SE raising DD when in credit

slimzee

Hi

Is this normal behavior? any rules against it?

SE have raised my gas DD to 45 a month from 30 and my account is in credit ?!?! They owe me money, and this is summer!! no plan to use gas central heating for 6 months, the 30 a month at the moment is covering gas cooker + hot water from a conventional boiler.

I used 70 units of gas from 24 Mar 09 to 20 Jun 09 2200.24 kWh. Total charge 83.79 pounds. So that puts me in 6.21 pounds credit, and I expect that to accumulate over the next 6 months.

They are also trying to raise my Electric from 25 to 32 which is fair play as I owe them 12.72 pounds for that.

But where do I stand regarding the gas DD increase I think its pretty unreasonable.

Vestra

Do you have two actual readings a year apart or do you know your annual kwh usage?

Premier_2

You need to be saving now to pay for the anticipated consumption through the winter.

If you're not happy, speak to SE and see if they will consider revising the DD back down.

If they won't agree, consider paying on receipt of bill ... but you might lose some discounts doing that.

slimzee

Nope, this is my 2nd quarter bill, I never had a property before 6 months ago.

KimYeovil

£6 in credit at 20 Jun is very, very low. That's more than two-and-a-half months in to the year. Over nine light-use months that will only give you an extra £22 to spend over three winter months!!! Even being generous and counting it as 50 days/one-and-a-half months, that's only £33 for winter.

You'll have to provide some other data to convince us you are being exploited.

slimzee

No one is being exploited, I just cant understand why raise a DD over the summer when gas usage is to a minimum.

Seems like its better for SE to have the money sitting in thier saving account than mine.

KimYeovil

If you do not want to spread your payments equally over twelve months then fair enough - come off the Direct Debit tariff. If you'd rather put the money aside month by month in your own savings account, do so. Put the £15 per month (or, as you seem to think, less than that) aside. You will then need to find any extra money come your Jan or Mar bills next year.

(Do you think the interest on £15 put aside each month in a bank over the next seven months will be more than the £50 to £100 Direct Debit discount? Please tell us who your banker is!)

Cardew

If you are 6 pounds in credit on 20 June, I think it doubtful that you would have acumulated paying £30 monthly over the next 6 months(to 20 Dec!) - the next 3 possibly. You don't intend to use heating in Oct/Nov/Dec???

Loads of complaints on this forum are that the DD was kept too low and let a big debit balance build up.

There are no rules against a company taking the DD that they calculate is required and that is what you agreed to when you signed the DD mandate and got the DD discount.

Most companies will agree to reduce the a DD if you present a reasonable case to them - but presumably they don't agree with your case.

Vestra

Slimzee, if you've only been with them a few months give them a call and they can check the readings before you moved in (pointless if property was empty before you) the system can be a bit funny when reviewing the DD when you don't have a full years usage.