Can they demand payment before setting a DD

sarnie1969

Hi
This is my first time here!
I currently have my gas and electric with the same supplier, i cancelled my DD as i needed to put it on a different bank account, i reset it all on line, due to come out on the 10th, the 10th came and went and they didn't take the payment.
I have rung them today and they say there is no DD set up and won't set them up until i pay £400 off the electric and £200 off the gas ( i don't have this sort of money)

They have said that my account is now on hold and they will cut me off unless i pay, can they do this??

Many thanks for any replies

Premier_2

Cutting you off is a last resort. They will probably just put you on a pre-payment meter if you don't pay what you owe them. Then they can recover the money owed and charge you extra per unit for the PPM.

Perhaps you should have discussed with the supplier that you wanted to switch bank accounts from which the DD was taken before you just went and cancelled it.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

It is not clear if you cancelled the DD with the Utility company, or with your old bank.

Normally utility companies are pretty understanding for bank mix ups; however £600 is quite a lot or arrears to recover, especially for such a large balance to build up at the start of winter.

Normally they will only take this sort of stance if there have been problems with you paying????

Without knowing more details it is impossible to comment further except to say the supplier can take what ever actions they feel appropriate to ensure payment of the account.

sarnie1969

Thanks for the replies.
I cancelled the DD with my bank but went on line and re set the DD up on the new account.
I have never missed a payment before!

Cardew

How did you reset the DD with your new bank?

Magentasue

As said, £600 is quite a high debit balance at the beginning of the winter so you can see why your supplier wants it cleared. Could you afford to pay it over two or three months on top of your normal DD and have you tried to negotiate time to pay this?

Incisor

sarnie1969 wrote: »

...
I currently have my gas and electric with the same supplier, i cancelled my DD as i needed to put it on a different bank account, i reset it all on line, due to come out on the 10th, the 10th came and went and they didn't take the payment.
I have rung them today and they say there is no DD set up and won't set them up until i pay £400 off the electric and £200 off the gas ( i don't have this sort of money)

They have said that my account is now on hold and they will cut me off unless i pay, can they do this?? ...

Time to write them a brief letter, explaining the reason for the change of DD and enclosing a cheque for the missing payment asking them to set up the DD again. They are now forced to refuse in writing or accept your offer.

If you hold their noses to the grindstone, they will probably not want to appear unreasonable in any paper trail.

BexTech

Just remember to do the switching of DD correctly in the future, don't cancel the current one, just phone up and tell them you want to change the bank the DDs come out of.

Your gas and electric is certainly high, you could run four of my homes for that money! Actually with four of my homes my gas would still be less.

As you have cancelled the DD, they often also put you on a standard (dearer) tariff, as they see the DD cancelled - alarm bells begin to ring, as you are quite a fair amount behind, they are now worried.

WhistleBlower

Which company is it?

If it's NPower then i'm afriaid you just got yourslef a lazy advisor or one that wants to boost their cash collection stats....Call npower and ask for live collections' number. They're more use.

Also, regarding the balance, they will usually spread it out over the direct debits for you. Have you had other direct debits set up from your old bank account that have defualted for some reason? That's the only time we're likely to refuse. It must be 3 in 12 months.