Sick and tired of it all

SamMoffatt28

Hi all,
Sorry to come in and be a real misery guts but I am feeling so down today I need to get it off my chest. I got a bill from Scottish Power last week saying that we owe the £780 in arrears. It turns out that they had been estimating my bill (well underestimating so it seems) so my payments have gone from £44p/m to £152p/m. I phoned them tried to sort it out, no use they don't give a ****. Hubby phoned them last night as well, still nothing so with no other way to sort it out we've cancelled the d/d in protest. Wasn't a great idea coz now they've put us on quarterly billing instead of a monthly payment plan. I think I can sort it as mil said she will help us pay the arrears off. But can't do anything now until they send us a new bill. Today postie arrives with a letter from the bank, we've been charged £39 for an unpaid d/d coz I was so busy trying to sort out the Scottish power c*** up that I forgot to transfer the money over. Still haven't sorted out hubby's credit card which he unwittingly has been paying a minimum payment of £6 p/m on for 2 years when we thought we had paid off the balance. Still dont know if it was fraudulently used, gotta wait for the statements to come through which could take months. The statements for the card have all been going to our old address.
Everythings probably my own fault for not keeping a closer check on the finances, although if hubby checked his bank statements properly it may have been discovered earlier.
Trying to lose weight as well isn't working, jumped on the scales today, I've put on 4 pounds. Dont know how or why, I haven't exactly eaten any differently than usual. I feel so glum and so tired I dont feel like going to work today. I will do because I am a much needed volunteer and they rely on me. Sorry to sound selfish but I dont much feel like going to work for nothing today. I'm not usually like that. It just seems I am working so hard doing 2 voluntary jobs, taking care of home,hubby and 4 kids and trying to get myself sorted to start Uni in September and what do I get? more debt thats what.
I wish my mum and dad lived closer at least I could go visit them and take my mind off things. My own fault too, I moved 300 miles away from them 4 years ago. Mind you things would be worse if I still lived down there coz the ex would still be stalking me as well!
Sorry to have a moan, I feel a bit better now maybe I've got PMT.

Thanks to anyone who has followed this moan to the bottom. Go on tell me I'm selfish and dont have any right to be miserable, I know that already.

fivemice

Are Scottish Power your cheapest?
I went with Southern Electric and when I signed up I was told for my house & usage it'd be £18 (funny that, I told them my powergen bill was £19 a month).
It turns out they had it all wrong and clearly told me that price to get me to sign up and whacked my monthly payment up to £80pm which I just couldn't afford (this is electric alone).

So I cancelled with them, and signed up with Powergen. Southern Electric chased me for the money obviously so I rang them up and told them they were rubbish and that I was appalled that they would lie to someone just to get them to sign up, and told them I would pay them £5 a month to clear the debt, which is around £400. It's interest free, so I'm not bothered about it being there, and I just see it as "punishment" for them.

I'll pay it off as part of my debt free thing, but I would probably get more satisfaction from paying them off really slowly

It frustrates me so much when companies do things like this, and get away with it.

SamMoffatt28

Are Scottish Power your cheapest?

I went on uswitch.com and they suggest powergen is the cheapest + I can get Tesco clubcard points for every £1 I spend so will be looking at that. However SP wont let me out of their contract until I pay the arrears.

fivemice

I never asked I just signed up with powergen and then they didn't have a choice.

atomicspaceship

I too have had something similar from Southern Electric (who if I remember rightly are owned by Scottish Power - I may be wrong I remember speaking to a callcentre in Perth a lot!). I lived in Dorset for a year and they were my electricity providers paying £30 a month. When I moved away I gave my final meter reading and a few days later received a letter saying the estimated monthly payments were wrong and I owed them £750 extra. As you can imagine I went mad and eventually got them to agree for me to pay them back at £50 a month.

Has anyone else had this problem from Southern Electric/Scottish Power?

Sam, whatever you do, reinstate that direct debit for the bill, it will save you money in the long term (ironic I know in the present circumstances) and help you to budget more efficiently.

SamMoffatt28

Thanks for all the support, I have just applied to powergen to change to them. Now will have to wait and see if Scottish power will let us move. I am going to make an arrangement to pay what we owe and then I'm off! I might even write them a strongly worded letter of complaint. Their customer service is appalling. I don't feel so down now I feel more angry because it was their fault! Ah well life goes on...

lynzpower

Did you go through Uswitch? If you sign up to uswitch services via Quidco, you get £8 back

Not a lot, but better than nothing!

SamMoffatt28

lynzpower wrote:

Did you go through Uswitch? If you sign up to uswitch services via Quidco, you get £8 back

Not a lot, but better than nothing!

!!!!!!! I never thought of that! :rotfl:
I did it through tesco's to get 1000 clubcard points, but still thats good too if I spend it on deals and not on shopping.


I must be a 'carp' moneysaver I just keep doing it all wrong!

Anniek1969

I had the same problem with Scottish Power. They had been estimating my bills for about 6 years even though the meter had been read and I'd phoned them with the readings. My payments were only £45 per month and I phoned and asked them to increase it to £70 as I knew I wasn't paying enough. That was at the beginning of last year and then in October they sent me another estimated bill and put my payment up to £102, this was supposed to be a 24 month agreement as my HB explained that we had 3 kids and one wage so things were pretty tight. In March they sent me another estimate and put my payments up to £195.50 they told us that we were using around £110 on electricity and the rest was being payed to the arrears.

Since the end of September I have been keeping a close eye on my usage and on average over the winter months we were using around £80 per month. With the weather getting a bit warmer our usage has now went down to around £30 per month so I average it out at about £55 per month over the year which means that I am currently paying over £130 every month to my arrears. Originally they stood at £1180 but I've struggled and paid 2 months of the new rate which means I now owe them about £900 and if I can manage I should have it paid off in about 6 months. As soon as it's paid I will definately be changing supplier as they are totally unreasonable about paying arrears. It has taken me years to build up all these arrears but they want it paid off in 10 months.

How they expect you to find an extra £93.50 every month is beyond me, it's meant really cutting back and already I'm struggling but I really hope to get them paid off so I can change.

SamMoffatt28

Thanks AnnieK, sorry to hear about your situation but it sounds exactly the same as what they have done to me. I am angry at myself because I was the one that realised what had happened and I told them and explained that I was more than willing to pay it back under some kind of payment arrangement. Unfortunately they decided to just up the d/d without my knowledge and the payments jumped from £44 p/m to £152 p.m. I wish I had never told them now and had just made some extra payments with my debit card or by standing order. They would have been non the wiser. It seems that they penalise the ones that are willing to pay, no matter the consequences - I suppose this counteracts the ones that won't pay. It makes me so mad that they treat people like you and I that way when it wasn't even our fault to begin with. I wonder how much they make in profits every year? surely they can afford for us to pay a smaller instalment, they are not going to miss £100 p/m but a family on one income like you or I are going to really feel it hard. They make me sick.