Scottish power DD, why would they do this?

sinar

Hi

I was wondering if anyone could tell me the best way that I should resolve this problem that I have with Scottish Power electricity.

3 months ago I switched to Scottish power after having a terrible time with British Gas over the previous year or so, with them not taking payments or reading my meter, and refusing to drop the monthly payments when I was well in credit. I had been pretty lax in monitoring my usage with British Gas so I decided to keep on top of my usage with SP.

I have been very frugal with my electricity usage, living on my own with a very tight budget. I had set my initial DD amount to £19 which I thought was reasonable.

I received an email asking me to put in my meter reading so I would not get an estimated bill, which I did. Over the 3 months I had used £23 of electricity, I was £34 in credit. Great, I thought, the £19 a month was clearly covering my usage, I was happy.

A couple of hours later I received an email saying my monthly amount would have to rise to £29.50 a month!, even though I had only used £8 a month for the previous 3 months.

I don't understand why they would do this, and am feeling very frustrated, I have emailed them but have not had a reply yet, I can't find a phone number for them on the web site.

I know £29.50 does not seem much to what some people pay but it is a lot for me hence why I have economized so much, which has included turning my fridge of for the winter as i don't really need it.

Maybe they will reply and say they will drop the amount, but I can't help feeling like this is going to go the way of the British Gas problem I had previously, where they would not listen to common sense or reason or hard numbers.

Sorry about the length of this rant, but I've gone from very happy as I'm keeping to my tight consumption budget to worrying that I might have to pay more than I can afford for no reason.

Julie

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi

The Direct Debit may have been increased to ensure you have enough credit on the account for when your next quarterly bill arrives; this is possibly due to Scottish power estimating you will use more than the credit you have.

How does the £19 per month compare to what you paid your previous supplier?

Also bear in mind the cost of electricity has increased over the last year and if the Direct Debit with the old supplier didn’t increase as a result of this it may explain why its higher now.

The best thing to do is take regular meter readings, i.e. daily and monitor your usage. When you have some data try calculating your own Direct Debit amount and discuss it with your supplier explaining how you calculated it.

This will either show their calculation is correct or give you a basis to negotiate a different figure with them.

If they are right and it needs increasing, get some advice about how to save more energy or even ask about better tariffs.