Stunned

Cardew

sapmac wrote: »

Just got letter from E-ON. I am £67 in credit and they want £210 a month, up from £140!. Sheer lunacy.

Just to get back to the OP's statement.

If you were paying £140 a month:

1. you are a well above average user

or

2. The £140 is set at that level to pay off a debt as well as cover your normal usage.

So for a normal pattern of use(which is how the computer is programed), £67 credit now would not be sufficient credit to enable you to have a zero balance next Spring.

So it certainly is not lunacy; albeit for your consumption pattern it might not be appropriate.

There really are some misconceptions about paying by DD.

In return for a Direct Debit discount, you sign an agreement with the Utility company for them to vary the amount you pay. It is not the intent to allow people to build up a debt so they can "pay it off in April/May; otherwise we would all pay £1 a month for a year by DD;)

You don't have to sign a Direct Debit agreement, you can pay quarterly or by Standing Order and accept that you will pay a slightly higher rate.

That said, if you feel that an increase in a DD is unjustified and can present rational reasons for that opinion, I doubt many Utility firms will stand firm on the higher payment.

mrcow

pelirocco wrote: »

And maybe you could read the other posts and take the AGM of the Pot and kettle club elsewhere:rolleyes:

Who are you? Is that the most useful thing you could find to say? Why even bother? :rolleyes:

mrcow

Cardew wrote: »

In return for a Direct Debit discount, you sign an agreement with the Utility company for them to vary the amount you pay. It is not the intent to allow people to build up a debt so they can "pay it off in April/May; otherwise we would all pay £1 a month for a year by DD;)

Yes but paying by DD doesn't give any company carte blanche to charge whatever they like up front.

It's not even been established for how long the OP has been on their £140 per month DD. My argument with Eon was that they wanted to up my DD with absolutely no regard to our account history. As it was, I was vindicated in what I'd said. I only offered to pay them in May because the call centre operative on the other end of the line couldn't get past the "we want your account in credit by May" line in her call script.

Cardew

mrcow wrote: »

Yes but paying by DD doesn't give any company carte blanche to charge whatever they like up front.

It is a DD agreement! and it takes 2 parties to agree!!

To be pedantic, it does give them carte blanche to charge whatever they like; you sign giving them that authority; with the proviso that you must be informed in advance of any increase.

If you don't agree with the increase you can argue your case(as you did - and were vindicated!) or end the DD agreement.

The point being made is that it is not "sheer lunacy" as the OP stated, as with a small credit at this time of the year, it would be normal to have a large increase in a DD.

mrcow

Cardew wrote: »

It is a DD agreement! and it takes 2 parties to agree!!

To be pedantic, it does give them carte blanche to charge whatever they like; you sign giving them that authority; with the proviso that you must be informed in advance of any increase.

If you don't agree with the increase you can argue your case(as you did - and were vindicated!) or end the DD agreement.

The point being made is that it is not "sheer lunacy" as the OP stated, as with a small credit at this time of the year, it would be normal to have a large increase in a DD.

Well I think we're agreeing. My point is that many people won't challenge a company like Eon over such matters and will then have to pick the pieces up at a later stage (whether it's an undercharge or an overcharge). They get a change in DD advice and just suck it up.Eon's calculations for their dd don't seem to follow any set pattern.

We've been with them since back when they were Amerada and after that, Powergen. You'd think after 14 years, they'd have some clue - they sent me a letter this November wanting to reduce my dd to £84 per month. So that's a £96 decrease in their direct debit estimations within 12 months (and that's without actually applying the £40 increase that they were trying to hike on us back in 2008 - presumably it would have been more if I hadn't called them?). I think to get such results their dd prediction calculator must just consist of some sort of trained primate slapping their hands on a calculator and then pressing the equals sign after three minutes as there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it at all.