50% rise in monthly d/d???

allan673

i would cancel the d/d and get them to to bill you quarterly, the discount for d/d isnt worth it anyway.

Magentasue

allan673 wrote: »

i would cancel the d/d and get them to to bill you quarterly, the discount for d/d isnt worth it anyway.

I would check this before cancelling the DD. I'm sure it's been said that the discount is worth more than any interest you could earn on the amount you pay. Also, some of the cheaper tariffs are not available if you pay quarterly.

As said, most suppliers will fix your DD in line with your usage if it's set too high - calculate your annual usage and challenge them.

allan673

fair point,

but i cancelled mine because i was £560 in credit and they wanted to increase my d/d from £100 to £153 per month !!! its a joke.i calculated my usage for the next 12 months and it worked out at £1300 per year not even taking my £560 credit into account.
i would rather keep it im my bank now and pay on receipt of the bill, i feel more in control.

i rang them and they wouldnt budge, so i just said im cancelling the direct debit and they agreed to bill me quarterly.

im now looking to change suppliers, looking at click energy 6 online tariff to find out if i can pay quarterly.

backfoot

mardatha wrote: »

I just put the money aside every week. Then when the bill comes in, I pay it. What;s hard about that ? I HATE direct debits with a passion. It just doesnt make sense to me that so many people are stressed to hell trying to afford huge monthly payments - its like they dont have any option but in fact they do

Nothing is hard about it. It's just not good advice to forsake the DD discount, especially when interest rates are falling. Your irrational dislike of DD's is a bit OTT.

oldwiring

My son has just emailed me with the same problem from EON and he has a credit balance in three figures. I'm vetting his figures and how they get to the figure they are demanding. Why in any case should they want customers to build up a credit? It goe completely against the purpose of the scheme that by the end of twelve months the account should be at nil or in credit.

KimYeovil

Well, £100 is a three figure balance. It is nothing.

Magentasue

oldwiring wrote: »

Why in any case should they want customers to build up a credit? It goe completely against the purpose of the scheme that by the end of twelve months the account should be at nil or in credit.

No, it doesn't. There has to be a credit at this time of year to cover winter usage. It could work the other way - build up debt over winter and pay it off over the summer but obviously that's not so good for energy suppliers. It would also be easier for people to build up debts they couldn't settle.

mwa

I had a similar situation with Scottish Power who wrote to increase my payments from £75 to £100 a month which isn't affordable for me, so I just called them and they were very helpful and understanding (which surprised me!) and after taking readings, they reduced it to £77 so only £2 more.

MWA

kerik4

See link to Daily Mail article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1092456/Energy-giants-told-justify-debit-charges.html
wholesale prices have dropped, so why charge more?!

becky23w

I cant defend the amount you have been told to increase the DD by, but what I can say is when customers call the contact centre and refuse to set their DD to what we advise and choose a lower amount they regularly complain when they go into debt as they have not been paying enough so this may be why you find it difficult to set it to the amount you require. Advisors are not authorised to lower the DD amount below the system amount so I would suggest speaking to a manager - do not accept a call back they must pass you to someone straight away. A DD is designed to be a suitable amount to cover the consumption and to take into consideration the time of year and personal circumstances.