non standing charge?

merkat1

Hi guys,

I have no clue about gas and electric as it's our first home so bear with me please.

We got our 2 bed terrace on 4/9/10, my brother in law also got a similar property 6 months before and when he did he rang up his provider and stated he was not living there as alot of work was needed to be done on the house and they put him on a non standing charge i was under the impression he was paying very low amount.

So i did the same...well tried. We too are not living in the property as need damp work and new bathroom etc so i rang up Scottish Power when we moved in and gave my readings thought nothing more of it.

Then the other day a bill arrived for gas and electric for app £90, this to be paid on oct 4th and was for the month we have had the house!?

Is this normal? I rang up and was hung up on twice after 20mins (thats not the problem but it was very frustrating) The lady told me to have a non standing charge i would need to set up a direct debit and it would cost £66 for this month....this seems alot seeing as though all we have used is the lights at night?

She said call back in 6-8weeks and give another reading so the bills will be more accurate?

I may sound clueless to people on here but it is just with this subject...honest

Any help would be so much appriciated.

Thanks Merkat

davidgmmafan

I believe most suppliers don't have a standing charge. You need to check if the bill is estimated, if it is give a reading and this should reduce the bill considerably (assuming some amount of usage whilst work is done).

The bit about direct debit is non-sense, unless that supplier only has a tariff with no standing charge if you are on DD. If that's the case you can change to another that doesn't. I can't see the point of setting up a direct debit other than to get a discount (don't know what thiers is but if its a % then its pointless and a percentage of zero is still zero!); you may CHOOSE to setup a DD to have some credit there for when you move in and start using more, but it should be a choice not something forced on you.

If they are estimating then its probably based on previous usage at the address or some kind of average usage for that type of property.

merkat1

davidgmmafan wrote: »

I believe most suppliers don't have a standing charge. You need to check if the bill is estimated, if it is give a reading and this should reduce the bill considerably (assuming some amount of usage whilst work is done).

The bit about direct debit is non-sense, unless that supplier only has a tariff with no standing charge if you are on DD. If that's the case you can change to another that doesn't. I can't see the point of setting up a direct debit other than to get a discount (don't know what thiers is but if its a % then its pointless and a percentage of zero is still zero!); you may CHOOSE to setup a DD to have some credit there for when you move in and start using more, but it should be a choice not something forced on you.

If they are estimating then its probably based on previous usage at the address or some kind of average usage for that type of property.

I gave a reading when we moved in and 2 weeks later...it's not moved but they still are estimating it to be £66? i don't know how they have this figure? I'm going to call back later and see what they say

Thanks for the help x

KimYeovil

If you have the £66 make sure you PAY TODAY AND QUIBBLE ABOUT THE DETAILS LATER!!!

Scottish Power have a very generous prompt payment discount - more than 40 pence per day (if dual fuel). That's £12.50 per month. If you don't pay within seven days you lose this. That is from their standard tariff - once you are on an online cheap tariff it does not matter as the disc ount is built in to the unit price. But pay any initial bills straightaway until you fatrhom out the best tariff.

davidgmmafan

I'm not sure the best advice is to pay the bill if its wrong. They should honour a prompt payment discount if there bill was incorrect IMO. £90 seems a lot to me for an empty house, if this IS due to a standing charge then it must be pretty hefty. If they insist on DD then advise you want it set at the minimum amount possible as the property is empty. I'd offer £5 per month or whatever thier systems can accomodate.

Its no different that if a customer has been with a supplier a long time advises the company the property is empty and up for sale. The power company can dig its heels in and say no we cannot (won't) lower the payments until we have readings showing the lower consumption and potentially lose a customer for good, or they can use a little common sense and say ok we'll lower the payments but on your head be it if there is a balance owing at the end of the day.

