Scottish Power adjusting estimate - also advice wanted

LucyToons

I have just phoned scottish power to see about going back on to a payment plan and the amount the person came up with per month was £129 which i certainly can not afford! and was told that they would not be able to change that amount!

I was also told about going to local benefits office and seeing someone there about fuel direct, where they would arrange to pay around about £10 per week or whatever I can afford to pay, as I told her I DO want to get it paid off and doing it at £10 per week would not do that!

I am aware that at the end of the day this is down to me, but I have struggled a bit with my finances due to suffering the loss of 4 family members in the past 6 years , I am in no way blaming this but I have been trying to keep up with paying my bills and this one just seems to be getting the better of me at the moment.

macman

So you have all the figs you need there. For that quarter your electricity spend is about £23pm and your gas about £37pm, total 60pm (add 5% if your figs do not include VAT). So their fig of £129pm is probably based on £60 usage, plus £69 repayment of arrears, so that would clear the debt in 6m. If you only pay £80pm, it will take you 21 months to clear the debt, which they won't accept if the debt was accrued in a much shorter period than that.
Your last quarter will of course be rather higher than the summer one.

LucyToons

I have finally figured out how to attach photos....

this is the letter that was pushed thru my door, i had been away for a week and a half and a friend who had been in to check my house had found this on their way out, they never heard anyone at the door while they were there so i'm assuming it was just pushed through.

macman

Standard DCA letter. You need to contact SP and agree an immediate course of action, or the warrant cost will be added to your debt.

LucyToons

can the £129 that the person on phone said the system was set to for monthly payments, definitely be adjusted by a manager???

I really want to get this paid but just can't go above £80, £90 would be a struggle but I could just about stretch to that as long as I don't get any other bills go up!

macman

It depends how long a period they'll allow to clear the debt. If you can make a lump sum payment now that will always help.
The main priority for you is to avoid the extra charges that will be added if they apply for a warrant.
That letter was dated 6/6, so you need to do this immediately.

eurmalian

LucyToons wrote: »

can the £129 that the person on phone said the system was set to for monthly payments, definitely be adjusted by a manager???

I really want to get this paid but just can't go above £80, £90 would be a struggle but I could just about stretch to that as long as I don't get any other bills go up!

There will definitely be someone there who is able to adjust that, whether it's a manager, system expert or whoever. The question is really whether they will be willing to...

£80 a month would mean that it takes a long time to get all of this repaid, and may not even get that far depending on how much you use over winter, how price rises effect things and so on. I would really expect the answer to that to be just a straight 'no' to be honest.

You can try it, but I really don't think you'd get very far, and the longer it takes the more chance you have that they will go to court and take out the warrant against you. I'm sorry to say it, but I think prepayment meters are your best bet at this stage.

FOUNTAIN_OF_KNOWLEDGE

Probably too late now but just joined. hope all is sorted for you now. I have a great knowledge of grosvenor so anything i can do to help give me a shout. let grosvenor take you to court in future as long as you can provide the magistrate with proof of payments 9times out of 10 then magistrate will not grant the warrant and will at least give you more time to settle the matter

Joyful

If you go for FuelDirect they will take the correct amount for your usage then about £3.50 per week for the debt. There is nothing then stopping you paying extra on top of that when you have it. It also means that you are not signing up for something that you can't pay.