Pick Me Up Gently

farquarpigmix

Hi All,

Had to share this. Had a dual fuel account with a supplier, got a letter a week before christmas to inform me my monthly bill will go up from £70 a month to £105 a month due to increase's in fuel. As you can see that is a hike of about 50%. Phoned them up asking why so much, got a load of waffle big words & mainly a load of bull!!!!.

I checked this site out and have now transferred to another company. Has anybody else expereinced a hike of this much?

I haven't named the firm in case your not allowed to.

Regards

Farquarpigmix

djohn2002uk

You are allowed to name the company and it could be of benefit to other people.

caveat_emptor

farquarpigmix wrote:

Hi All,
Had to share this. Had a dual fuel account with a supplier, got a letter a week before christmas to inform me my monthly bill will go up from £70 a month to £105 a month due to increase's in fuel. As you can see that is a hike of about 50%. Phoned them up asking why so much, got a load of waffle big words & mainly a load of bull!!!!.
I checked this site out and have now transferred to another company. Has anybody else expereinced a hike of this much?
I haven't named the firm in case your not allowed to.
Regards
Farquarpigmix

One of many things I've learnt when dealing with utility companies is never phone, as I normally get the response you described. Always write, it will take longer to get an answer but it is more likely to be from someone who knows what they're talking about.
A 50% price increase is, even by today's standards, out of order, unless you had a debit to balance your account.
Pity you didn't name the company.

farquarpigmix

Hi,

Company I was with was Scottish power. I paid by direct debit monthly and was always up to date with payments.

Cardew

farquarpigmix wrote:

Hi,

Company I was with was Scottish power. I paid by direct debit monthly and was always up to date with payments.

That doesn't mean you the account is not in debit.

Almost every case of of large increases in the Direct Debit is because the payments have been insufficient and you owe the company money - so they are taking extra to pay the debt off.

djohn2002uk

I've been with Scottish Power for over a year and I call the shots. It's no good letting them, or any provider tell you how much to pay. I told them what I was going to pay for the last year and read my meters regularly and worked out if I was on track or not. At the end of the year I was £8 in credit. I'm now starting, from yesterday, on a capped scheme untill Oct 2007 and they told me the unit costs and I told them what my DD is going to be. And they accept it.
It's in a providers interest for you to underpay, then they can hold you untill you pay it off.

Bri_2205

djohn2002uk wrote:

It's in a providers interest for you to underpay, then they can hold you untill you pay it off.

It's actually in their interest for you to overpay so they can earn interest from your credit, that's the reason for discounts associated with DD.

Underpayment makes more calls and more regulator complaints, which no supplier wants

djohn2002uk

Bri_2205 wrote:

It's actually in their interest for you to overpay so they can earn interest from your credit, that's the reason for discounts associated with DD.

Underpayment makes more calls and more regulator complaints, which no supplier wants

Then I sugest you read the other threads in this forum and you will see far more complaints from people who have built up a sizeable debit than there are from people who have been "overcharged" and built up a credit.
I can also vouch for the fact that I was offered a reduction of £11 a month on my DD and if you read my earlier post my own calulations had shown that was not a sensible option for me to take.
Also, the providers offer lower DD payments at the beginning to entice people to join and it doesn't take a mathematician to work that out from the other threads.
The reason for discounts on DD is not due to the interest earned on overpayments but due to lower administrative costs. That is why other fixed cost items like Broadband and telephone line rental also attract a DD discount.

Cardew

djohn2002uk wrote:

Then I sugest you read the other threads in this forum and you will see far more complaints from people who have built up a sizeable debit than there are from people who have been "overcharged" and built up a credit.
I can also vouch for the fact that I was offered a reduction of £11 a month on my DD and if you read my earlier post my own calulations had shown that was not a sensible option for me to take.
Also, the providers offer lower DD payments at the beginning to entice people to join and it doesn't take a mathematician to work that out from the other threads.

Absolutely correct.

This forum is littered with posts from people who run up a considerable debit balance on their accounts and then express surprise and indignation that their Direct Debit payments have increased massively, firstly to pay off their debt and then pay the correct amount for the following year.

It really doesn't take the brains of an Archbishop to realise that if you use gas/electricity/water costing £480 per year and your DD payments are £25 a month you will end the year owing £180.

So you should have been paying £40 a month last year. However prices have increased for next year by, say, 15% so your payments will be £46 a month to cover your expected consumption.

On top of that you need to pay back the £180 you owe which is another £15 a month. So your payments have gone up from £25 to £61 as Tommy Cooper used to say "Just Like That"

If the utility company want their £180 back in less than a year you will have to pay even more per month.

Of course the major reason for this situation occuring is that many people have simply no idea of their consumption and/or tariff. They must assume that a Direct Debit payment is somehow settling a bill or an HP installment

Bri_2205

Are people whio build up a large credit balance on their account and receive a refund likely to write a post complaining about it though?

The reason the forum is litttered with posts where people are amassing huge dibit balances is that they aren't happy about it & want to vent/get advice.

The reason debits build up is usually either due to an increase in usage or inaccurate estimated readings causing a payment too low.

Well done on realising your payment was too low, a lot of people don't pay the slightest bit of attention & then wonder why they have a debt when they have been paying £5 per month for a year

Cardew

Bri_2205 wrote:

The reason debits build up is usually either due to an increase in usage or inaccurate estimated readings causing a payment too low.

If you look through the many posts on this subject you will find that a lot of people have simply no idea of their consumption in kWh or the tariff they are using. The only thing they are aware of is their monthly Direct Debit.

Unfortunately if you just use this Direct Debit figure on the comparison sites or to telephone a new supplier you will inevitably get quoted a lower monthly Direct Debit figure. This, as someone states above, is simply to entice them to change supplier as the staff are on a bonus to capture new customers; the DD is often way below a realistic amount.