Can they increase DD without permission

continualdiamond

Just got my electric/gas bill from southern electric and they want to increase my DD from £52 to £89 for electric. :eek:

I cannot afford this and from what i can see it is to do with the fact that for too long the amounts of what i owed was carried forward until now its built up.

In 6mths we used £280 worth of electric, at £52 x 6 = £312 so well within paying for what we actually used.

However the carry forward balance is the problem.

Can they actually increase my payment without my permission? I am more than happy to make additional payments to clear the carry forward balance off. But i do not want to be paying £89 as i know for a fact that once that starts and they owe me money they won't reduce it.

flea72

continualdiamond wrote: »

Just got my electric/gas bill from southern electric and they want to increase my DD from £52 to £89 for electric. :eek:

I cannot afford this and from what i can see it is to do with the fact that for too long the amounts of what i owed was carried forward until now its built up.

In 6mths we used £280 worth of electric, at £52 x 6 = £312 so well within paying for what we actually used.

However the carry forward balance is the problem.

Can they actually increase my payment without my permission? I am more than happy to make additional payments to clear the carry forward balance off. But i do not want to be paying £89 as i know for a fact that once that starts and they owe me money they won't reduce it.

if you dont want your monthly DD to increase, then you need to clear the outstanding amount

however, should you start to get into credit due to the higher payments, then you can always contact them to renegotiate a new lower monthly figure, or for any overpayment to be returned

but, seeing as you have got into arrears paying £52/m, how much do you think you need to be paying so you more or less break even, from here on in?

F

continualdiamond

Well if they let me clear the balance, i would like to do so in the 6 mth period between the next bill, its all online, so i would be quite happy to make a £10 - £20 payment per week.

Biggles

continualdiamond wrote: »

Can they actually increase my payment without my permission?

No. But you gave them permission when you signed the standard variable amount DD mandate.

macman

Bear in mind that you are now into the expensive part of the year for heating/lighting, so if you just about up to date now, you will be in debt at the end of the winter if the DD stays the same. The idea is to carry some credit into the winter which is then used up during those months, and in the spring you are back in balance.

lil_me

continualdiamond wrote: »

Well if they let me clear the balance, i would like to do so in the 6 mth period between the next bill, its all online, so i would be quite happy to make a £10 - £20 payment per week.

You DD is going up to about that (well a bit less), so after that 6 months you could reduce it. Or pay the additional amount you owe from the carry forward (you can do this over the phone even with online tarriffs) then you won't owe them anything to be repaid. It's most likely the overdue amounts that have caused the increase as you are not covering that + your bills to repay it quick enough. Give them a call is usuallt the best way.

moonrakerz

continualdiamond wrote: »

i know for a fact that once that starts and they owe me money they won't reduce it.

Not true, I'm afraid. Eon have just reduced mine, without me asking !

PennyForThem_2

I used to be appalled at the amount that EDF tried to increase my direct debit by. For instance I was £100+ in credit for gas and they tried to increase by £20 a month. Told them no, and reduced it.