MSE news: Crackdown on exorbitant energy direct debit demands

1carminestocky

Why don't you people just input your exact usage figures at the end of each month and get charged on exactly that usage (by DD) the month after? It sort of negates all the problems of under/over payment.

Snakeeyes21

Simple answer really. Dont pay by direct debit, its worth losing your dd discount you pay more than that in calls to them to sort out payments that are too high and chasing for refunds.
theres plenty of ways to pay, pay when you get your bill, standing order, weekly / monthly payment plan etc etc

Katie-Kat-Kins

1carminestocky wrote: »

Why don't you people just input your exact usage figures at the end of each month and get charged on exactly that usage (by DD) the month after? It sort of negates all the problems of under/over payment.

Because they like to make that difficult too!

Our supplier wants us to supply readings online but their website cannot support a five rate meter despite them offering a five rate tarriff. They will not supply an email address or alternative. Phoning is a pain because I am at work and can't sit around all day on hold.

gem4

stinkeyfeet40 wrote: »

From all of this i changed provider.

they then took ages and provided extremely bad customer service, which i complained and argued against, and subsequently had half of my final bill written off.

I know it goes slightly off the main point but felt it all needed sharing

good luck to all those fighting their case with the big companies

Oh dear, I have just opted to switch from British Gas. Hope they dont take too long over it.

I had gas with NPower and Elec with British Gas, paying £40 and £35 respectively. I gave EDF my actual kwh usage over the last 12mths which they have used to set my new DD at £28 and £26 respectively.
This is more in line with what I was paying EDF last year when I left them to switch to BGas and NP.

I will be monitoring this situation closely because there is such a big difference in the amounts, but I will be continuing to allocate the £75 to another pot until such time that EDF send my first bill. It would be lovely if EDF do have the correct payment in place cos I'll be £20 a mth better off. :T

MarkyMarkD

Surely you have used an energy comparison service to tell you your expected annual bills based on your kWh consumption?

In which case, you should know whether the EDF DD amounts are realistic or not.

gem4

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Surely you have used an energy comparison service to tell you your expected annual bills based on your kWh consumption?

In which case, you should know whether the EDF DD amounts are realistic or not.

Yes I did. I always do my comparisons on actual kwh usage rather than monthly payment. And my figures were correct, but it just seems such a big difference to pay.
From £75 pm down to £54 pm seems a lot.

I deserted EDF last year to go cheaper. Since I had also done a KWH comparison before switching I only questioned the initial monthly payments that BG and NP had set as they were higher than EDF. I was told it was a standard 'starting' figure but that they could adjust it. Since then though they have increased again.

Now EDF are showing as cheaper based on actual consumption but they have given me similar payments to those I had last time I was with them even though prices went up during the last 12mths. This is why I will monitor my usage v payments for a while.