Outfox The Market Direct Debit changes

megafern

I never had a bill shock. I gave Outconthe Market one though. Ive only been with them a month and a) suffered a price rise and b) had my DD's nearly doubled so I switched. Dark days ahead methinks. Wouldnt like this company to hold too much of my credit.

paters

editor1, I didn't mean to start a panic! I was just trying to point out how one-sided the T&C are. It would be very unlikely for OTM to end fixed deals early, it was just meant as an example. But if they did, there's no way they would pay customers £100, again those exit fees are for OTM's benefit not the customer's.


As others have said, price comparison sites don't always have up to date prices or the best deals, the Cheap Energy Club being no exception. They are just a tool and shouldn't be relied on to be 100% accurate. This could be because there's a delay imputing the figures or the energy companies have exclusive deals through other comparison / cashback sites... or like I found out with Enstroga, the price they offer when you ring them up is no way near as good as advertised. It's always best to try a few comparisons, check cashback sites and then the energy company's website.



Also, do your own calculations to see if they tally with the comparison site's highlighted "savings" figure. It looks like a lot OTM customers are having this problem as the comparison site can't keep up with the price hikes!

Paenymion

Eco7 customer here (but still FischerEnergy/OTFM, its all the same thing)

Original DD: £38.29
15th November DD notification: £67.01
22nd November DD notification: £53.60
2nd December DD notification and actual new amount showing on account: £85.42

Fun times. Since this seems to have happened to everyone, I expect another correction email shortly.

wild666

“ I can confirm that everyone is still paying the same over the year with 6 months 40% higher and 6 months 40% lower than the annual average payment. As I pointed out when I first arrived here, I thought this might also result in a high credit, but was surprised to see that the credit / debit remains relatively near zero through the annual term as compared with the fixed monthly payment. In that case it gives the customer and supplier a high credit in one period of six months and a high debit in the other.
Originally posted by TheHeatingEngineer

OFTM Have my bills totally wrong! I use around £500 a year, give or take £50, I leave them on the 14th because since day 1 there has been a screw up, too complicated to go into detail, I got a meter reading last night and did a calculation on the meter reading, opening to present and and it showed a total of 2296kWh used since joining yet I am paying them £11.80 a month. At the start there was a screw up as I just gave a total read and continued to do so until it was sorted, some 6 or 7 months later, I should have been giving the Act 1 reading, which I used for my calculation last niight.
£8.34, £58.34, a month which would be me paying 70% of my usage over 6 months would have been acceptable. But £70 is over the top as I would be claiming money back from them as I would be paying my whole years bill in 6 months, that's the Direct Debit TV License scam.

Are they expecting increases over the remaining winter months? as this 1.5p increase in Jan does seem a large increase? Will the prices go down in summer and if so by how much? How quick would a decrease in price be passed on, if at all?

I was led to believe that if prices went up our monthly price would increase but also if it went dpwn we would see a decrease even in the summer months we saw no decreases from them but they were very quick to try and hit us with increases.

tawse57

I started paying them £32 a month in the middle of September.


Last week had an email saying that my mid December DD would be £45.


This morning I get an email saying it will now be a few pence short of 71. Then £71 per month afterwards.


So basically a 122% increase. They are now more expensive than the standard plan quarterly bill that Scottish Power were charging me.


I am going to email them this morning to question how and why they got to this figure of £71. I am a single person, low use.


I started a change to another supplier on Friday. But seemingly if the change goes through before my next debit I cannot cancel the debit as:


1. They will charge me £25.


2. They will simply reinstate it, judging by other posts on here.

MadMat

Just had yet another email, titled "Direct Debit OUTFOX THE MARKET" with yet another figure for my next direct debit, that bears no resemblance at all to any of the figures in previous emails . . . .

Clearly just making it up as they go along

tawse57

megafern wrote: »

I never had a bill shock. I gave Outconthe Market one though. Ive only been with them a month and a) suffered a price rise and b) had my DD's nearly doubled so I switched. Dark days ahead methinks. Wouldnt like this company to hold too much of my credit.

According to OFGEM the money will be safe if OFGEM has to step in.


The problem is with those who have large sums of credit with OFTM.


The problem is also people now seeing massive increases in direct debits for this coming month - over a 100% - which is a lot of money for many people to have suddenly taken out of their account.



It also makes you question the reason why OFTM needs this larger sums all of a sudden.

editor1

@paters,

no issues, we are here after all to try and assist each other, not conduct flame wars, which are against this sites policy.

As far as T&Cs go it seems OFTM have had two or three revisions since I joined in the first quarter, and that's before all the other nonsense they've inflicted on customers, particularly those on Variable Tariffs, who, are all voting with their feet via comments all over Social Media.

Still, life is a learning curve and i'm now better informed when it comes to joining industry upstarts who offer much and then deliver a tide of misery.

Lijong

Apologies for the delay @TheHeatingEngineer been on chemo.

Is it possible for me to send you my last 10 statements? They are so confusing I have no idea what need to write down, that way you can see what I have used and what they then charged for it.

I am looking at People's energy but don't know if it is cheaper or not.

Thanks Li

Lijong

Had an estimate from People's and an email from Octopus but I am really struggling to work out which is the cheaper option,

People's Energy
The People's Tariff August 2018
£105.44 Per Month
Total annual cost: £1,265.33
Tariff The People's Tariff August 2018
Type of tariff Variable
Tariff cost: £1,265.33
Discount: £0.00
The prices shown below are inclusive of VAT
Electricity
Tariff cost £989.67
Standing Charge: 21.4999995 p/day
Unit Price: 13.399995 p/kWh
Gas
Tariff cost £275.66
Standing Charge: 21.4999995 p/day
Unit Price: 3.0509955 p/kWh

Octopus email says.....

Octopus 12M Fixed
Monthly payments: £121.97
Estimated annual cost: £1463.65
Electricity:
Unit rate: 15.0255p per kWh
Standing charge: 19.215p per day
Gas:
Unit rate: 3.381p per kWh
Standing charge: 16.8p per day

Arghhhh!!!!