setting DD amount

melancholly

sorry if this is covered elsewhere and is really obvious to everyone else! i currently pay my gas and electricity quarterly, giving a meter reading each time (bad experience in a shared house where suddenly we owed hundreds because no-one read the meter!). i can get an offer with edf (5000 nectar points) if i go to direct debit and i know i'll also save 6% on what i'm currently paying. i have the DD form they sent me, but it doesn't mention the amount.... having looked at it this afternoon, i can't call them til Monday so i thought i'd ask for some info here to arm myself with in advance:

how do they set the DD?
do i get to agree the monthly charge in advance?
how on earth can it be ok to send a DD instruction without any details of how much it will be?!

Fire_Fox

They send a DD instruction with no amount as it's prone to change: standing orders are fixed not DDs. The amount is usually 1/12 of a full year, but if you are starting in winter they may well want to go in higher.

melancholly

ah ok - basic error then - me confusing standing orders and DDs! oops!

i should be able to find out the amount though? i guess i'll have to wait until customer services are open tomorrow!

thank you!

PennyForThem_2

Hi

I was with EDF. As long as you telephone in or submit on the web your meter reading then you shouldn't have any surprises. If you submit then you will get a bill within 7 days, so you can see what you owe or not.

They will (cynically) try to increase your dd charge. For instance I am a low gas user and was in credit the whole time I was with them. They tried to increase both electricity and gas dd payments by more than I was using. You just need to ring up and change to what you think is a fair charge. There isn't any hassle doing this.

Remember the ore money they get off you the more they can earn in interest for overpayments.

melancholly

just set it up - the first amount that they suggested was equivalent to what i pay a quarter, which seemed high! but they then said that makes no sense and recalculated it. should be easier for me to manage if the money goes out monthly.

thanks for the help.

tori.k

If's its any help i did mine over the phone, the lady i spoke too confirmed the amount id spent over the last year and split it over 12, i added an extra couple of quid to round it up, (as we all know these things seem to go up even when they say the bills are coming down) and we will look at it again in a year and adjust either way. it took 5 mins on the phone