Advance Direct Debit Payments

bonus2010

Takmon wrote: »

Yes it was slightly annoying but it hasn't put me off small suppliers because of how much cheaper they are so i'm happy to put up with small issues. Plus moving to a big name supplier doesn't guarantee you won't have any issues, the only thing guaranteed is that you will pay more for the exact same gas and electric.

I must say I would be more than "slightly annoyed" if my money owing was held onto for 4 months. When I've received bills from my previous energy supplier, I was expected to pay within 14 days, and I'm very sure if I had neglected to do that for 4 months, I'd have debt collectors at the door going by the experience of many on this forum.

I'm not saying I'd be put off taken on a smaller energy supplier but my original post was merely an enquiry of which energy suppliers are asking for advanced monthly DD payment stating the reasons for my request of information and my reasoning that its something for consideration.

In my most recent comparison, I favoured Scottish Power over a smaller supplier offering £40 cheaper at the time, but my view was that the overall financial security of SP outweighed the smaller supplier in my judgement. Sure, many people have made fantastic savings with smaller suppliers but the difference at the moment is not much as has been the case in previous years...

nigelbb

bonus2010 wrote: »

I'm not disputing whether or not people get their money back that's been "protected" by Ofgem as you say.

The risk I'm talking about is the risk of being inconvenienced of having to wait a several months to have your money returned. in such circumstances.

The other issue when a supplier goes bust is being switched to a SOLR & then being stuck on an expensive uncompetitive tariff for a couple of months before you can switch again. If OFGEM wants to have all this ludicrous "competition" then when a supplier goes bust the customer should be allowed to switch to whichever supplier they like.

matelodave

nigelbb wrote: »

The other issue when a supplier goes bust is being switched to a SOLR & then being stuck on an expensive uncompetitive tariff for a couple of months before you can switch again. If OFGEM wants to have all this ludicrous "competition" then when a supplier goes bust the customer should be allowed to switch to whichever supplier they like.

Sounds like a good idea but if the company has gone bust, how are they going to cope with thousands of customers choosing random energy suppliers and who either owe or or owed money.

It seems to me that the main reason a lot of thse companies go to the wall as well as going bust is because their accounts and data collection is a total shambles so expecting them to sort out who owes what to who with a dozen or more energy companies woukd be a lot worse than it is already.

I've found that if you keep an eye on your account, read the meter when you find out the company has gone bust and keep logging your readings together with making sure that you are up to date and have saved all your bills and statements (download them immediately before the website goes down)that the transfer goes pretty smoothly.

I'st those who don't have a clue what they pay, why they pay it or what they owe who end up having prolonged transfers and aggro.

My account with IRESA was a total pigs breakfast, but as I had all the data and evidence of my meter readings (I saved E-mails, wrong bills and meter readings) I could get away from Octopus within three weeks and got my refund of around £20 in about ten. Others took a hell of a lot longer and I've no doubt are still tring to sort some of it out.

wild666

Paying in advance means your first months bill is covered, or mostly covered as the date of the reading will be close to your second monthly payment so unless you have everything on 24/7 on full blast you could either be paying your bill and leaving the next DD for next month.
I pay £67 a month but the energy company say I can drop my DD to £51 but I am keeping it at £67 in case it's a exceptionally cold winter or we have a cold summer.

Biggus_Dickus

bonus2010 wrote: »

I'm not disputing whether or not people get their money back that's been "protected" by Ofgem as you say.

The risk I'm talking about is the risk of being inconvenienced of having to wait a several months to have your money returned. in such circumstances.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't at all be happy about my money being locked in other companies bank accounts until they (or their adminstrators) decide to return it, and from what I read here it has caused members who have been in that situation considerable stress.

My present YorksEnergy fixed gas&leccy tariff (£0 early exit fee) will cost me £1180 p.a.

The cheapest ScottishPower fixed tariff (Super Saver May 2020 B1 - £60! early exit fee) would cost me £1387 p.a.;

...that’s an additional £207 p.a. for the same amount of gas and leccy.

£207 p.a. is a lot to pay for the benefits(?) of being a Big6 customer IMHO,...way too much for me that’s for sure. However, it appears that many people are happy to pay for a Big6 ‘security blanket’.

I used to be a ScottishPower customer a few years ago,...they were so awful (in almost every respect!) they nearly sent me round the bend. A short while after I left SP they were penalized £18M by Ofgem for a whole host of failings;...I guess they’ve improved a bit since then.

I’ve been with several ‘minnows’ since SP and never had any issues;...however, as the old saying goes "you pays yer money and you takes yer choice”.