50% rise in monthly d/d???

Flower7_2

Hi Just had the very same thing happen to me today

I'm in credit, using less power than last year - heating not going on unless below freezing etc - they've agreed I'm using less and they want to increase DD from 82 month to £135/month - even advising them the cost of oil has bottomed out and they should be offering a serious price reduction shortly didn't go down too well!!

I've been a home owner for 20 years and only in recent years has it become necessary to in effect pay in advance via dd for your fuel

neilwootton

I am a customer with another gas supplier (who shall rename nameless) and I've had to contact them twice to ask them to amend my direct debit.

It had gone up from £30.00 a month (in September) to £60.00 from the 27th of October 2008.

Having signed up for online billing I received an email saying a new bill was ready to view I logged in to find out I was £137.00 in credit and that they were upping my direct debit from £60.00 to £71.00 a month.

So I emailed them and after a few days they "apologised" and amended the direct debit. "Great!" you'd think..... But when I spoke to them on the 'phone, the ever-so-helpful "customer advisor" told me that they couldn't amend the system...

So, happy days. Not so. I got another email at the start of December and checking it once again I see they'd upped the direct debit to £71.00. So another email, another apology and another amendment to £60.00.

I could understand if my account was in debit every 12 months but it's often in credit to at least £50.00 if not more.

These utilities companies are ripping off us, the consumer, and they know it.

It pays to complain people.

storminbalder

1carminestocky wrote: »

I await that rampaging lion of a regulator Ofgem's ruling on this one. Meooowwwwww......

Very funny. Good one!

And I think that herein lies the problem. They all know that they can get away with anything. Unregulated, private, and behaving like a monopoly or at least a cartel.

I say re-nationalise the bally lot of them - no compensation - they had their chance and they blew it.!

They should never been privatised in the first place.

sarahs999

I think part of the problem here is that companies tempt you to switch by offering untenable monthly rates, and then try to hike up the amounts once you've been with them a few months. THis has happened to me three times in three years, and I've argued successfully against the increases two times out of three (am currently in the middle of the third with Scottish Power).

Flower7_2

Anyone know if Ofgem still exists? I'm sure I heard that it was being renamed.... got rid of? another victim of the credit crunch?

stevehead

This experience isn't universal....
I'm with Atlantic Gas (for Gas)
After seeing the DD hike scam on the Beeb, I rang Atlantic and said I wanted my DD reduced - they hadn't put it up yet.
A helpful lady said give me your meter reading which I did.
She agreed to drop the DD from £41 to £30
The whole thing took about 5 mins

So not all bad

PLBrael

I switched from EOn to Scottish Power back in September to get a decent fixed rate until August 2009. I have a very good idea of how much gas and electricity we consume and used this info to calculate the switch. The DD was coming in at just £3 more than I was paying so I thought it would be worthwhile especially as the indications were that prices were on the up.

The switch went really smoothly. Just last week I submitted my first set of meter readings on-line and had my bill instantly calculated by Scottish Power. It turned out I owed them £24.77... not too surprising given the bitterly cold spell we've had recently but the consumption wasn't too different from previous years. However, I knew this could be trouble and, true to form, I've received an e-mail saying that the DD has been revised. They've bumped it up £26 a month....

We're having cavity wall insulation installed next week and I'll be using this is as ammo when I make the call. There's no way they can make this calculation without having past consumption data to hand and after only 3 months worth of supply. £26 a month extra to cover an outstanding amount of £24.77? Back to the drawing board Scottish Power! I'll let you know how I get on...

Might be worth noting that EOn tried to almost double my DD earlier this year (£93 to £172). After a bit of arguing and a wordy letter ('you're forcing me to borrow money to pay my bills...') quoting my usage they brought it down to £118... had been hoping for £110 but at least they listened.

POSSETTE

i pay 13 a month gas and 32 elec with EDF,You CAN refuse your DD to be raised as i got a letter telling me i was to pay £31 gas..i phoned up and told them i will not be paying £31 and to leave it as it was at 13, she muttered back that

"actually prices have gone up 22% you know"

to which i replied," then why have you put up my DD by 150% ,if its not purely to lie in EDF bank acrueing interest??"

She fell silent and agreed to leave it.i used to pay £30 for gas when we moved in but got to £122 in credit, so i called them up and dropped DD and had refund too.

System

I keep a tight watch on my Eon account and if it's ever in credit for more than a month I phone them up and get the credit balance refunded. If a big bill comes in, I phone them up and tell them I can only afford to pay over the next three months. They've also only increased my monthly DD by about £10 in the last year.

Either I'm lucky or more likely the words "Awkward 8ugger" are written in big letters on my Customer Details!

sarahs999

Just got a confirmation today from Scottish Power that they are putting it back to £70 a month (that's for both gas and electric combined) which should be plenty, given the miserly amount of heating I allow my family.