In debit to provider - can I change supplier?

gw23

This is probably a stupid question as I suspect I know the answer, but hey....I'm in debit to EDF for £300 I pay monthly by DD but they are happy with the amount I pay as it turns itself around in the summer months - this is actually printed on my bill. So if I change supplier I'm guessing I'll have to pay the whole debit amount to EDF before I can swap, is that right?

toneeb

gw23 wrote: »

This is probably a stupid question as I suspect I know the answer, but hey....I'm in debit to EDF for £300 I pay monthly by DD but they are happy with the amount I pay as it turns itself around in the summer months - this is actually printed on my bill. So if I change supplier I'm guessing I'll have to pay the whole debit amount to EDF before I can swap, is that right?

Dont know if this helps but I got into a large debt with Atlantic.

They were happy with me to pay x amount over 2 years to clear the debt and I changed supplier (they - Atlantic- were ok with me going elsewhere)

gw23

Right - thanks toneeb - that's a positive, I'll give it a go and see what happens

spiro

A debit balance on a DD account is not a debt. A debt is when a demand for payment (bill) has been issued and it has not been paid with 28 days.
If you did switch you would be expected to pay the final bill from EDF within 28 days or they may set a DCA on you.

iancrt

gw23 wrote: »

...I'm in debit to EDF for £300 I pay monthly by DD but they are happy with the amount I pay as it turns itself around in the summer months

Except that summer has just finished - so it should have been turned around

A lot of people this year are going to be caught out - prices rising so want to switch but due to the long spell of cold weather find they owe too much to do so.
We now have a warmer than usual Autumn, so will sort itself out but not in time for most people.

Prices rises a month before Xmas and Fixed price deals that end in March /April (when the 'normal' consumers debit is highest) are all examples of the energy companies playing the game. Suppliers win either way as the customers are stuck and can't move OR pay off the final bills.

SallyG

Just finished my first year on energy direct debits - previously on quarterly/ pay for what you used/civilised payments system. I'm in debit from the extra winter we had in Spring 2013 - my instinct is that in a variable direct debit regime being in debit rather than credit is astute ..... but I worry that this will somehow affect my credit rating /be regarded as a debt if it goes on - would it?
Is the DD discount deal based on anything other than the fact the DD customer will always end up overpaying /lending money to the energy company for free?
Shouldn't any repayment include 0.5% interest at least - for the use of my cash?

iancrt

SallyG wrote: »

Just finished my first year on energy direct debits - previously on quarterly/ pay for what you used/civilised payments system. I'm in debit from the extra winter we had in Spring 2013 - my instinct is that in a variable direct debit regime being in debit rather than credit is astute ..... but I worry that this will somehow affect my credit rating /be regarded as a debt if it goes on - would it?

No unless you stop paying. your DD should now rise for th3 next year to:
1. pay back the underpayment this year
2. pay for your full use next year

SallyG wrote: »

Is the DD discount deal based on anything other than the fact the DD customer will always end up overpaying /lending money to the energy company for free?

Yes in a way, not so much that you end up over paying but that at any given point you dont owe as much - safer for the supplier than risking giving you 3 months of electric before asking for payment.

SallyG wrote: »

Shouldn't any repayment include 0.5% interest at least - for the use of my cash?

They are...in the form of the discount

jrawle

spiro wrote: »

A debit balance on a DD account is not a debt. A debt is when a demand for payment (bill) has been issued and it has not been paid with 28 days.

Someone needs to tell EDF to change their terminology, then! On several occasions they have notified me that my DD needs to increase due to my "electricity debt". What makes it stranger is that I had never had a debit balance on my account in the whole time I'd been with EDF. I don't know how they came to let the OP build up a £300 debit balance.

gw23

Probably because they just put an estimated reading on to the last bill - I've given them my current meter reading and with last month's payment now taken off - and another one going out on Monday, the actual real amount owing is £62