KimYeovil

£12.50 per month is a lot of money to throw away on an unoccupied property. OF COURSE you should insist SUBSEQUENT payments are more sensible - but why ultimately pay more than necessary?

merkat1

So if i pay £66 now then it turns out alot less will i just be in credit until that's used up or will they carry on taking out £66 every month? sorry i know myself i sound stupid but this is totally new to me as is alot of things when buying your first home, the other things i had researched pretty well but for some reason just can't get round this.

Thanks

davidgmmafan

Yes if you pay £66 not and the bill is incorrect when its sorted this will leave a credit on the account. This will be set against your future bills. What I'm not clear on is are they talking about a reciept of bill or variable direct debit (where you pay the full amount of each bill) or a monthly direct debit (in which case they think your consumption is going to be £66 per month).

merkat1

davidgmmafan wrote: »

Yes if you pay £66 not and the bill is incorrect when its sorted this will leave a credit on the account. This will be set against your future bills. What I'm not clear on is are they talking about a reciept of bill or variable direct debit (where you pay the full amount of each bill) or a monthly direct debit (in which case they think your consumption is going to be £66 per month).

I'm going to have to check that, the bills are at the house, im going round later so i'll have a look.

Thanks alot everyone

Scottish_Power

Hi merkat1

Hopefully I will be able to clarify a few areas for you. Firstly, the £66 you are being asked to pay is possibly on our Monthly Cash Plan and will be based on previous consumption which our billing system holds for that property. I'm guessing the bill that arrived for app £90 has the correct start readings on your account yet it has been billed to estimated meter readings?

You can have a No Standing Charge tariff regardless of how you pay. We do not offer a quarterly cash tariff for new customers however we do still have the quarterly Direct Debit tariff. If you want to just pay for what you are using at the moment, you could set up the quarterly DD tariff and make sure that when the bill arrives, we are billing you to readings that match what is showing on your meters.

I know that you are not living in the property at the moment but it may be a good idea to set up a monthly Direct Debit on an online tariff. If you were to set this up now, and make your payment day the end of the month etc, then the first payment will not be taken until the end of October. Prior to this payment being taken, you can update meter readings on your online account to see exactly what you are using at the moment. If your situation is not going to change for a while and you are going to use this level of gas/elec then we would be able to adjust your payment accordingly.

My concern would be that it is coming up to the winter period and you will not have any build up of credit to be used towards the higher winter bills. If you decide to pay the bills quarterly by Direct Debit, you may receive a large bill which will be due for payment immediately, whereas the monthly Direct Debit option allows you to spread your annual consumption more evenly throughout the year.

Let me know if you have any further queries and I will be happy to help.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

merkat1

scottishpower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi merkat1

Hopefully I will be able to clarify a few areas for you. Firstly, the £66 you are being asked to pay is possibly on our Monthly Cash Plan and will be based on previous consumption which our billing system holds for that property. I'm guessing the bill that arrived for app £90 has the correct start readings on your account yet it has been billed to estimated meter readings?

You can have a No Standing Charge tariff regardless of how you pay. We do not offer a quarterly cash tariff for new customers however we do still have the quarterly Direct Debit tariff. If you want to just pay for what you are using at the moment, you could set up the quarterly DD tariff and make sure that when the bill arrives, we are billing you to readings that match what is showing on your meters.

I know that you are not living in the property at the moment but it may be a good idea to set up a monthly Direct Debit on an online tariff. If you were to set this up now, and make your payment day the end of the month etc, then the first payment will not be taken until the end of October. Prior to this payment being taken, you can update meter readings on your online account to see exactly what you are using at the moment. If your situation is not going to change for a while and you are going to use this level of gas/elec then we would be able to adjust your payment accordingly.

My concern would be that it is coming up to the winter period and you will not have any build up of credit to be used towards the higher winter bills. If you decide to pay the bills quarterly by Direct Debit, you may receive a large bill which will be due for payment immediately, whereas the monthly Direct Debit option allows you to spread your annual consumption more evenly throughout the year.

Let me know if you have any further queries and I will be happy to help.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

This is really helpful, thankyou.

I like the sound of the online option, so do i just have to ring up and ask for that? Im planning on getting it all sorted on my lunch