Scottish Power 73% monthly DD increase

Carpetman

SP are estimating my yearly cost for gas and electricity at over £1,800 per year when previously it was estimated at c.£1,040.

Are they picking on just me or has anyone else had such an increase?

good_advice

Hiya, every one who did not listen and rush to go on a fixed tariff about September time has got hit with the fuel increase.

Have you done your home work and looked after the fuel bill?
No kidding, you cannot just let the bill run for months with estimated any more. Are you on the cheapest tariff for your area?

Carpetman

When I did the comparisons the SP tariff that I was already on came out better than any fixed or other groups tariff. I always read the meter every month and send it off, so as I've used slightly more than last year and have gone in to debit for this bill I'm guessing they don't want to loan me money - whereas when I was well in credit they weren't very quick to pay interest!

good_advice

How true Carpet Man.
I have stopped my account going into dept after a cheque refund by watching and topping up my account online by card.
The cheque refund is sent out if your account goes over x3 your DD.

jalexa

good_advice wrote: »

The cheque refund is sent out if your account goes over x3 your DD.

Only following the 'annual review'.

[If you’re in credit by more than 3 months’ worth of payments by the time your annual review comes round, we’ll automatically refund the credit amount to you...]

Carpetman

Many moons ago I had one of those, it was quickly followed by an increase in the monthly DD.

How do you find out when the annual review is?

grahamc2003

Carpetman wrote: »

SP are estimating my yearly cost for gas and electricity at over £1,800 per year when previously it was estimated at c.£1,040.

Are they picking on just me or has anyone else had such an increase?

Are you currently in debt with your energy account?

If so, the new DD will contain an element for paying off the debt on top of the amount of g+e they expect you to use next year.

But look on the bright side - I bet in a year's time you'll look on the £1800 you're paying today as a bit of a bargain.

jalexa

Carpetman wrote: »

SP are estimating my yearly cost for gas and electricity at over £1,800 per year when previously it was estimated at c.£1,040.

Are they picking on just me or has anyone else had such an increase?

Hopefully they are "picking on you" :Das every calculation should be tailored to the account. IME Scottish Power have an above average reputation for calculation accuracy and explanation if you ask.

There are two separate things going on here which may or may not be linked. First of all your statement should have provided your last 12 months consumption and a projected cost for the next 12 months based on the previous 12 months consumption at current rates. Given that you have provided regular meter readings I would be surprised if the consumption was not accurate. I would also be surprised if the cost projection was not accurate but that is something for you to check.

The next issue is the account debit or credit balance following the reading. This is added (or subtracted) from the estimated cost and the result divided by 12 to give the new monthly payment. Can you see that from your notification?

Scottish Power performs a "rolling 12 months" calculation:T (according to Scottish Power rep posts in this forum). This means that with Scottish Power the actual date of the 'annual review' is less important (than say Edf:(), except for any automated refund due.

Remember that you can ask for an account credit balance to be refunded at any time. The supplier must comply or explain why not.

foreversummer

I've had the same Carpetman. I gave them my usage for the previous 12 months when I moved to them in September. I check my usage regularly and my usage is the same as last year. However, they now estimate my cost for the year to be £1600 rather than £1300 and of course are trying to up my DD. My usage is the same, I am on a fixed rate so how can that possibly be?

I made a formal complaint. Check out my thread here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4351461. Still waiting for a response.

Foreversummer

chris1973

If you are outside of a fixed tariff, and not happy with their decision, and aren't currently in any debt then just go back to paying quarterly using the 'old' methods favoured by our Grandparents. This way, provided you submit accurate meter readings, then you'll never pay a penny more than what you actually use.

This will cost you around 1% - 2% more on your annual bill compared to DD tariffs and some tariffs may become unavailable to you, but sometimes for some people this can be better than seriously overpaying in the short - medium term, at the risk of going seriously short of cash elsewhere until such a time as they recalculate or review.

about September time has got hit with the fuel increase.

It would be one hell of an increase to jump from £1040 to £1800 a year!. Although when they next put it up, all of those big solar farms will have to be paid for.......

Besides, from next Wednesday the next 2 to 3 weeks are going to be mild, so we can all turn our heating off :cool::T

Carpetman

OK every now and then people screw up - and I'm one of them.

I decided to do a year on year usage comparison and found that in 2012 I have used nearly 6,000 kwh of electricity than my average. Being a 'quick thinker' I thought @****@@@ that can't be right as it would be double my usual amount.

Doh, I'd transposed some of the numbers and entered those, so I sent an email to SP last night. To their credit they didn't go 'you silly !!!!', but they have responded today by reviewing the bill and the new DD amount. The DD has still gone up by 30%, but I'll live with that at the moment as it's now gone back to where it was at the beginning of 2012.

I've also run the figures through several comparison sites and all of them are coming out higher than I'm currently paying.

Happy New Year Folks.