Feedback on Utility Point

grumpycrab

I'm on the same payment profile as you with a large credit. I haven't had any notification of DD increase (yet?). You've provided lots of detail which implies you've talked to them. Were they helpful?

ashe

We too have £330 of credit although the credit shown when logging in and the credit on the bill is totally out of sync, not sure why it can’t show an up to date figure. Not had any notice of a DD change.

You didn’t ask for your credit to be refunded did you? I did a few months ago when it was £200 odd and they said they can only refund one months worth as we will use more in colder months. I said but my payment goes up in colder months 😂 and based on usage in colder months when I joined I was still going to have s large credit. They said I’d i got it refunded then their billing system would adjust my payments so they’d be larger despite my predicted usage being low in line with previous usage 🤷🏼!♂️

So just checking you haven’t asked for a refund and that credit amount is out of date basically 👍🏼

MABLE

We only have the gas from them and so far no further issues. I give them regular meter reads and according to my latest bill I am £170 in credit. We use very little gas as we have open fires. However if they try increasing the dd I would not be happy. We currently pay £15.86 a month and their latest projection was would use £183.00 in the next 12 months.

grumpycrab

ashe wrote: »

although the credit shown when logging in and the credit on the bill is totally out of sync,

Shouldn't be. If your DD and meter read/billing dates are the same (should be), the numbers should be in sync about 7days AFTER DD day (it takes UP that long to record the DD deduction.)

I have no idea how these small utils work but sounds to me like they're desparately trying to maximise cash in bank prior to buying/preording Winter fuel. Or they're about to do a runner.

Glandel

Just coming to an end of a 2 year fix from Ovo.
We had our monthly payment set 2 years ago, and Ovo never suggested any change over those 2 years.

At the end of the term (next month) we think we will be in credit by about £25.

Beats me how people say they have built up £100s & £100s of credit with their energy supplier. If they were that far out with their estimated annual usage at the start of their term, they probably chose the wrong supplier & tariff from the outset.

A low cost tariff for a high user is often a high cost tariff for a low user (and vice versa)

grumpycrab

Glandel wrote: »

Beats me how people say they have built up £100s & £100s of credit with their energy supplier.

Its quite easy with a fixed monthly DD system. Fuel costs are high in the Winter (so debits build up) and low in the Summer (so credits build up). And many people have yearly fuel bills of £1000+ so quite easy to be a couple of £100 down in the Winter and similarly up in the Summer.

Glandel

grumpycrab wrote: »

Its quite easy with a fixed monthly DD system. Fuel costs are high in the Winter (so debits build up) and low in the Summer (so credits build up). And many people have yearly fuel bills of £1000+ so quite easy to be a couple of £100 down in the Winter and similarly up in the Summer.

Yearrly bills of £1000+???
They should consult a comparion site. MSE say (for an average user) it's only those who haven't switched who are paying that amount. :money:

And you suggest it's easy to overpay by 50%??? Don't believe it myself :cool:

I stick to my original declaration:

If they were that far out with their estimated annual usage at the start of their term, they probably chose the wrong supplier & tariff from the outset.

A low cost tariff for a high user is often a high cost tariff for a low user (and vice versa)

ashe

Glandel wrote: »

Just coming to an end of a 2 year fix from Ovo.
We had our monthly payment set 2 years ago, and Ovo never suggested any change over those 2 years.

At the end of the term (next month) we think we will be in credit by about £25.

Beats me how people say they have built up £100s & £100s of credit with their energy supplier. If they were that far out with their estimated annual usage at the start of their term, they probably chose the wrong supplier & tariff from the outset.

A low cost tariff for a high user is often a high cost tariff for a low user (and vice versa)

I did MSE comparison with our actual usage based on previous 12 months. I work in the utilities industry as a business analyst. Utility Point take the usage and suggest a payment amount, for us it was £99 a month for 6 months and £49.99 a month for 6 months, however we also referred about £150 worth of people towards it as we have a lot of people that "follow" our energy supplier so when we switch we take them with us and everyone gets credit. In addition we are also quite conscious of usage, turn things off where possible, and only heat the house when necessary, seeing our usage as the "score to beat" for environmental and financial reasons. Other suppliers would never really suggest a DD change although before their demise, Economy Energy were always trying to change ours despite our usage being lower.

grumpycrab

The starting point of current discussion was UP increasing some peoples' direct debits. If the initial UP direct debit was set correctly IE was based upon actual 12 months previous usage then is no reason for UP to increase DDs especially since last Winter was much milder than usual.

ader42

My agreement was similar to yours ashe.

Some posters here don't get that the "deal" or agreement or basis on which the tariff was sold was 6 months at £x and then 6 months at £0.5x and not 12 months for a fixed amount.

My DD went down as expected after 6 months but now they have hiked it up even though I think we will not use more energy than originally predicted and are £220 in credit.

To answer questions, no I haven't asked for the credit to be refunded. Yet.

I contacted them via email, got a reply which didn't "alleviate my concerns" so I emailed again and haven't had a 2nd reply.

They say that they think my usage will be higher than originally planned, but I disagree and I am not happy about a direct debit increase of £70 per month when I am currently using almost zero gas and am £220 in credit.

Glandel, I'm not sure why you think your personal situation and energy usage fits everyone else. I did switch, I did use price comparison sites UP were the cheapest when I switched based on my usage.

I am currently paying 11.741p p/kWh for electricity and 3.179p p/kWh for gas. I just checked on uswitch just now and there is not a cheaper deal for me yet!