direct Debits as he asks: “Are you owed £100s or £1,000s of credit?”
Martin writes: “If you pay by monthly DD, at this time of year it's appropriate to have a couple of months' worth built up as credit, so check how much you've got. If it's a lot more, then as long as your DDs are right, see how to get your energy credit back.
“If you're in debt at this point of the year, your DD probably needs to be higher or you'll build up the debt.”
Other checks Martin advises includes checking if you should switch energy deals, checking your standing charge and checking if you’re due a support payment.
But the key warning for Direct Debit users is checking you’re not being charged too much and if you’ve got credit in your account.
And like he said, if your account is in debt, you may want to raise your Direct Debit before it gets worse.
Ah, winter in Britain.
Topics: Martin Lewis, Money, UK News
Jess Battison