Can I change supplier with a debit balance?

niklepic

Hi was wondering if anyone could help. We moved house in December last year and after 5 months of chasing Scottish Power finally got our gas and electric bills through in May for £500. We set up a direct debit for £120 a month and have paid this for the last three months. Got another bill this month stating that our debit balance is now £800 (despite paying three £120 bills) and that they are increasing our direct debit to £220 per month in order to clear the arrears. The metre readings they have however are correct and state that we use £90 electric per month and £30 gas. I have no idea how we can possibly use £90 electric a month as we both work full time so are out of the house most of the time, energy saving lightbulbs, sparse use of washing machine/dryer. We used to have pre-payment metres in our old house and were only paying £40 a month on these!! Can i get the metres checked to ensure they're working properly?

Anyhoo... we can't really afford to be paying a £220 energy bill on top of everything else that goes out however Scottish Power won't reduce the amount of the direct debit and have stated that they won't change us to a cheaper tarriff (currently on standard rate).

I have just been on a couple of price comparison sites and note that they can substantially reduce our direct debit (to around £60/70 per month for both hopefully). If i can come to some sort of affordable arrangement with Scottish Power to pay off the debt, do you think it would be possible to change supplier?

KimYeovil

If you are using £120 per month no other supplier will give you same consumption for £60 per month. Your sums or readings are wrong, somewhere.

But you are right to question the electricity - you can not use £90 of electricity in one month without noticing it being used. Again, there is something wrong, somewhere.

niklepic

I really don't know how we're using £90 electric a month, especially as we were only using £40 in our old house. like i say we're not in most of the time. Even now I am in the only thing on is the pc (apart from fridge). Everything else is unplugged. Is there a way I can check the metre?

micim1

niklepic, you can ask SP to have the meter checked as faulty but they will charge you for this service. Your money will only be refunded if the meter is actually found to be faulty.
What type of heating do you have? What runs your hot water for showers etc?
Turn off all switches to absolutely everything and (using a torch if necessary) look at the dial/counter on the meter. Watch it for a few minutes to see how much it moves, and turn each thing back on (and off again) one by one. If the meter starts reeling after any particular item is switched on, have the item wiring checked.
If you can find no faulty or suspect items, call SP anyway and ask to be put through to a complaints hander (the people anwering the phones have deadlines and allegedly do not have the time to sort out problems) and explain your concerns to them. They can actually go through item by item what your actual use should be if you are willing to spend some time on this.
Good luck