Energy Direct Debit Overcharging: Reclaim Successes

backfoot

Bravo Paul,

Conscientious post of the year.:beer:

A special award from Atlantic Energy.:A

pixiecat

I have just looked at my e.on gas bill online after submitting my meter reading and I am on DD with the winter bill I am 38 in debit but they want to put up my money from £41 to £92 to cover the next bill, when I rang I was told that a new direct debit legislation has come into power that by May I have to have a nil balance on my account!! I told them it was the first I had heard of it and had always run my bill like this dipping into the red after Jan/feb and catch up in the summer but was told this is no longer allowed.
I told her I could not do this as I am on income support and was told I could cancel the DD and take another method but as I am on income support this is the best method for me so I dont run into serious arreas after 20 minutes haggaling on the phone and transfering my £35 electric credit and by me using the £7 reduction in electric DD I managed to get the DD to £55.
So beware E.on are trying to get everyone with a nil balance by May.

Estherm72

My direct debit was £43pm with Scottish gas. After a very big winter bill (my husband now has to wear more jumpers in the house) they wrote to me and said they were going to increase my dd to £146 a month! Even though I clearly had been underpaying I thought this was pretty excessive. By my calculations even taking into account the price rises it should only have been £110 at the most and I thought that was being pretty generous to them and building in a big cushion. I phoned SG this afternoon and stated my case. The gas lady offered to work it out manually and got back to me in a couple of minutes saying she agreed and £110 seemed much more reasonable and they would change it immediately.

Quite pleased with that result really.

Esther

adl999

Been with Scottish Power since February last year. DD increased from £29 to £92 last October - despite account being in credit. I did not get around to asking them to lower it at the time.

On latest bill (last week) balance was in credit by £160.

Sent them an email and requested a lower payment of £40.

They agreed and have lowered the DD to £36, BUT only effective from 25th May 2005, by which I estimate I will be in credit by £200! I've sent them a cheeky email thanking them and indicating that they must have made an error with the date. Awaiting their reply...

Magentasue

pixiecat wrote: »

had always run my bill like this dipping into the red after Jan/feb and catch up in the summer but was told this is no longer allowed.

So beware E.on are trying to get everyone with a nil balance by May.

Not just eon. This has been going on all winter. The idea is that you never dip into the red. While this is obviously in the suppliers' interest, it also works in the consumers' favour in that fewer people will be running up debit balances they cannot afford to repay.

JCB2020

I'm with Scottish Power

I moved to them n Aug 2007. After supplying usage data my DD was set at £50.50.
In March 2008 they said the DD would increase to £91.
In November 2008 they said the DD would decrease to £68.50.
However they never notified my bank as the monthly payments remained at £50.50.
This didnt bother me as the bill usually eneved out at year end.

However I have just had an email saying its going uo to £118 in April.
Now given the previous track record I dont know if they will actulally tell the bank this time but I am fed up with it.
I have done a comarison and will be off to Ebico tomorrow.
Like others here I just dont know how they arrive at these figures!

adl999

adl999 wrote: »

Been with Scottish Power since February last year. DD increased from £29 to £92 last October - despite account being in credit. I did not get around to asking them to lower it at the time.

On latest bill (last week) balance was in credit by £160.

Sent them an email and requested a lower payment of £40.

They agreed and have lowered the DD to £36, BUT only effective from 25th May 2005, by which I estimate I will be in credit by £200! I've sent them a cheeky email thanking them and indicating that they must have made an error with the date. Awaiting their reply...

Just got the reply...

I have checked the account and can confirm that your new direct debit payment of £36.00 will take effect from 01/04/09.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused.
:T

gin

I'm with Atlantic for gas and electricity, who wanted to up my dd for electricity from £86 to £131 as I had a £180 shortfall. I rang them and they agreed to *only* raise my dd to £100. At the same time, I got my gas dd (£285 in credit and paid into my bank account) lowered from £59 to £36 so it evens out over the both payments.:beer:

RobinH_2

• Just switch to EON
• They started to take 157 per month DD. Only me in a 2 bed flat.
• Phoned and very nice young lady reduced it over the phone to £60 per month. probably still high but will see when I get irst combned bill.

th1982

Been with Scottish Power since moving into my new house (about 2.5 years now) and pay fixed monthly DD dual Fuel
.
Bills were £55 pm, for 2 people (with 2 viv's with lizards in - soooo expensive!!)

Went back to being single (and lizard-less), had to hassle SP to check DD payments and they reduced it to £45,

Still accruing credit so hassled them for refund (have taken many to reduce useage), they didn't refund and merely reduced DD to £38.50

Planning to switch but didn't want to leave over £100 of credit with them and hope they refunded it in good time so sent a polite but choicely worded email to them explaining I'd been in credit for over a year, a lot of the time to £100 + and currently after putting in up to date readings, was in credit to £133 - which is over their own specified 3x monthly DD payment for them to refund. Got an email today to tell me the value had been refunded in full and I will get a cheque for the full value in 7-10 days.

They did however up my DD to £46 but that will be very shortlived as I'm going to switch to a much cheaper tariff which should save about £50-£100 + cashback.

Sp 0 me 2