Gas direct debit amount ridiculous!!

brownie4583

My direct debits for gas & electric were raised from £80 & £26 a month,to £91 & £49 a month.
My last 2 gas bills for the quarter were £71 & £91,total £162 for 6 months.
I am now £311 in credit,my winter bill is £203(due next week),so i am £108 in credit and then they were expecting me to pay another 3 payments of £91,which would have put me £481 in credit,and the next bill in April would probably be around £100 or so!
I rang them and got it reduced to £75 & £35 a month,but i have now changed the gas to energy smart and will be paying a variable monthly rate based on usage.
Is this normal practice?

Neil_Jones

To end up in credit by the start by the colder months, yes.
The whole point of a monthy direct debit is to smooth out the extra expense that you occur in winter because over summer you'll end up with a huge credit because of a lack of a need to run the central heating or the fire or the convection heaters.

You can claim the credit back by phoning them and asking for it. You'd get it either as a cheque or a bank payment.
The only problem with a variable monthly rate is you'll almost certainly lose some direct debit discount doing it this way.

TIMMY85

DD discount is the same no matter what DD is chosen