Scottish Power - Direct Debit woes

cybermat

Hello all

I used to have prepayment meters - wish Id kept the bloody things now lol.

anyway

I swapped over to direct debit meters for both Gas and electricity.
I am a single male, living in a 2 bedroomed terrace and spend 85% of my time out of the house, come in go to bed, get up and go out.
My monthly dual fuel bill till recently was £110 a month, but this was mainly estimates and I eventually built up something like £400 in credit in my account.
I requested some of it back and a re-assessment of my direct debit and also provided a new meter reading, this must be around the end of December/start of Jan.

anyway they said that they would send me a cheque for £200 and reset my dd to £83 a month.
the cheque did not arrive but after some more emails and faff I eventually received it which was grand, about a day later a letter arrived on the mat to tell me that my security deposit had been placed back in my account - so another £152 in credit - sigh.
I again emailed Scottish power saying basically all of the above and could I have my security deposit back as I didn't want a big power savings pot - Its something like £360 (with another £83 to go in, in a couple of days) in credit now but I appreciate that my winter bill needs to be taken into account - like I say though - single male etc etc....

I have had an email back asking for another meter reading and another re-assessment of my DD before they will let me have my security deposit back.
I am honestly bored with the rigmarole now and considering going to basic three month standard billing and binning this direct debit business off completely
Pay it at the post office jobbie instead.

The hassle and rigmarole involved is more than a nuisance and my power account is nothing more than a nice little savings pot for Scottish Power, I have other things I can spend my money on than leaving it sit in case I have a big fuel bill one day after a large barbecue or something.

I don't want any more faff or re-assessing my DD, its taken me ages to get it flipping sorted now, and all I want is the darn security deposit back which was added to my account about a day after the last pile of cash was refunded due to being over guesstimated.

Do you think the best plan is to just sack off DD and go to old fashioned billing ? I can put away £83 a month in my own savings account - heck even £100 a month just to be safe, at least that will benefit me more.
This Dual-Fuel Direct Debit lark is just a flaming nuisance.

Wywth

cybermat wrote: »

Hello all

I used to have prepayment meters - wish Id kept the bloody things now lol.

anyway

I swapped over to direct debit meters for both Gas and electricity.
I am a single male, living in a 2 bedroomed terrace and spend 85% of my time out of the house, come in go to bed, get up and go out.
My monthly dual fuel bill till recently was £110 a month, but this was mainly estimates and I eventually built up something like £400 in credit in my account.
I requested some of it back and a re-assessment of my direct debit and also provided a new meter reading, this must be around the end of December/start of Jan.

anyway they said that they would send me a cheque for £200 and reset my dd to £83 a month.
the cheque did not arrive but after some more emails and faff I eventually received it which was grand, about a day later a letter arrived on the mat to tell me that my security deposit had been placed back in my account - so another £152 in credit - sigh.
I again emailed Scottish power saying basically all of the above and could I have my security deposit back as I didn't want a big power savings pot - Its something like £360 (with another £83 to go in, in a couple of days) in credit now but I appreciate that my winter bill needs to be taken into account - like I say though - single male etc etc....

I have had an email back asking for another meter reading and another re-assessment of my DD before they will let me have my security deposit back.
I am honestly bored with the rigmarole now and considering going to basic three month standard billing and binning this direct debit business off completely
Pay it at the post office jobbie instead.

The hassle and rigmarole involved is more than a nuisance and my power account is nothing more than a nice little savings pot for Scottish Power, I have other things I can spend my money on than leaving it sit in case I have a big fuel bill one day after a large barbecue or something.

I don't want any more faff or re-assessing my DD, its taken me ages to get it flipping sorted now, and all I want is the darn security deposit back which was added to my account about a day after the last pile of cash was refunded due to being over guesstimated.

Do you think the best plan is to just sack off DD and go to old fashioned billing ? I can put away £83 a month in my own savings account - heck even £100 a month just to be safe, at least that will benefit me more.
This Dual-Fuel Direct Debit lark is just a flaming nuisance.

Do you really only spend 3hours 36 minutes per day in your house ... including all your sleeping time? :eek:

Regarding your security deposit, assuming you have kept up your payments for the last 12 months (which you appear to have done) then you are entitled to its return in full plus interest. (not to have it added to your account)

As you have now been with your supplier for at least 12 months, they will know exactly how much energy you have used in the last 12 months, how much that will cost at todays prices and therefore your monthly amount should be 1/12 of this calculated amount. (ignoring any accrued debit/credit on your account)
Have you those details? If not ask for them.

This should help you
http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/pdf/complaints_handling_procedure.pdf

cybermat

Just nosing through my account now
and the estimated bill for 13/12/12 was £309
actual bill with supplied readings on the 18/12/12 was £169

Over estimation has been going on for a while but as you can see its by quite a vast amount.

My security deposit was refunded alright, straight into my energy account :S

I am currently £380 in credit and a payment for another £83 will be in my account in a couple of days taking me to £463 in credit, I don't really need that much of a power savings pot

Fire_Fox

It's the occupier's responsibility to read the meter regularly and it's dead easy to register these via a smartphone app or online: the supplier only has to read the meter every two years. The more often you supply readings (say monthly or quarterly) the more accurate the DD will be.

Being a busy single male does not necessarily mean you use less. You wouldn't believe the number of threads we get from singletons who set the heating to come on seven days a week even when only home three, have lengthy power showers, come home to boil wash and tumble dry all their laundry. If you are not home or asleep in bed you won't be using lighting and media gadgets but these use relatively little energy anyway.