Hydro Electric unannounced debit

FannyHill

I am with Hydro Electric and get a bill every quarter which I pay by variable direct debit.
My last bill for electricity used was a read meter up to 18 Sept and was collected by DD on 11 Oct. I received a bill a few weeks before informing me of the charge.
Anyway I am not staying at that property at the moment I'm at my brother's place as he is away.
I knew my electricity use would be low and thought once I receive the bill I'll read the meter and give them the correct reading as I knew the bill for Sept to Dec 18 would be estimated.
Anyway I went out to my house on 29 Dec but there was still no bill from Hydro Electric.
I checked my online banking on 31 Dec and my account had plenty of money in it but when I checked again on Sun 4th Jan I found to my horror that I was overdrawn.
I couldn't figure out what was wrong until I looked in my DD list and found that the following day Hydro were going to take out almost £200 from my DD.
I rushed in next morning to my bank and put in more money so there would be enough to cover this DD.
I checked my online bank account at lunchitme and it said DD rejected and a £35 penalty charge had been added to my account.
I went into my branch to query this and the girl said they will try again later this afternoon to take out the money and the DD will be successful so don't worry.
Fortunately when I checked online in the evening the DD had been paid and the penalty charge removed.
I also asked about the Direct Debit Guarantee at the bank which states that I'm supposed to be given 10 working days written notice that the money is to be taken.
If this is not done I'm entitled to a refund from the bank, but the girl said no I have to go to the electricity company to sort out the problem.

I believe this interpretation is incorrect.


Anyway I went back to my place a few days later and fortunately the bill was there so it must have arrived after the 29the Dec.
I read my meter and had used up a little over 200 units but the bill had estimated me at over 1400 units.
If the money had been taken on 11 Jan I would have had plenty of time to put more money in my bank account but as Monday the 5th Jan was the first working day as Scottish banks were closed on 1st and 2nd and 3rd and 4th were weekend I was lucky I managed to get in on time and put more money in my account.


I rang up Hydro Electric and the girl said if the meter reading they estimated was up to 18 Dec the bill would have been posted on the 19th.
I find this hard to believe as any bill or statement I receive from any company is usually at least a week arriving after the statement date.
And again even if it was posted on the 19th Dec it is still cutting it very neat if they are giving 10 working days or approx two weeks if you include weekends notice to the customer of the amount and date the DD will be taken.
The girl took my meter reading and worked out the correct bill and said she would send me an amended bill and would refund my overpayment in a few days.She said she was glad that the bank hadn't charged me a penalty fee but they weren't responsible for that.

Hopefully all will end well.


I'm now wondering if I should cancel my DD and go back to getting a bill which I can check to see how close the estimated readings are to the actual meter readings.
At least that way I'm in control and won't go overdrawn again. I can then pay this bill at the bank in cash.



Thanks for reading, any comments welcome.

Magentasue

I know that some of the DDs I've set up allow you to specify a date e.g. 11th, whereas others just say how frequently it'll be taken. I suspect yours just says quarterly and you have to make allowances for delay in Christmas post or, conversely bills being sent out mega quick to beat the Christmas holiday.

Perhaps you'd be better off going for an online tafrff so that you could submit readings and make payments online?