Outfox the Market reviews: add your feedback

Shet03

Can anyone confirm how much notice they need to give you to change their direct Debit? 10 days isn't much, especially when you are monthly paid. I simply don't have the extra this month, so I've cancelled my DD to prevent bank charges and started a switch to another supplier. Shame it takes so long to switch

shazzablue

oftm say this rise is due to a policy change and is geared to avoiding fuel poverty,if a customer pays a set payment all year round this usually covers any additional costs in winter ,or with regular meter readings increased or decreased payments are implemented,oftm are now actually causing fuel poverty by the doubling of dd payments,its also concerning that some posters on here are in credit and have received huge rises in dd payments,ofgem or whatever governing body that oversees our utilities really need to look into what is going on at oftm.

bigpaul66

They just want large interest free loans from all of us

shazzablue

paul I cant believe this policy change is even legal,last month I singed up for £69 month dd,within days one meter read in and it almost doubles,i would be extremely concerned if I had built up credit with this company.

VoucherMan

This one will be interesting to watch.

I wonder how many customers will leave because of this, and refunding all those credit balances will put a big dent in the cash pot they're trying to build up.


Hengus already replied to someone yesterday, but if anyone wants to read up


Ofgem safety net: If your energy supplier goes out of business

bs7

EVERYONE should complain about this change.


Once again it's complete lies from Outfox - its not a specific "review" of your account - it seems to be across all their customers and irrespective of being in credit or not.


Its not about the risk of "accruing debt" but about their own cashflow and no responsible energy provider would spring this on customers immediately.


It also looks like they planned for this and changed the terms and conditions in October for a two tier charging scheme based on the time of the year.


Two weeks notice isn't sufficient for such a massive change.


EVERY customer should complain and we should all take it all the way through their complaints process.






It would appear no one from MSE monitors these forums properly but I would ask them to seriously consider a warning on the Energy comparison to avoid these clowns and point out that Outfox will change the price and indeed payments on a whim and with little notice.

Cornucopia

Uswitch is showing lots of alternatives for me that are £40-50 pa cheaper than OFTM, if my usage is based on what I'm currently paying OFTM. Putting in a more realistic usage reduces the options somewhat, though.

edit: Looking more closely, the comparison seems flawed because Uswitch are assuming £16pm membership fee, which is more than I pay.

deanae

I just done the maths on the current and future direct debit amounts and compared them to their last bills estimates. I know we are a heavy user as an electric only household.

From the bill: Estimated annual cost: £1343.40
Current direct debit at £170.59 a month: £2047.08 = 150% of estimate
Future direct debit at £298.53 and £127.94: £2558.85 = 190% of estimate

Are they going the same way as Iresa?

geoffplus

Due to switch to OFTM on 20 Nov. They refuse to cancel. My original direct debit shown to me when switched on 30 Oct ws £71, immediately the 14 days cooling off period for switching up, it was upped to £125 per month.

Have cancelled my direct debit, but not sure how they can proceed now. Do they just switch me over, supply the energy, then try and recover the money from me? I don't want a bad credit score, but i also don't want to pay for energy I have not yet used.

If they put me down as a bad payer does that stop me from switching to another supplier?

I will quite happily pay for what I have used, just not sure what the legal implications of cancelling a direct debit are.

Also, can anyone just up your direct debit for services not yet provided? surely there are rules for this? As someone as said, this is basically taking an interest free loan form their customers.

Cornucopia

Lots to choose from:-

www.uswitch.com

energy.comparethemarket.com

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

I'm getting inconsistent results though - with the two main issues being the incorrect membership fee being applied, and the OFTM original DD being set too low (despite me specifying a fixed KWh figure for the switch).