Revised DD - not sure if its even close?

johnnycongo

Folks
Just registered on here but been lurking for a while....

Just had email through from Scottish Power indicating that our monthly direct debit has been increased by £13.50 to £99.50

Its been a busy year and I hadn't even got round to looking into whether £86 was a fair DD either but when I set the account up I used a few price comparison sites and they seemed to point me at Scottish Power Online Energy Saver 4 package so I haven't questioned the DD cost perhaps foolishly assuming it would be correct.

So anyway, we're just over the year mark so I now have figures for a typical year I guess.
So when I put these into energyhelpline.com for comparison purposes I note with interest that the results it produces shows that my annual consumption figures will produce bills of approx £900-£1000 roughly it would seem.

So my beef is that a monthly DD of £99 means ScottishPower are taking £1200 of me for approx £900-£1000 worth of usage. Even at the previous figure of £86 I was possibly still overpaying.

My annual figures are
electricity 3120 kWh
gas 16121 kWh

So am I missing something, or is this just typical of the way these schemes operate?

Any advice

thanks in advance
CJ

ali_p_4

You will have your bills for the last 12 months so roughly work out what your power has cost you for the year.Obviously prices have changed recently so that would need to be taken into account. Firstly then does that yearly figure compare with what your direct debits have cost you, also on your bills at what stages have you been in credit or arrears. Is your account in arrears at the moment. I have had a lot of problems with them of late but thankfully now should be sorted. The best thing you can do if you still think that the annual spend is estimated too high is speak to them and try to negotiate.
They wanted £200 from me and that was with no arrears. My highest bill for a year gas and electric has only been £450. I have gone back to quarterly billing, but i still intend making a payment through to them online every month so i don't have a huge bill outstanding everytime. That way i can pay what i can afford which will vary from month to month. The amount that is saved from direct debit discount does not compare with the £200 plus I would be paying instead of what needed to be paid.

Cardew

There have been several threads on this and some comment in the media.

It would appear that all of the companies are attempting to get their customer's account balances to zero by Spring.

Before you would emerge from Spring in debit and build up a credit over the Summer.

dogshome

With increases in Sept 08, Scot Power demanded a D/Debit increase of £17 from a friend of mine. I went through the bills and indeed an increase was justified of 50pence. Sent the calculations to Scot. Power who replied they had checked them manually and agreed - Just what sort of software are they using ?

johnnycongo

tibtib wrote: »

Can you not change suppliers? It seems savings can be made. We our roughly spending in a house of 3. 240GBP per quarter on gas and 70GBP on electricity.

The main site itself is advising not to change at the moment and wait until things settle down a bit it would appear.

johnnycongo

dogshome wrote: »

With increases in Sept 08, Scot Power demanded a D/Debit increase of £17 from a friend of mine. I went through the bills and indeed an increase was justified of 50pence. Sent the calculations to Scot. Power who replied they had checked them manually and agreed - Just what sort of software are they using ?

It might be a bit of a can of worms but how do you go through the calculations!!

I gave it a try but got confused with discounts and so much at a certain price per unit and so much after that at another rate.

If I put my annual consumption figures into other website I get annual bills of £900-£1000 yet I appear to be getting stiffed for £1200.

I might well have been inclined to move if it weren't for the fact the main site suggests not to.