Energy Companies Allegedly Misuseing Direct Debit Scheme

farrah1227

I too got a shock the other day my duel fuel DD with npower were £98pm got letter they are now going up to £170pm phoned they got it to £120 and got a letter today £146pm.I'm sick to death of it.:mad:

brysiewysie

So with prices going up around August and people only just having their DD reviewed, with only a few months to the end of some suppliers DD year it's not rocket science that DD's are going up lots.

Everyone moaning about DD's being too high and getting the supplier to reduce the payment don't seem to understand that they will still have to pay for the amount they're not covering by getting their supplier to reduce their DD. No doubt they'll moan when the DD has to again be increased to take account of the underpayment they're now making after getting it reduced to a 'sensible' level.

If prices increase by 20-30% and peoples winter use forms about 75% of their whole annual use it's relatively easy to work out that many DD's will increase by well over 40% at this time of year. If the DD was set too low before and/or their usage has increased there will be some who have even bigger DD increases.

olly300

blue_monkey wrote: »

For the sale of the £1/25 a month saving I am sorely tempted to cancel the DD and pay quarterly. The temptation will then be if I spend the money I guess. Do they increase your rate if you choose to pay another way?

Southern Electric which includes Atlantic do give you a discount if you pay your bills as soon as you receive them this is not as good a discount as what you get by paying by DD.

Ebico charge you the same however you pay.

Depending where you live in the country their tariffs may not be the cheapest for you.

With me their tariffs are always in the top three cheapest according to the different switch sites I look on.

Edited to say: I don't use DD as my gas usage varies a lot yearly as I either work from home or am not in at all, and I have had difficulties with an utility company not believing someones use can vary so widely. My electricity use doesn't really vary but for me Ebico was one of the cheapest tariffs so there was no point using a DD if I didn't have to.

Cardew

olly300 wrote: »

My electricity use doesn't really vary but for me Ebico was one of the cheapest tariffs so there was no point using a DD if I didn't have to.

I find that difficult to understand.

For electricity Ebico is surely very expensive for most people.

Entering a consumption of only 2,000kWh pa Ebico is 30% more expensive than BG Click 6

Even on a consumption of 1,000kWh pa Click 6 and other companies are cheaper

olly300

Cardew wrote: »

I find that difficult to understand.

For electricity Ebico is surely very expensive for most people.

Entering a consumption of only 2,000kWh pa Ebico is 30% more expensive than BG Click 6

Even on a consumption of 1,000kWh pa Click 6 and other companies are cheaper

You presuming everyone uses a dual fuel tariff.

I don't because my variation in gas usage it worked out cheaper to get them billed separately.

mardatha

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.
******************
EXACTLY ! Put the money every week into a separate savings account & pay the bill when it comes in - don't let them do this to you !! It's YOUR money !!

_pete_

brysiewysie wrote: »

Everyone moaning about DD's being too high and getting the supplier to reduce the payment don't seem to understand that they will still have to pay for the amount they're not covering by getting their supplier to reduce their DD. No doubt they'll moan when the DD has to again be increased to take account of the underpayment they're now making after getting it reduced to a 'sensible' level.

I do understand that I will need at some point to pay for what I have used if that isn't covered by my DD.

My objection was to my DD being doubled when the utility company owed me money. If when I get my next bill in 6 months time it turns out that I owe my supplier money then I'll ring them up and pay what I owe on my debit card. In the meantime the money will have been earning interest in my bank account. I'm not in the business of making commercial loans to utility companies to help them with their cashflow.

Cardew

olly300 wrote: »

You presuming everyone uses a dual fuel tariff.

I don't because my variation in gas usage it worked out cheaper to get them billed separately.

No I am not assuming dual fuel.

I entered electricity only for my post code and got a price of £281 for 2,000kWh with Ebico.(14.05p) Click 6 is £210.86 a saving of £70.14

Ebico prices range from 13.75p(Eastern) to 15.2p(SWales) so £275 to £304 for 2000kWh

Also even at 1000kWh Click 6 was marginally cheaper.

Cardew

_pete_ wrote: »

I do understand that I will need at some point to pay for what I have used if that isn't covered by my DD.

My objection was to my DD being doubled when the utility company owed me money. If when I get my next bill in 6 months time it turns out that I owe my supplier money then I'll ring them up and pay what I owe on my debit card. In the meantime the money will have been earning interest in my bank account. I'm not in the business of making commercial loans to utility companies to help them with their cashflow.

Then you can chose to pay quarterly and get interest on your money for up to 3 months.

The companies give a generous Direct debit discount for your participation in the scheme - it is not compulsory.

Your idea(pay any money owing by debit card )is wonderful for us consumers. You get the DD discount on the whole bill, and you get the interest on the money you owe( a win/win situation);)

I would pay £1 a month on all my DDs.

Cardew

mardatha wrote: »

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.
******************
EXACTLY ! Put the money every week into a separate savings account & pay the bill when it comes in - don't let them do this to you !! It's YOUR money !!

The reason why most of us pay by DD(apart from the convenience) is that it saves us a lot of money - and this is a money saving website.

DD discounts vary by company but 6% is an averagish figure?

So someone paying £100 a month(£1200pa) will get a discount of £72.

If you bank your £100 a month and pay quarterly you will have an average balance in your account of £150 at 5% you will get £7.50p interest.