£305 budget plan reconciliation? utility warehouse

jomorey

macman wrote: »

You pay a DD each month presumably? But that is not a bill-that is normally issued quaterly.
If your DD does not cover your consumption then once your meter is read you get a big catch-up bill.
Which is why you need to check your meter readings and look at your last bill-estimated or actual readings?
Have you been supplying regular readings-at least quarterly?
You need to establish of you actually owed this money before you do anything else, and get a handle on your usage.
When did you switch to UW and how much is your monthly DD?

I am sure I have given them meter readings at least quartely i will ask them to give me a handle of my usage thanks for this advice.

Cardew

jomorey wrote: »

What happend was I switch to first utility as utility warehouse bills got really high. How can I owe them money I have paid all my bills every month? And yes they send me a bill 2 days ago and took money out yesterday. Is there any way that you may know if they can refund this money and be paid to them slowly? I cant afford to pay all that straight away as I got a budget that would not permit me to do it?
thanks for your your help!

Any company owed money can(normally) stop a customer switching to another company.

It appears that you are not disputing you owe the money, but just want to pay it back slowly.

Well you cannot have it both ways. You should pay it back 'slowly' whilst remaining with UW, or settle your bill and switch to FU.

If people are allowed to switch from company to company whilst owing money, some people will just leave a string of bad debts.

jomorey

MillicentBystander wrote: »

By the way, on a side note, have you checked fully the T&Cs attached to your first:utility tariff? Genuine question....

No i have not checked more than likely this will happend again if i dont give them monthly readings. they told me they will charge me £71 for the first few months for electricity then they will work out the gas.

jomorey

Cardew wrote: »

Any company owed money can(normally) stop a customer switching to another company.

It appears that you are not disputing you owe the money, but just want to pay it back slowly.

Well you cannot have it both ways. You should pay it back 'slowly' whilst remaining with UW, or settle your bill and switch to FU.

If people are allowed to switch from company to company whilst owing money, some people will just leave a string of bad debts.

to be honest this took me by surprise as they did not warn me i owed this money i thought you pay your monthly bills and that was that.

macman

But unless you supply monthly readings, they don't know how much you are using until they read the meter-so all your bills will be estimated!
If you provide the info requested then proper advice can be given.

MillicentBystander

jomorey wrote: »

No i have not checked more than likely this will happend again if i dont give them monthly readings. they told me they will charge me £71 for the first few months for electricity then they will work out the gas.

Did you give them your actual annual usage consumption figures to get to this figure or just the DD you were (clearly underpaying) with UW? The absolute ONLY way you will ever get an accurate figure with any company is to use actual consumption figures, not DD amount you are currently paying. Ring UW and ask them to give you your last 12 months consumption figures for gas and electric (they are legally obligated to give you this info) THEN go onto the switching sites to get the best deal. Talking of which, firts:utilty may come out at the top of this but it's based on this T&C:

Dual fuel customers will receive a discount of 13% off the annual bill up to a maximum of £80 per year for electricity and £100 per year for gas. Payment will be made as a credit to the customer's account on the 11th month of the first year. The discounts are subject to a minimum total energy spend of £600 (inc VAT) per year (included in the savings figure).

The savings quoted include a dual fuel discount which will be credited to your account on an annual basis at the end of a 12-month period with first:utility.

Take care out there.

jomorey

macman wrote: »

But unless you supply monthly readings, they don't know how much you are using until they read the meter-so all your bills will be estimated!
If you provide the info requested then proper advice can be given.

my meter gas readings are: estimated meter readin (31-.01.-12)
6869 customers meter reading (23-02-12) 6857
customer readings (23-02-12) 6857 estimated meter reading (29-02-12) 6864

electricity
estimated meter reading 65679 31 january
estimated 66029 29 feb

estimated 66029 29 feb
customer meter reading 66058 23 february

macman

Since most of your readings are estimated, it's impossible to know what your consumption really is:
Electricity-all readings are estimates except the 23/2 closing read.
Gas-all readings are estimates except the read of 23/2.
It would make more sense if you read your meters now and then worked out your actual unit consumption between 23/2 and today. That will give winter figures for a 5 week period.
We also need to know if the gas meter is metric or imperial, in order to convert to kWh correctly.
I'm still not clear what your DD is actually set to for each fuel.

wadkinman

I HAVE JUST HAD THE SAME DONE WHEN SWITCHING FRON U/WARE TO IstUTILITY .IT WILL CANCEL OUT ANY BENEFIT IN SWITCHING. ALSO I HAD ALL SERVICES WITH THEM AND HAVE BEEN CHARGED AN ADMIN FEE OF £20*VAT,FOR CLOSING MY TELEPHONE ACCOUNT I HAVE LOOKED THROUGH ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND IT DOES NOT REFER TO ANY CHARGES FOR LEAVING, IT EVEN CLAIMS YOU CAN LEAVE ANYTIME OR THAT ARE PAYING IN ARREARS FOR YOUR UTILITYS I AM GOING TO TAKE IT FURTHER

Terrylw1

wadkinman wrote: »

I HAVE JUST HAD THE SAME DONE WHEN SWITCHING FRON U/WARE TO IstUTILITY .IT WILL CANCEL OUT ANY BENEFIT IN SWITCHING. ALSO I HAD ALL SERVICES WITH THEM AND HAVE BEEN CHARGED AN ADMIN FEE OF £20*VAT,FOR CLOSING MY TELEPHONE ACCOUNT I HAVE LOOKED THROUGH ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND IT DOES NOT REFER TO ANY CHARGES FOR LEAVING, IT EVEN CLAIMS YOU CAN LEAVE ANYTIME OR THAT ARE PAYING IN ARREARS FOR YOUR UTILITYS I AM GOING TO TAKE IT FURTHER

Switching rules are set by the industry and they have to comply. These means they can block you inline with industry practice, but they don't have to since its a set if reasons to object leaving the choice to use it Witt the supplier.