Scottish Power Direct Debit

Sandrah78

Hi, I pay Scottish power for my utilities and pay a set amount each month. On checking my bank account today they have increased the amount and I haven't been informed of the change. Is this covered under the Direct Debit guarantee? If so, what do I need to do?

Thanks

Ken68

It's in the t and c's. Sandra. You agreed to variable charges when you signed up.

robbieroy

SP will make changes to your direct debit according to your energy usage. If you want to avoid large direct debit increases then submit your readings monthly.
RR

macman

They will normally write to you or email you-do you have a notification in your online account?
The reason your DD has gone up is either because your payments are not keeping up with your usage, or because of the recent price increase-or both.

echoecho_2

Hi Sandrah,

the answer to your question is "yes". If you weren't informed by Scottish Power (either online or in writing) then you can contact your bank under the DD guarantee. It is extremely unlikely that SP didn't inform you as I assume an automatic notification gets sent out when a DD is changed.

However, invoking the DD guarantee won't change the fact that SP feel that your DD needs to increase in line with your usage. Work out your annual consumption and speak to SP and they should be able to justify any changes to you. If they can't they may agree to reduce it if it was unjustly increased. It may just be you are underpaying for your usage.

JulieM

Have a close look at your last bill, you should find some mention of the increased DD somewhere on the first page, but not necessarily in an obvious place. Maybe somewhere towards the bottom of the page. I'm with SP so I know this from past experience. You won't get a separate letter from them.

Sandrah78

Thanks all. We have not had a bill from them for 3 months (that's how often we get them) and we haven't received any notification via our online account either.

However, I have had countless problems with Scottish Power - each month we submit our meter reading as requested only to be told our gas meter does not tally with the type they have for us and even though we have been in this property for 2 years and I have been on to them about this since we moved in - nothing has been sorted.

We are in the process of moving to NPower hopefully for a supplier who doesn't take over 2 years to sorrt out a customer issue.

echoecho_2

Word of warning. If they have the incorrect gas meter information, it is likely that this will also be incorrect on the national gas database. If this is case, when you switch to npower, they will also have the incorrect metering details. You need to make sure Scottish Power not only update their metering info but also the national database and double check once the switch is complete that npower have the correct info too.

Sandrah78

Thanks. I personally think scottish power don't have a clue what they are talking about - we haven't changed meter since being here and had no problems with readings etc initially. The more you contact them the more confused they seem to get. I will keep your advice just in case though.

Scottish_Power

Hi Sandrah78

Sorry to hear about any poor service you have received from us. I would like to address the Direct Debit increase first. If we reassess your payments and suggest an increase in your monthly amount, this will be notified to you in writing or by email. If you have an online account we will have issued an email showing a bill and suggested payment increase. If you do not believe that you have received this then contact us and we will send you a copy of this email.

From what you have posted regarding the gas meter I assume this is in relation to the number of dials you have on the meter or the meter reading that you are trying to enter. Either way it should be easily resolved. The first check that needs to be done is to confirm whether your meter is a metric meter (5 dial) or an imperial meter (4 dial) and that you are being charged for the correct type of gas meter. The second check that I can think of is that you are not trying to enter a meter reading that is less than a previous accurate or estimated meter reading that you have already been billed up to. This can be easily checked by looking at the last statement that has been generated on your online account and comparing the last gas reading with the meter reading you are trying to enter.

If your issue does not relate to either of these situations then post some more information on the problem you are having and I will try to help resolve this for you.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower