Energy arrears - Racked up by paying set DD each month

ColMc100

We seem to be one of the many households who have been caught out by the promise to pay a low ammount for Gas and Elec each month via direct debit. To our shock we got a statement saying that despite paying the agreed amount each month we are in debit of around £500!!

How on earth do we sort this out? Surely we cant switch providers when we're in debit and the longer we pay our DD the more our arears increases. anyone got any advice?

Col

brysiewysie

Talk to your provider and agree to set your dd to an amount to cover usage plus some of the debt.

Cardew

As you say this is the commonest form of complaint on this forum

The comparison networks and company call centre staff have one objective, and that is to get you to swop and so they get their commission.

So they all set the DD at an artificially low level just to lure you.

You will either have to pay off your arrears if you want to switch, or increase your DD to a sum to cover your consumption PLUS pay off your debt.

Magentasue

The lesson to be learned is to look at your usage over the last year, predict next year's (if your circumstances have changed) and, using current rates, calculate what you need to pay each month to cover this. To be safe, you need to factor in price rises if (yeah, right) or when they happen.

moonrakerz

Don't you get 3 monthly statements from your supplier saying how much you are in credit/debit or have you run up a £500 debt in the middle of summer ?

1carminestocky

I know there will be apologists on here rushing to the energy company's defence shortly, but IMO this practice is entirely designed to stop people switching energy suppliers due to them running up a large debit balance! It would have happened to me (luckily I told the BG bod that the figures quoted were clearly ridiculously small and agreed a higher figure) and far too many people I know to be just 'co-incidence'. I'm not talking about the monthly amount quoted when you do the switch via the switching sites, I'm talking about when the energy company (As is normal practice) ring you to welcome you on board then 'suggest' a wholly inappropriate DD figure which will in no way cover your monthly usage.

brysiewysie

2 things;
Firstly the statements received by the OP should give an indication somethings wrong and they probably had an opportunity to address this earlier.

Secondly the OP should raise a complaint via their supplier because it may have been deliberatley quoted low initially. Unless customers raise internal complaints this sort of practice is unlikley to get resolved (if it was intentional).

moonrakerz

1carminestocky wrote: »

I know there will be apologists on here rushing to the energy company's defence shortly

I am certainly no apologist for the energy companies but I do see so many posts on this site where people seem to think that a DD of say, £50 a month is too high, then try and shift to another supplier at £30 a month AND actually seem to believe that they are going to save money ! Then they can't understand why the the first company wants £500 off them before they can move !!
You don't have to be Einstein to work out a rough figure for your energy consumption and to calculate from that a sensible DD figure, regardless of who the supplier is.

Cardew

This is my fundamental objection to Comparison sites.

They are commercial organisations and, understandably, they are out to make a profit. The only way that is achieved is by getting commission, and that means getting people to switch supplier.

Obviously people who are 'up to speed' on energy prices will not be fooled, but Mr and Mrs Average are not up to speed and are often naive.

Many simply believe that that a reduction from £50 to £30 monthly is a genuine £20 saving.

Evidence given to the recent Parlimentary Committee on Energy prices, was that a large percentage(20+%?) of people who switched supplier actually switched to a more expensive tariff.

The same argument applies to the doorstep salesmen and the Call centres at the Utility company - their sole aim is to get commission.

It would appear from another thread that BG Call Centre staff are actively encouraging their customers on the Click 5 tariffs to move to the more expensive Essentials tariff - if that is the case it a perfect illustration of this practice.

Whilst I appreciate that Martin derives income to run this website from links to the comparison networks(and stresses the money-back and 'free' champagne), IMO he should include a more prominent warning that switching can be the exact opposite of 'Money saving'.

moonrakerz

I find that the only good thing about the comparison sites is that is usually quicker to get into the energy companies website price list than direct from the company website !

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

This is my fundamental objection to Comparison sites.

They are commercial organisations and, understandably, they are out to make a profit. The only way that is achieved is by getting commission, and that means getting people to switch supplier.

Obviously people who are 'up to speed' on energy prices will not be fooled, but Mr and Mrs Average are not up to speed and are often naive.

Many simply believe that that a reduction from £50 to £30 monthly is a genuine £20 saving.

Evidence given to the recent Parlimentary Committee on Energy prices, was that a large percentage(20+%?) of people who switched supplier actually switched to a more expensive tariff.

The same argument applies to the doorstep salesmen and the Call centres at the Utility company - their sole aim is to get commission.

It would appear from another thread that BG Call Centre staff are actively encouraging their customers on the Click 5 tariffs to move to the more expensive Essentials tariff - if that is the case it a perfect illustration of this practice.

Whilst I appreciate that Martin derives income to run this website from links to the comparison networks(and stresses the money-back and 'free' champagne), IMO he should include a more prominent warning that switching can be the exact opposite of 'Money saving'.

I know what you are saying but, if done right through a 'proper' cashback site and not through those silly switching sites, I find it difficult to see how you can't save money, tbh. Switching 4 times a year will trouser you approaching £250 (that equates to maybe 25% discount on the average energy bill). As long as you make absolutely sure you sign up to each energy company's cheapest tariff (there's not a huge difference between the charges on these) and try and be with them for a full quarter (minimising the affect of the Tier 1 charges).