Outfox The Market Direct Debit changes

Doddie1

I'm in the same boat as you Spidernick, tariff end date October next year, i looked online last night but this is by far the cheapest available tariff for me so i'm not sure what to do.

Part of me is saying switch now, but it seems the credit i have (£111) will be protected even if it isn't used by increased energy usage over the winter?

It'll be intersting to see how this pans out... another customer service clanger when they tried to increase the monthly membership charge, or do they really have a cash flow problem this time?

Whatever the reason, this ought to be an abject lesson on what not to do.

Merlin139

DouglasRankine wrote: »

Hi Merlin 139,
Tx for the info. Did they explain to you under what part of the contract that they could charge you an extra £25 for stopping your DD and why it is £25 and not £1 or £100? That would be an interesting point to find out. And, if perchance, they are entitled to do so...How are they going to get you to pay it? Take you to court perhaps? hee hee... There is an old saying in English law which says that one must come to equity with clean hands...and OFTM hasn't been very clean have they?

ATB
Dougie.

T&C's 10.2 If you don’t pay your bill on time:

• We can add the amount of your debt to your next bill.
• Any missed or late payments will incur a charge of £25 if payment is not made within 5 working days from the payment due date.
• We can charge you for the first missed payment and for each missed payment after that.
• You must pay us any bank charges that we have to pay because of cancelled or failed payments.
• We can temporarily suspend or permanently disconnect the supply under warrant (if necessary) from the Magistrates’ Court (or Sheriff Court in Scotland) without your permission.
• We can charge you interest at 4% per year above the current Bank of England base rate, which will be charged on the overdue amount you owe until you pay the overdue amount plus interest.

davidgmmafan

I can't see how this could be enforced though. Firstly what IS the due date? A direct debit could be setup for almost any date in the month (usually 1st to 28th). Cancelling the direct debit just means you aren't using that payment method.


If you sent them a cheque do they really propose to reject and then seek to take some kind of recovery action?



Also if you are minded to leave that won't take long enough to even get caught up in any kind of recovery process.

[Deleted User]

Hi Doddie1,
When is your next DD due?

None of us has any way of knowing what financial state the company is in. If you are in financial difficulty with the payments, as a lot of people are, that is why they go for the cheapest deal. Moving away from the large companies presents a different set of problems than dealing with the small ones. You could tell them that you have difficulty making the payments, that you cannot afford it and ask them to look at it again and and ask them to revise it. The regular, stable monthly payments at the price they offered was what they were offering. You can understand an increase in the monthly commitment commensurate with the increase in price but to spring this on you is very unfair. Are you on a fixed weekly or monthly income? If so you can explain that to them, and tell them that Christmas is coming and you are on a very tight budget. How are you supposed to pay all this extra money? And you certainly can't afford to pay an extra £25 per month because you haven't got enough money in the bank to pay for the increased DD. What are you supposed to do if you get into an overdraft situation? That is going to cost you even more money.


Do you have any difficulty with taking a photo of your meters and sending it off to them? You don't have answer any of this here, but are you on the social for instance, getting benefits. You could also use the complaints procedure to explain your circumstances. You could also go to the Citizens advice bureau and see if they can help, and complain to Offgem or one of the tv or radio programmes which deal with consumer affairs. You could try using complaint resolver, which will help you to fill in a complaint and handle it for you. Even if you fill out the form and don't send it, it will help to focus your mind on the problem.
Go to url: https://www.resolver.co.uk/



All of this will help, because at least you know that you are doing something to assuage the situation.



Sorry, but I can't help you any more than that. I am afraid that it is a decision which you have to make on your own. Keep in touch and let us know how you get on.

Perhaps other folks on here might have some better ideas...
ATB
Dougie.

Stephenmac

I have not an ouce of sympathy. Who would sign up to this lot or that other one, Power shop. They are always appearing as the cheapest. READ a bit more and they are not. Quit moaning start a switch NOW and we are done here.

[Deleted User]

Thank you for your most kind and helpful reply. Nice to know your feelings, we are all entitled to our views and opinions. Would you like to add anything more...I look forward to your further constructive reply with great interest.

jinkssick

I understand peoples anger specially pensioners and people on a fixed income. My DD gone up from £34 to £64 for winter and £27 summer, £50 odd in credit plus the fact that they are the cheapest according to MSE Club then I will be sticking around. As soon as that changes I am out the door.

I have been given them a monthly reading to avoid estimation btw.

jinkssick

Stephenmac wrote: »

I have not an ouce of sympathy. Who would sign up to this lot or that other one, Power shop. They are always appearing as the cheapest. READ a bit more and they are not. Quit moaning start a switch NOW and we are done here.

But the thing is they still ARE the cheapest, that is not the point. The point is the drastic DD change after being in high credit.

Dad_Deep_Pockets

They may be the cheapest 'just' at the moment. However, if they are one of the small suppliers who have failed to pay for their green energy this quarter and have struggled to find the funds to pay for their obligated bill they will need to raise prices further. If, and this is a big if, they remain solvent using the incoming funds to pay their green levy I would expect a rate rise in Q1 19. A race to the bottom is in no ones interest and if you stick with them and they do go bust you end up on a variable tariff on a supplier of last resort - definitely not cheaper.
I buy shares to gamble legitimately, I don't want to do the same with my utilities!!

paters

OTF Zapp low use is still the cheapest for me, but with 2 price hikes in the last 2 months since I switched and now this DD business... I'm off! Hopefully my new provider will inform them before the end of the month so I can avoid the price rise.

I've already spent more time than I care to just going over price comparison / cashback sites. Why waste any more time? It's clear they're not going to be the cheapest for much longer. Just switch to the next best deal and be done with it.