Direct debit doubled

Sue_Blaine

First time posting so hope I've got things right. On advice from the MSE switched to EON, gave them all the details they asked for about useage and they gave us an estimate of £51 per month. So much cheaper than the £80 per month from Scottish power. 2 months down the line they have told us they misquoted and we now have to pay £104 per month. After waiting on the phone for almost 30 mins I was able to get it down to £80.
now realise what these firms are doing by telling you it will be a lower amount than you currently pay they get you to switch then bump the price up after 2 months. I know I got 2 months at a lower rate but this definately feels like a big con!!!

Robin9

The important things are unit rates and standing charges. Direct Debits are irrelevant - at best they are a good guess.

Are your bills for the last two months based on actual rather than estimated readings.



Please tell us the unit rate and standing charge of both your previous and new suppliers together with your actual unit consumption of the last 12 months of the previous consumption.

victor2

Suppliers are not going to quote a high monthly price because it won't attract new business.
Now you are having to cover the debt you incurred by underpaying plus the cost of your ongoing usage.
When you give comparison sites your annual usage in kWh (never use current monthly DD), the figures they show for future costs, IF your usage stays the same, will be pretty accurate.
You may have negotiated getting your DD down to £80, but if that is too low, you'll end up owing them more money.
Take your annual usage for each fuel (shown on your bills) and calculate for yourself what the annual cost will be on your current tariff, not forgetting the standing charge, any discounts and 5% VAT.
Subtract from that the amount you have paid so far in your contract year and divide the result by the number of months remaining. That will give you a realistic figure of what your DD should be to hit a zero balance at the end of the contract year.
Bit of effort involved, but not impossible to do if you can handle a bit of arithmetic.
Do NOT rely on the comparison sites to give you an accurate prediction of costs on your current tariff if you are not on the suppliers standard tariff and have less than 12 months to run.

keith1950

These are not fixed payments they are estimates....so by getting them to reduce the payment from £104 down to £80 means you account will run into debit in the long term.
They haven't "let you off "with the two lower payments.

macman

£612pa would be unfeasibly low for a dual fuel tariff. The only figure that matters is the total annual cost-not the monthly DD. No supplier is going to be 40% cheaper than another. If your DD is too low then you will eventually be hit with a big catch-up bill.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Sue_Blaine wrote: »

First time posting so hope I've got things right. On advice from the MSE switched to EON, gave them all the details they asked for about useage and they gave us an estimate of £51 per month. So much cheaper than the £80 per month from Scottish power. 2 months down the line they have told us they misquoted and we now have to pay £104 per month. After waiting on the phone for almost 30 mins I was able to get it down to £80.
now realise what these firms are doing by telling you it will be a lower amount than you currently pay they get you to switch then bump the price up after 2 months. I know I got 2 months at a lower rate but this definately feels like a big con!!!

Good morning Sue Blaine and welcome to the forums.

Already some excellent advice on the thread, so thank you guys.

When you decide to pick a new supplier or tariff, we always say to use your usage in kWh and not £ spend and base it on accurate usage from the [FONT=&quot]previous[/FONT] year. This way we can get the monthly payment amount much more accurate.

We also know that customers usage does change, so the Direct Debit amount would need to change to reflect this.

The best thing to do, is to keep putting meter reading on to your online account and produce a 'real time bill' or 'balance' then you'll be able to see exactly where the account stands and keep it as up to date as possible.

You might also like to have a look at the Direct Debit manager tool, also on your online account. This way you can actually adjust your own payments by 20% with meter reads and 5% without.

I'm here to help though, if you need me.

Thank you

Helena

footyguy

Sue_Blaine wrote: »

First time posting so hope I've got things right. On advice from the MSE switched to EON, gave them all the details they asked for about useage and they gave us an estimate of £51 per month. So much cheaper than the £80 per month from Scottish power. 2 months down the line they have told us they misquoted and we now have to pay £104 per month. After waiting on the phone for almost 30 mins I was able to get it down to £80.
now realise what these firms are doing by telling you it will be a lower amount than you currently pay they get you to switch then bump the price up after 2 months. I know I got 2 months at a lower rate but this definately feels like a big con!!!

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits

Most (but not all) suppliers charge 1/12th of the anticipated annual cost based on your anticipated usage.

Check the terms of your contract to see how your supplier calculates it.

If it is the usual method, and you are now being asked for double the monthly charge originally set, then it looks like you are using much more energy than you originally anticipated - get this revised figure from the supplier and catrry out a new comparison

What was the best deal for you based on your anticipated annual consumption at the time may not be very good at all for such a huge variation in anticipated consumption.