Spiolt for choice quality of life

Markuk_2

Hi every one, what are your views on the following statement..
Since the privatization of our utility's and the ever chase of a better deal, not for getting simplicity of standing orders instead of direct debits which are taken from your account when some one else says, so losing control of your account.
Is your quality of life better now than before all these changes ?

sheffield_lad

That is a strange title for a discussion of the merits of DD v SO lol.

Quality of life is a 'tad' extreme but for me it's far easier to have a DD set up and have monies taken out of my bank at the rate advised by the utility. Imagine the chaos involved in having to wait for customers to set a new SO or make adjustments, half don't read the bills as it is, by the time they got around to calling the bank some could be in arrears for months and I am guessing most would not think of putting the money to one side leaving a lot of folk in debt.

JJ_Egan

Markuk wrote: »

Hi every one, what are your views on the following statement..
Since the privatization of our utility's and the ever chase of a better deal, not for getting simplicity of standing orders instead of direct debits which are taken from your account when some one else says, so losing control of your account.
Is your quality of life better now than before all these changes ?

##

Yes 100s of times much better .

Cardew

Markuk wrote: »

simplicity of standing orders instead of direct debits which are taken from your account when some one else says, so losing control of your account.

You simply do not lose control of your account. You are notified in writing xx days in advance if your DD is to change.


You can accept the change, dispute it, pay in a lump sum to keep the DD at the same level etc etc.


Where is the simplicity in a Standing Order when YOU have to notify the bank to change the amount instead of the supplier contacting the bank direct.

lstar337

Lol, Standing Orders are a total pain in the nads. Who wants to faff around like that. I'll take DD any time I can!

System

We do not live in a police state and no company that I am aware of forces its customers to use DDs as a method of payment. Standing Orders were useful when paying a fixed amount each month but they were a bit of a faff. DDs are flexible and have a built in guarantee so I am not sure what there is to complain about? My guess is that the complaint is more to do with the way that energy companies calculate a DD revision which I agree can be a bit confusing. The point to bear in mind is that customers will only pay for what they use, and the frequent DD revisions are based on Govt/OFGEM policy to ensure that big bills/ balances do not accrue. This aspect of the business needs further thought/work.

joncombe

If companies are well behaved, Direct Debit is fine. However as someone who has been on the receiving end of NPowers billing system (which certainly gave the impression of being little more than a random number generator I'm afraid it really did feel like I'd lost control of my account.

Their system would generate a new bill and take whatever it decided was owed. Even cancelling the Direct Debit was not enough to stop them. They re-instated it, without my permission, to debit money their billing system claimed (wrongly) was owed. Yes I got the money back via the Direct Debit gurantee but this sort of thing should not be allowed to happen in the first place.

So now I pay for Gas and Electric as payment on receipt of bill, rather than use direct debit. I don't trust utility companies with direct debit any longer.

Ilona

My quality of life hasn't changed. I have always paid my utilities upon the receipt of a quarterly bill, and always will do. I changed suppliers just over a year ago to get rid of the standing charge, and my bills have stayed at the same level, after a smooth change. I monitor my usage emailing in monthly meter readings. This method is simple for me, I don't need to worry about the DD going up or down. I budget my income accordingly and never let my bank balance go so low as to cause concern.

System

Each to their own, but the advantages of paperless billing and DDs is that it reduces business costs which are reflected in discounts to customers. The basic unfairness in this type of business model is often that those who have to make every penny count often pay more than they need to for the energy that they consume. This is one of the unintended consequences of OFGEM's recent market review.