Yes, you've probably done it that way for yonks and nothing has changed. :-) I don't think you'll find any sensibly priced tariffs work like that now do they?
Maybe I'm wrong but I've not seen any like that for a while.
Of course not. I pay over the odds because I don't allow open access to my bank account (otherwise known as DD). You allow the energy companies to use you as an interest-free moneylender by making your monthly DD much higher than it need be, and paying you back the money they've borrowed at the end of the year. We both lose.
One could switch to Octopus, who are happy to take exactly the cost of power that I have used during the month at the end of the month by Direct Debit. Adding a smart meter enables participation in cash savings by limiting power use at certain times of day, (I don't do that - it doesn't suit my usage) or at the very least saves me having to go outside to read the meter. You have to ask for that payment system or they will set a fixed DD at an unnecessarily high level as all the companies try to do - but I had no problem in getting them to change mine.
Do you pay higher unit rates that way compared to D/D?
You don't need to read a smart meter. It does it for you.
No - and I pay by DD anyway.
Or going bust en-masse and NOT paying back you credit, whereupon Ofgem made the magnificent decision to allow the takeover energy supplier to 'pay back the credit' and recover the money (many times over) by whacking up everyones daily standing charges
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