Energy Companies Allegedly Misuseing Direct Debit Scheme

MarkyMarkD

These threads are very boring.

(1) Suppliers don't (and shouldn't) anticipate any future tariff reductions. They calculate your expected usage at today's prices.

(2) Everyone who uses gas central heating should be in credit - significantly - at this time of year, because their consumption over the winter months will be way higher than in the summer. Assuming that your payment plan year ends in the summer, then you should always be in credit or have a zero balance. Assuming that your payment plan year ends in the winter, then you should always be in debit or have a zero balance. The assumption that just because you are in credit, they are ripping you off is wrong. The assumption that just because you are in credit - at this time of year - you shouldn't have your DD payments increased is wrong.

1carminestocky

The thing about all this is the Big 6 have such HUGE numbers of customers even a small, unjustified hike in DD payments means they will have a HUGE cash mountain on which they earn interest. I thought OFGEM had ruled they weren't allowed to do this? Are OFGEM still with us, btw? Or have they gone on a long break after all that hard work they did with that recent whitewash, sorry, investigation into these crooks.

WhistleBlower

If you think your dd has been hiked unfairly contact your supplier and request to have it manually calculated, i've seen direct debits set too high by nearly £50 before now.

Beware though, if your dd is set too low they may insist on upping it. Of course if it is too low you'll be getting in to debt because your'e not paying your bill in full...might be worth going with their figures.

Oh, and they'll probably want an up to date meter read.

Pssst

I am at a complete loss as to why anyone bothers with these schemes. OK so you get a little bit of a discount but you dont get anything for nothing and they make that back off you. Keep the money yourself,keep track of your fuel useage,and pay it when the bill comes in.

MarkyMarkD

For every customer who is actually in too much credit on their energy supply account (and that's a very small proportion of those who imagine that they are in too much credit, simply because they don't understand how it works) there is a customer who is too much in debit on their energy supply account.

It's ridiculous to believe that overall the energy suppliers are making lots of money out of this.

Has nobody noticed that interest rates are now very low?

1carminestocky

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

These threads are very boring.

(1) Suppliers don't (and shouldn't) anticipate any future tariff reductions. They calculate your expected usage at today's prices.

(2) Everyone who uses gas central heating should be in credit - significantly - at this time of year, because their consumption over the winter months will be way higher than in the summer. Assuming that your payment plan year ends in the summer, then you should always be in credit or have a zero balance. Assuming that your payment plan year ends in the winter, then you should always be in debit or have a zero balance. The assumption that just because you are in credit, they are ripping you off is wrong. The assumption that just because you are in credit - at this time of year - you shouldn't have your DD payments increased is wrong.

If you find it so boring, I have an easy solution. Don't open the thread. :rolleyes: I do note, however, that an npower employee on this thread has admitted that he/she has witnessed DD amounts that are £50 per month too high.

MarkyMarkD

Ha ha.

There is about one thread on this subject each day. If people could bother themselves to keep blathering on the same thread, it wouldn't be quite so boring.

The comments of one apparently nPower employee in respect of one customer are scarcely proof of anything. There are a myriad reasons why a DD amount may be too high. When they are initially set, they may be miles out. It's impossible to judge if they are right or wrong until a year's usage has occurred, and even then judging with hindsight doesn't mean that the original level set was unreasonable.

I don't understand all these people who reckon they can't get sensible DD levels set, either. I have always paid by DD and never had any problem getting my DD set at a level I am happy with.

As I've posted on many of the other many threads on this subject, when I joined British Gas a few months ago, they asked me how much I wanted to pay and that is how much the DD was set at.

WhistleBlower

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Ha ha.

There is about one thread on this subject each day. If people could bother themselves to keep blathering on the same thread, it wouldn't be quite so boring.

The comments of one apparently nPower employee in respect of one customer are scarcely proof of anything. There are a myriad reasons why a DD amount may be too high. When they are initially set, they may be miles out. It's impossible to judge if they are right or wrong until a year's usage has occurred, and even then judging with hindsight doesn't mean that the original level set was unreasonable.

I don't understand all these people who reckon they can't get sensible DD levels set, either. I have always paid by DD and never had any problem getting my DD set at a level I am happy with.

As I've posted on many of the other many threads on this subject, when I joined British Gas a few months ago, they asked me how much I wanted to pay and that is how much the DD was set at.

Very true, if your account is less then a year old your DD will not be accurate.

Our Default DD ammounts are about £45 per fuel for a freshly opened account, but i have seen this vary. (Sales aren't my area so don't know why)

At the 6 month reassessment we will assess based on your first 6 months of usage, which, if over winter only can cause the dd to be too high.

Estimated readings and rebills can screw up a dd ammount (once had one saying someone was using over £1000 per month, that was a nasty error, easy to fix at least)

there are numerous reasons, but these are the most common.

TheCreditMuncher

Well with the price of oil falling very rapidly the Energy firms are not so quick to reduce prices are they. I think they should at least be looked at just in case, i too went from £75 pm in our first 12months for dual bills to £113 with N Power. I am considering looking for a cheaper company

Cardew

For the last 3 years or so there has been thread after thread from people complaining that they had been allowed to run up massive debit balances.

Much of this has been caused by the comparison websites, doorstep salesmen and Call centres setting the DD far too low in order to lure customers into switching.

In fact the accusation has frequently been made on this forum that allowing large debit balances to build up was a deliberate tactic by all the Utility companies to prevent customers leaving; as they cannot leave a company until that debit balance is cleared.

It does seem quite clear that there has been a change in policy by the Utility companies on setting the level of the DD and there have been a couple of threads on this subject.

However is that change of policy to ensure that large debit balances are not built up, or, as is being implied(or stated with absolute certainty), to gain interest from the credit balances?

My understanding is that the latter practice is forbidden.

However it will be the easiest thing ever to prove one way or the other. All those who have had their DD set too high will have a large credit balance at the settlement date and this will be apparent in the company's audit.

I have no idea what the facts are, and neither I suspect has anyone else on the forum - but hey lack of facts is not a deterrent for some on this forum - so the open season on Utility Companies will continue.