good electricity supplier who doesn't change or mess around with direct debits

ruvaa

Hi, I was with Isupply for a while but changed to another company and the new company have doubled my electric bill because I am in debt after the winter months. If I was in debt with Isupply they would just send the bill and I would pay off what was owed straight away. I prefer this instead of having my direct debit it's messed around with.

Does anyone know of any good electricity suppliers who do not mess around with direct debits?

Gerry1

Some suppliers including E.On and Shell Energy offer Variable Direct Debit but they may not be the cheapest.

However, with Fixed Direct Debit there's nothing to stop you doing the sums when you read the meter each month and making a top up payment where necessary.

MWT

There really is no substitute for checking your usage/bills/balance each month and then pay extra if needed or adjust the DD down if appropriate.

I do get the point that some suppliers get a little greedy when estimating what is needed, but there isn't a supplier out there that isn't going to raise the DD if you fall behind and don't make an extra payment.

ruvaa

MWT said:

There really is no substitute for checking your usage/bills/balance each month and then pay extra if needed or adjust the DD down if appropriate.

I do get the point that some suppliers get a little greedy when estimating what is needed, but there isn't a supplier out there that isn't going to raise the DD if you fall behind and don't make an extra payment.

Apart from Isupply but they are being taken over by EDF now so I won't be going back.

Thank you for the advice, I will do this in the future. 

burner01

I’ve always advocated trying to maximise energy DD whenever possible to reap bank account cash back (e.g. Santander 123 lite). Just a thought.

matelodave

IMO the whole idea of a fixed DD based on EAC/12 is to just pay the same amount every month and then either revise the DD at the end of the year if you are going to stay with them or pay off any balance or get a refund if you move away.

It's pretty obvious that for the early part of the year you'll be in debit because of your winter consumption but if the estimate was pretty accurate you should also be in credit during the latter part of of the summer. However it seems that some energy companies or their computers seem to not understand this and feel a need to review DD's every three or six months which can throw the whole calculation right out of the window.

That's how its always worked for me and I jump all over the energy co if they try faffing around with my DD. I'm usually within about £20-£25 at the end of the year (generally credit as I do over estimate my EAC by a little for contingency).

My contract ends on 2nd September and I know I'm on target to be about £50 down because Symbio thought it was clever to reduce one of my DD's by £50 last year because we didn't use much leccy in a month.  I did my pieces and they reverted to my agreed fixed DD but the -£50 is now being carried forward to the end whereas it would be in their pockets had they left it alone.

MWT

The problems often come with winter switches as you get your buffer that was built up with the old supplier refunded to you and many people treat that as a windfall gain and spend it.

The new supplier will generally want to make sure that you do not immediately go into debt so the DD gets raised high enough to cover the winter payments which comes as a surprise if you were bargaining on EAC/12...

It would make more sense in a lot of switches to have the refund from the old supplier transferred to the new supplier so you take your buffer for the winter with you and you can then stay on EAC/12.

Talldave

MWT said:

The problems often come with winter switches as you get your buffer that was built up with the old supplier refunded to you and many people treat that as a windfall gain and spend it.

The new supplier will generally want to make sure that you do not immediately go into debt so the DD gets raised high enough to cover the winter payments which comes as a surprise if you were bargaining on EAC/12...

It would make more sense in a lot of switches to have the refund from the old supplier transferred to the new supplier so you take your buffer for the winter with you and you can then stay on EAC/12.

Lol it's bad enough trying get the institutionally incompetent energy industry to use the correct meter readings during a switch. The thought of letting them loose with our money leaves me aghast!!

Neil_Jones

ruvaa said:

Hi, I was with Isupply for a while but changed to another company and the new company have doubled my electric bill because I am in debt after the winter months. If I was in debt with Isupply they would just send the bill and I would pay off what was owed straight away. I prefer this instead of having my direct debit it's messed around with.

Does anyone know of any good electricity suppliers who do not mess around with direct debits?

If the debits are set properly in the first place there is no need to "mess around".

Likewise if people (and this isn't specifically aimed at your good self) learnt how energy and direct debits worked, we wouldn't have endless posts along the lines of of "Dalek Energy claim I owe them £2k, my debit is £20 a month, I thought this covered everythiing, this is obviously their fault".

tk47

ruvaa said:

Hi, I was with Isupply for a while but changed to another company and the new company have doubled my electric bill because I am in debt after the winter months. If I was in debt with Isupply they would just send the bill and I would pay off what was owed straight away. I prefer this instead of having my direct debit it's messed around with.

Does anyone know of any good electricity suppliers who do not mess around with direct debits?

I guess it depends on what you mean by those who "do not mess around with direct debits?"

Many people like the fact they pay only 1/12th of their annual bill every month as many peoplke receive 1/12 of their annual income every month. This does, of course, mean that their energy account with their supplier may go into periods of debit and/or credit over the year.

For those that do not like that approach, there are still a significant number of suppliers that allow you to pay on bill, and some comparison services allow you to filter your results that way.

Alternatively, most suppliers will allow you, but don't usually mandate you, to pay a one off top-up amount especially if you see your account is in debit at any time. The ones that may not permit this may be the few that pay interest on credit balances.

It tends to be the new, small suppliers that do not have the cash flow capabilities to allow a customers account to go into debit at any time that insist on mandatory top ups should the customer's account go into debit. Alternatively, they may adopt a seasonal billing approach, depending on when you join them, in an attempt to prevent your account going into debit.

MWT

Talldave said:

Lol it's bad enough trying get the institutionally incompetent energy industry to use the correct meter readings during a switch. The thought of letting them loose with our money leaves me aghast!!

Unfortunately the suppliers level of incompetence is often matched or exceeded by the customers who say 'wow, a refund, I'll spend that' ... and then wonder why the new monthly payments are higher than expected...