Ferkin' Powergen !!

**Patty**

:mad:

Flamin' muppets!

Have received a letter this morning, telling me they intend to increase my monthly payment from it's current £85 a month to a whopping £129 a month!!
This is for both gas & electric, in a 3/4 bed house.

I increased it by £10 a month in march 07 as we were showing £383 in debit. In May 07, we were showing £426 in debit so i gets on the blower again & offered a bit more......but was told it's not necessary...my account was *on target*.

Now, apparently, they have lost the target (and the plot):rolleyes: since am now only showing £263 in debit but they want an extra £44 a month.


All suggestions gratefully received:D

Patty xx

snoopy_and_woodstock

Hi Patty

We are with Powergen (not for much longer though!!!). We came home from holiday last Monday and found a letter telling me that they were putting up our DD from £60pm to £154PM!!!!!! We didn't have any debt with them and our account was in credit by £10....so i rang customer services and was told tough thats what the computer says so we should pay that every month from now on!!!!!!

When we get our bill every quarter its around £177 and is always paid off before we get our next bill. So i canceled the DD and paid the bill when it arrived last Thursday £143. Even though the account was clear and i had canceled the DD they still tried to take £154 DD. Then i get a letter saying,

Weclome to your new Onebill Account the debt of £143 has been added to your next bill which will be ready on the 10th Dec.

HELLO WE PAID THAT ALREADY!!! Can't seem to sort it out so i am closing our account and moving to a new supplier. I have taken screen prints of every part of our account history, meter readings and payments.

So you have my sympathies. Sorry i couldn't offer much in the way of advice.

Snoopy x

Cardew

**Patty** wrote: »

:mad:

Flamin' muppets!

Have received a letter this morning, telling me they intend to increase my monthly payment from it's current £85 a month to a whopping £129 a month!!
This is for both gas & electric, in a 3/4 bed house.

I increased it by £10 a month in march 07 as we were showing £383 in debit. In May 07, we were showing £426 in debit so i gets on the blower again & offered a bit more......but was told it's not necessary...my account was *on target*.

Now, apparently, they have lost the target (and the plot):rolleyes: since am now only showing £263 in debit but they want an extra £44 a month.


All suggestions gratefully received:D

Patty xx

This is a very normal situation unfortunately; the call centre staff are 'ruled' by the computer and large debit balances build up.

You obviously reduced the debt over summer - which is normal. However we are approaching winter and it is seems that your £85 DD is £20-£25 too low. The £129 DD is to claw back the debit balance of £263 and it would appear that this will take about 12 months to clear that debt - which is the normal period allowed.

After the debt is cleared it should drop down again to £105 or so. Or you could just pay off your debit balance.

**Patty**

Cardew wrote: »

This is a very normal situation unfortunately; the call centre staff are 'ruled' by the computer and large debit balances build up.

You obviously reduced the debt over summer - which is normal. However we are approaching winter and it is seems that your £85 DD is £20-£25 too low. The £129 DD is to claw back the debit balance of £263 and it would appear that this will take about 12 months to clear that debt - which is the normal period allowed.

After the debt is cleared it should drop down again to £105 or so. Or you could just pay off your debit balance.

I've just rooted out the bills for the last 12 months. According to those, we use £93.51 worth of gas & electric each month (for those thinking this is high i have an incontinent disabled child, so tonnes of washing).........so the DD is not too far out.
I've worked out they actually want to recover the *arrears* in 6 months.:rolleyes: (£44 x 6 = £264).

I would ring & *negotiate* but apparently, all their computers are down.:rolleyes:

I'll save that pleasure for tomorrow

BONJOEY

my dd went from 60 pound to 90 pound, as the bill from last winter was tripe what it was the year before,

i have noticed the bills dropping consierably my winter bill was 429 for 3 months!!


now 134 for 3 months


i have my meters read regular , perhaps the price rise last year has got t big part to play in the debit people have got now, not the company.

gypsyroseloz

I too have received a letter from those horrid Powergen people this morning!
"We have recently reviewed your account & need to make an adjustment....we need to change your monthly payments to £149!!!!!
This will cover the outstanding balance of £433. (now 373,DD came out this week)
I noticed that we were behind with payments earlier this year & opted to increase the amount myself. They have not increased it at all in 2 years, despite sending emails about general price increases, mentioning possible changes in DD payments but nothing was changed.
Are they being fair to their customers by not managing our accounts efficiently?
My FIL has called round this morning saying they had a letter saying it was to go down by £9 a month, which he reckons is wrong as we are approaching winter!
What do I do now? Ring & offer to pay £100 a month, really dont think we can afford £149 a month! Or, do we clear the lot & tell them to bog off!
Any help/suggestions will be gratefully recieved.

Rikki

I just pay my gas and electric by quarterly bills. I always supply accurate readings each time a bill arrives so I only pay for what I've used.

I take meter readings every week so I can keep an eye on the amount I use.

I would never pay by driect debit, so many people end up in arrears and have loads of problems.

gypsyroseloz

I have just rang powergen, who ahve said they could reduce my payments to £130 instead of £149 (wow) I offered £100, they said only if I pay £200 of the bill.
So, that would mean they will have had a £60 DD payment this week, a £200 payment (if we opt for that) & another £100 DD (next month). I will have to go & see if there is any money on the tree at the bottom of the garden!!!!!
Are we just as well to pay the £149 or £130 a month, rather than paying £200 first???

I am not working (stay at home Mum & DH is off on sick following a RTA a month ago & still under hospital care, so who know when he'll get back to work! He is still getting paid but is losing any OT & call-out money!

What would you do?????

Cardew

Rikki wrote: »

I just pay my gas and electric by quarterly bills. I always supply accurate readings each time a bill arrives so I only pay for what I've used.

I take meter readings every week so I can keep an eye on the amount I use.

I would never pay by driect debit, so many people end up in arrears and have loads of problems.

The advantage od Direct Debit is that you get a cheaper tariff with most companies; as well as the convienience.

However if you are on DD you must accept the responsibility for monitoring your account; or accept that you might finish up with a big debit. There is no point in blaming the utility company.

Personally I am very happy to build up a big debit balance; I simply look upon it as an interest free loan.

taylorsmum

hi, have just phoned powergen to set up new account, have moved into property which they already supplied they have just quoted 96.00 mth for gas and elec, told them it was too much, they said they can reduce it to 75.00.
still think it is alot of money.

Cardew

taylorsmum wrote: »

hi, have just phoned powergen to set up new account, have moved into property which they already supplied they have just quoted 96.00 mth for gas and elec, told them it was too much, they said they can reduce it to 75.00.
still think it is alot of money.

If you want to try a little experiment, ring NPower and say Powergen want £75. They will almost certainly reduce it to, say, £65.

Ring BG and say Npower say £65 and they will reduce it.

Ring Scottish Power - you get the drift!

Finally ring Powergen giving a different name and you will probably get it for £35.

The point being they will reduce it to whatever it takes to get your custom as the call centre operators are on commission.

What you pay initially really doesn't matter as you will just build up a debit balance which you will have to pay back; and you won't be able to change supplier until you have paid off your debt.