Scottish Power AHHHHHHHHHH

boderek

Can anyone tell me if this sounds correct. I am with Scottish Power I pay direct debit £50 per month to cover both gas & electricty. I have recently got bill in saying only this quarter from oct to Jan I owe them another £333.00 even though I pay £50 per month. Even if we used more gas & elec than normal does this not sound excessive.

Look at switching and London Energy arew coming up cheaper, does anyone know of this company and how easy is it to switch.

Thanks

IvanOpinion

How was the bill generated? Was it based on actual readings or estimated readings? WHat about the previous bill? If it is based on estimates then what does your meter actually read?

Ivan

boderek

Bill is generated on actual readings so they say? phoned them and they said am using £27 more than paying with D/D but even so this does not amount to £333. Any ideas?

gem4

boderek wrote:

Can anyone tell me if this sounds correct. I am with Scottish Power I pay direct debit £50 per month to cover both gas & electricty. I have recently got bill in saying only this quarter from oct to Jan I owe them another £333.00 even though I pay £50 per month. Even if we used more gas & elec than normal does this not sound excessive.

Look at switching and London Energy arew coming up cheaper, does anyone know of this company and how easy is it to switch.

Thanks

I changed to Scottish Power Jan 2005 paying £45pm for gas and elec on one bill. In June they tried to increase my DD to £70pm after 'estimating' my usage between Jan 05 and Dec 06. I told them I couldn't and wouldn't pay them that much and asked how they could estimate 18mths of usage in advance when I had only been with them 5mths. I said I would switch company before paying such an amount.
They agreed to wait until Dec to re-assess. They still came up with £65pm, £20 more than I pay now despite me quoting my actual meter readings to them and working my own bill out.

I am in the process of changing to London Energy who are asking £50pm based on my actual units used over the past year. This is far more acceptable.
I applied on 1st Jan, my elec switched on 28th Jan, my gas is due to switch tomorrow. No probs with meter reading, although I did have to phone them with it as they didnt send a letter asking for it.
DD set up ok, first payment due 27th Feb. Just have to find out about how to get onto their online tariff now as I'm not sure that's what I'm on, even though thats what I applied for. Scottish Power PAH ! Wont be going near them again in a hurry. I've cancelled their DD cos if they take the £65 they were planning to then they will owe me £80+ as I was in credit even before their increased monthly payment.

Cardew

boderek wrote:

Can anyone tell me if this sounds correct. I am with Scottish Power I pay direct debit £50 per month to cover both gas & electricty. I have recently got bill in saying only this quarter from oct to Jan I owe them another £333.00 even though I pay £50 per month. Even if we used more gas & elec than normal does this not sound excessive.

Look at switching and London Energy arew coming up cheaper, does anyone know of this company and how easy is it to switch.

Thanks

This has been said so many times. What you initially pay by Direct Debit, regardless of it supposed to be based on actual readings, often has no relevance to what your charges should be.

The operators in the call centres are on commission. Their job is to entice you to change to their company and they will fix the DD payment low enough to persuade you to make the switch. It doesn't concern them that you will inevitably build up a debit balance; all that matters(to them) is they have their commission. You can't change suppliers until you have cleared their debit balance, so they will eventually get their money.

There are loads of posts in this forum where people have build up huge deficits which the company try to recover as quickly as they can.

The only way to find out what you should be paying is to calculate by looking at old bills what your consumption will be(in kWh) for 12 months and working out the annual total from the tariff of the company you are interested in.