Help Please Scottish Power Debt!

lynney88

Could someone please help me?

I was ill for almost a year and was housebound thus I fell behind on all my utility bills. Fortunately the water board were understanding and I now have a payment plan set up via the Jobcentre.

Unfortunately Scottish Power are not as sympathetic and I am now struggling to keep up re-payments with them. The property in which I ran up the debt (almost £2500 in gas and electric) I have now moved from, this property had a dry meter. However my new property has a pre-payment meter and I am losing all my cash to this.

I don't know how much they take off for debt as it is not in any of the literature I have receieved. I am on EESA and my partner is unemployed due to being my carer I also have a four year old son and our house is an end terrace. We are currently freezing as we have no heating due to the vast amount they are recovering from us. I have applied for insulation in case we have none in hopes to reduce heat loss and save money.

I did ring them to ask for a dry meter as I am now getting back on track but they refused point blank and said the least they will accept per month would be £75 FOR THE DEBT plus the current bills on top of this. I simply cannot afford this at this time in my life.

I am only 24 and have never been in debt until I fell ill I feel my situation is hopeless. PLease someone help! x

Is there anything we can do????

TIA Lynne

macman

How did you manage to run up a gas and electricity debt of £2,500 in just a year? That's more than 2 years average consumption!
Given your level of debt, it's inconceivable that any supplier will offer you a credit meter, and of course you can't switch supplier with that level of debt anyway.
Even at £75pm, it's going to take you nearly 3 years to repay the debt, I can't realistically see any supplier giving you longer than that.
Your PPM is costing you the same as a Standard tariff on a credit meter.
You can tell how much the PPM is taking for debt by cycling through the display settings.
If you look in your loft you will be able to tell if you have loft insulation.

lynney88

I know that this is way more than the average and I queried this myself as I did not often have the heating on throughout the year just at winter time and never through the summer as that house was very warm!

We also had energy saving bulbs in all rooms and lamps and ALWAYs switch everything off when not in use. I am quite energy savvy that way and try to save money where and when I can. And tbh my son and I often stayed over at my mum's when I was heving a bad time and I Never left any heating on or any electrical appliances apart from the fridge/freezer. So I honestlyt don't know how it happened.

Any suggestions?

lynney88

Is there absolutely nothing I can do at all? x

Even with being on benefits? x

glasgow_DFW

'Unfortunately Scottish Power are not as sympathetic and I am now struggling to keep up re-payments with them. The property in which I ran up the debt (almost £2500 in gas and electric) I have now moved from, this property had a dry meter. However my new property has a pre-payment meter and I am losing all my cash to this.'

You did not suddenly have this debt. They would have sent you letters, called why did you not do something at the time it would not be as bad as it is now.

But you did not so to sort it out now.

Get on to the DSS about fuel direct for your energy payments.
Find out why you are using so much (it is not all 'cause of the price)
You are using something that is costing you.

Joyful

If you are now on a prepayment meter the benefits agency will probably not be interested in fuelD. Many times I have come across this. Dependant on what benefits you are on you can apply to reduce the Weekly Recovery payments.

Also check for a Scottish Power trust that may help you clear your debts and you may also be entltled to the £130 Warm home discount. Get them to assess you.

Scottish_Power

lynney88 if you send an e-mail to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] we will look into this for you. Thanks David @ ScottishPower

lynney88

glasgow_DFW wrote: »

'Unfortunately Scottish Power are not as sympathetic and I am now struggling to keep up re-payments with them. The property in which I ran up the debt (almost £2500 in gas and electric) I have now moved from, this property had a dry meter. However my new property has a pre-payment meter and I am losing all my cash to this.'

You did not suddenly have this debt. They would have sent you letters, called why did you not do something at the time it would not be as bad as it is now.

But you did not so to sort it out now.

Get on to the DSS about fuel direct for your energy payments.
Find out why you are using so much (it is not all 'cause of the price)
You are using something that is costing you.

I know I did not suddenly aquire this debt but as I said above I was really ill with no help at the time! I never even had access toa phone as cash was so tight and I was housebound! I'll try the Job Centre route and see what they say .

Thanks x

lynney88

scottishpower_company_representative wrote: »

lynney88 if you send an e-mail to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] we will look into this for you. Thanks David @ ScottishPower

I am already in touch with Scottish Power even though my last call about setting up a Direct Debit was not recoreded in my notes and I have been inundated with calls.

I have asked if there is any help I am entitled to and the guy on the other end (quite cheekily) told me no just pay the £75 per month plus my present consumption.

So what do you suggest I put in the body of the e-mail?

Scottish_Power

Hi lynney88, If you refer back to this thread we can pick it up from there, as long as you do give us your account details. Thanks David @ ScottishPower