Help!!! MASSIVE direct debit increase

janeymac1

Hi All

I moved house last May and kept my energy supply with Scottish power as I thought they were OK. I paid £150 a month for my previous house for dual fuel. I moved to a much bigger, older house and when I moved they suggested I pay £86 a month. I questioned this at the time on the phone as I thought this was asking for trouble. I was told it would be fine. I have supplied meter readings online when required and was aware that we were running up a debt however I have not been contacted by them. I put in my new meter reading tonight and got an instant message saying they have increased my direct debit to........£399 monthly!! No options to discuss this have been given. I feel they have been irresponsible in letting me run up a huge debt (£1400) I would rather pay a lump sum than such a huge amount per month. They also seem to be basing my consumption on the past quarter - the most expensive of the year. I have requested a call back for Thursday pm - any suggestions would be most appreciated

Scottish_Power

Hi janeymac1 welcome to the forum. Please send us an e-mail to [EMAIL="social@scottishpower.com"]social@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] we will look into it for you. Thanks David

cannyscot_2

Truth is you can do it as you want. Pay a lump sum or a higher amount per month. Best thing is to sit down and work out with your bills what you think it is per month and use that as a base.

Bear in mind that you can get it down to much less a month ie you tell them -I am willing to pay x because I have worked it out and fell this is the correct amount to clear debt pay per month-and pay your debt over quite a long period -so basically free credit.

I was asked recently to pay £400 a month because they had put a 18 month adjusted bill into the quarter before and then their 12 month estimate was a huge amount.

If you have moved to a older house( we are the same) it is worth spending the time now to look and see what you are actually spending-it was quite an eye opener-I have erradicated the debt over 5 months and will now move providers as I can see I can save money elsewhere. So before your call do the groundwork and work out what is best for you.

janeymac1

Thanks for the advice cannyscot - will do some sums before speaking to them tomorrow

rogerblack

janeymac1 wrote: »

Hi All

I moved house last May and kept my energy supply with Scottish power as I thought they were OK. I paid £150 a month for my previous house for dual fuel. I moved to a much bigger, older house and when I moved they suggested I pay £86 a month.
. I feel they have been irresponsible in letting me run up a huge debt (£1400)

May-now is about 9 months.
You have presumably paid about £800, for a total of £2200, over 9 months.
You should have had (over these months) the DD set at about £280, so £399 is recovering the debt at about £120/mo - or will pay back over about a year.
That's hardly unreasonable.

'I was aware I was running up a debt' - well - that's your problem right there.
You're fortunate that you're in a position to be able to pay this back.
Also, this is a really high bill - and it's probably reasonable to investigate energy efficiency measures - even spending a couple of grand on effective insulation may be worth it.

HappyForOnce

Hi
I run a hotel and also have live in oweners accommodation. Until recently i didnt realise that i could claim back a proportion of the VAT for the residential side of the usage. When BG rebilled me I checked the bills and found an error on their part regarding the meter multiplier. This has just led to having a refund of £4000. that may sound a lot but it was over 4 yrs. My bills are probably a lot higher than most residential bills, but the fact remains, Check Your Bills!! I'm off now to go over the previous 4 yrs and see if I can find some more!!!!

:beer:

Wywth

HappyForOnce wrote: »

Hi
I run a hotel and also have live in oweners accommodation. Until recently i didnt realise that i could claim back a proportion of the VAT for the residential side of the usage. When BG rebilled me I checked the bills and found an error on their part regarding the meter multiplier. This has just led to having a refund of £4000. that may sound a lot but it was over 4 yrs. My bills are probably a lot higher than most residential bills, but the fact remains, Check Your Bills!! I'm off now to go over the previous 4 yrs and see if I can find some more!!!!

:beer:

I think you'd be best off employing a good accountant.

You'd probably find most hotel owners reclaim 100% of all the VAT as input tax.