Gas/electricity suppliers who update DD's frequently

mildredalien

Can anyone recommend me an energy company who provide frequent opportunities to update your direct debit to match consumption? I seem to remember Scottish Power had a decent online account system that kept track of usage if you provided regular meter readings, and updated our DD accordingly, but I'm not sure they would be our cheapest supplier now.

We have just moved house and are currently with Eon, who not only are expensive but only update DDs twice a year to fit in with our actual usage. We have moved from a large-ish 3 bedroom house to a smaller 2 bedroom one, and were paying £50/month for our gas and electricity. This was in line with our usage, we were in credit all of the time and it even kept up with our winter usage. However Eon wanted to charge me £127 a month before I objected and online comparison sites are showing an estimated usage of £80/month. I anticipate our actual usage to be lower than this (our new house is much warmer than the old one and we don't have a dishwasher). I'd rather not be stuck paying bucketloads and racking up large amounts of credit!

System

As you are starting with a new company/new home, the energy company may well want you to pay more to cover usage over the winter months; ie, they are not keen for you to build up a debt. Some, like OVo, also want customers to pay their first DD ahead of the supply starting. You can blame OFGEM. I am sure that you know that DDs are only on estimate. FWiW, Ovo do have monthly statements (for accuracy you will need to provide meter readings). Have a look at their ts and cs if you are interested.

labp04

Hi, the co-op seem good at this sort of thing ie I have found them to be flexible and prepared to listen then act whether my request has been for a dd to go up, remain the same or to be lowered based on their own or my estimate of my potential usage. May be worth a whizz for you.

Andy_WSM

Eon are very good at managing the DD too, so long as you regularly update your online account with accurate readings.

As has already been stated, Eon would expect your account to either be in a neutral or credit situation, never hugely in debt.

They will have based their estimate on average users. Your current £50 a month is way below average, unrealistically so in my opinion. I would even suspect that one of your meters was not registering correctly.
- Also worth noting that to base bills on last Winter would be foolhardy as it was the warmest Winter for decades and (unless the climate has gone completely screwy) unlikely to be repeated for some time.

tizerbelle

If you're with Eon they have a DD Manager in your online account and you can review your DD using that at anytime - it reassesses your consumption and what level of payment is needed, suggests a revised DD amount which you can implement or ignore.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi mildredalien

Hope the move went well and wasn't too stressful. Thought it might help if I give you a few details about our Monthly Direct Debits.

We review monthly payment arrangements every quarter but, if necessary, we'll only change them twice in every 12 month period. This is at the annual review and the mid-term point.

On the other two occasions, we'll let you know if we believe a change is needed but leave it up to you to make any alterations.

The aim is to achieve as near as possible to a zero balance by the annual review. Any credit over a fiver left on the account at this time is automatically sent back to your bank.

As tizerbelle says, customers registered with our website can also use our online 'Direct Debit Manager.' This is particularly useful should your circumstances change.

Provided the account is billed up to the latest meter readings, you can change the payments by up to 20 per cent up or down. By up to 5 per cent up or down without readings.

Before putting the change through, we'll let you know by how much we anticipate the account will be in credit/debit if the new amount is confirmed but usage doesn't alter accordingly.

Sorry if I'm trying to teach you how to suck eggs here but, if you've not already told us the details of the move, please let us know. The date you took over and meter readings for this day will help keep things accurate.

You can do this online too if you prefer or phone our specialist Home Moves team. Contact details are on our website.

Hope this helps mildredalien and that you're now settled in your new home.

Malc