Left Scottish Power but they created new DDs

JohalaReewi

Switched from Scottish Power and got final bill. Cancelled the Scottish Power direct debit. Checked account yesterday and Scottish Power have created new DD and taken a payment. They also had a second DD lined up to take more money later.

Got these cancelled and a note on the account to ban Scottish Power from creating DDs. Applied for refund under direct debit guarantee scheme (that is another story...). Fingers crossed the money is back in the account today.

New supplier (EDF) has DD setup but has not taken any money yet.

Bl**dy Rogues..

elaina79

Did you make arrangements with Scottish Power to pay the oustanding balance.

dzug1

If you are in debt to Scottish Power they can block the transfer. (Though it may be too late for them to do that now)

mad_bad_spender

elaina79 wrote: »

Did you make arrangements with Scottish Power to pay the oustanding balance.

Whether they made arrangements to pay this or not is totally irrelevant. They can not simply reinstate a direct debit without your auth!!

Simple

mad_bad_spender

I hope the bank have been helpful in putting the money straight as you should have had notification of the reinstated DD and the amount to be collected in advance of payment being collected....

also they can not reinstate the dd without your permission, in this case you should be entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount collected,

regardless of whether you are owe them this or not

Scottish_Power

Hi JohalaReewi

How did you cancel the Direct Debit? Did you cancel this directly with your bank or did you contact ScottishPower and ask them to cancel the Direct Debit. I recently dealt with a case where the customer tried to cancel his ScottishPower Direct Debit online with his bank and this was not actioned by his bank. ScottishPower therefore have no notification that the Direct Debit is cancelled and apply for the payment as normal.

If you had a Direct Debit set up with ScottishPower and this was not cancelled, either by contacting the bank or ScottishPower, we will take payment as normal. If the accounts are finalised, due to you changing supplier, then we will send a final invoice confirming the outstanding balance on each account (gas and electricity) and will confirm when we wish to apply for these payments by Direct Debit. If the outstanding balances are more than you expected and you do not wish for these to be taken in one go by Direct Debit then you can contact us directly to set up a payment arrangement.

If your Direct Debit payment was cancelled by ScottishPower, we would not set up a new payment arrangement without your permission, which is why I am of the opinion that the original Direct Debit was not cancelled.

I hope this helps to clarify the situation. Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

JohalaReewi

In credit with scottish Power for about £100 which has easily covered the final bill and they still owe money so it wasn't that I was in debt with Scottish Power.

The switch completed mid November and the final bills are in and settled so no need for the DD anymore. The DD was cancelled at the bank, not via Scottish Power.

Scottish Power set up TWO new DDs and took money with one of them. The description of the DD was 'first payment' so it was a brand new DD (not the old one). The bank also confirmed that Scottish Power had created two new DDs and that the old one had been cancelled.

Anyway, the money has been refunded by the bank and Scottish Power are banned from setting up new DDs on the account. Still waiting for Scottish Power to pay back what they owe from the old account.

The other problem is Scottish Power have blocked internet access to the old account so it is not possible to check online what has been going on. They are really sore losers when a customer leaves.

Checked with EDF and they say I am still their customer and have not been poached back (slammed is it?) by Scottish Power.

elaina79

mad_bad_spender wrote: »

Whether they made arrangements to pay this or not is totally irrelevant. They can not simply reinstate a direct debit without your auth!!

Simple

I asked that because if the direct debit wasn't cancelled with them but with the bank then they will just take it as normal. If OP had called to cancel the DD with SP then did they make arrangements for any outstanding balance.

Scottish_Power

Hi JohalaReewi

Thanks for confirming the situation. I believe that I can offer an explanation for what has happened on your account.

If you have gas and electricity with SP we will create a Dual Fuel account for you and your Direct Debit will show as one single payment on your bank account. We always have two Direct Debit payments in place however it is one combined payment. When you change supplier, your Dual Fuel account is closed and the gas and electricity accounts become solus accounts. The Direct Debit payments therefore are separated (still using the same bank details without any new Direct Debit being set up). If for example, your were paying £50.00 for gas and £40.00 for electricity, you would have previously seen one DD payment for £90.00 coming out of your bank. If the accounts are finalised and say your gas account has a credit balance on it however your electricity account has an outstanding balance, the final electricity DD will apply for the amount outstanding (we always confirm this to you in the final electricity statement). The gas account will be closed and the refund balance returned to you by cheque.

If we received notification from your bank that the DD was to be cancelled then we would not have taken any DD is this is automatically cancelled when we receive the instruction from your bank. We do not set up new DD payments without your permission.

Your online account is closed when you change supplier and the final invoices are issued to you by post.

If you wish to obtain further information from SP and to check whether we received any notification from the bank that the DD was cancelled then give us a call and our Customer Service team can look into this for you. They will also be able to confirm to you when the credit balance was issued.

I hope this has clarified the situation for you. Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

littlemissbossy

I have just had this experience.

I cancelled my DD online with my bank as I was approx £170 in credit and knew this would cover my final bills. As has been said previously Scottish Power have set up three DD's, the one you see for duel fuel and two you dont see Gas and Electricty(I didn't know this) so that the payments can be spllit if/when you leave. So you cancel your DD thinking thats it but then they just use the other two.

HTH

Scottish_Power

Hi littlemissbossy

The best advise I can give in this situation is to contact ScottishPower directly if you wish to cancel your Direct Debit due to the credit balance on your account. Make sure that you have your current meter readings when you call. This way your Direct Debit can be cancelled immediately and we will be able to bill your account up to date and confirm to you exactly what credit/debt balance is on your account.

If the Direct Debit is cancelled prior to your transfer date then your tariff will be changed and you will be charge on the non-Direct Debit rate until the account is finalised.

I hope this helps.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower