Energy debt - anti-competition rules - persistent debt

Agentfox

Hello, I am hoping someone has some thoughts on this. 
We appear now to be c £1600 in debt with our energy provider - Pure Planet. This is rather curious as we have been paying our bills in full every month. We have never asked to pay less than what we owe and are perfectly capable of paying that each month. However, the provider has not billed us correctly each month and as such, we are now in debt. This debt prevents us from switching to another provider and therefore, I believe could be in danger of being anti-competitive. I know that in the banking world, this challenge is being tackled by the persistent debt regulation - a phenomenon where customers end up paying more in fees and interest than the capital borrowed due to repayment amounts being too low. Is there anything happening to tackle this same sort of experience in the Energy world?
Thanks to advise

JJ_Egan

Regarding your billing . Have you been giving the supplier regular meter readings ??Or is all this based upon estimates .

Robin9

Agentfox said:

................. This is rather curious as we have been paying our bills in full every month. We have never asked to pay less than what we owe and are perfectly capable of paying that each month. ............

What do you mean by this ? If you are saying that you have paid your monthly DD    then it is quite possible you have not been paying enough as a DD is only a contribution towards the bill  - not the bill.

Can we try and see if the £1600 is correct first .  Have you the meter reads from when you joined PP and what are they now please ?  Have you been giving meter reads to PP every month ?   PP won't have been reading your meter and even its a Smart it may not be once you've changed suppliers.   What is your tariff and when does it run out ?

Oneye12

"This is rather curious as we have been paying our bills in full every month."

Following on from above, are your bills direct debit (DD) or based on actual meter readings.

Oneye12

"I believe could be in danger of being anti-competitive"

Nonsense I'm afraid - Pure Planet appeared to have found a debt - is it fictitious or not, your move ...

Reed_Richards

The only analogy I can think of to Persistent Debt would be if your direct debit payments were less than your accumulated standing charge.  It's not remotely in the interests of Energy suppliers to let clients fall into debt so surely it only happens when estimated readings fall short of actual usage?  

[Deleted User]

Unless a supplier actually obtains an actual meter reading, then it may not appreciate that any debt is accruing. It has been a long and cold Winter - with another LockDown - and I suspect that many people have used a lot more energy than they did during the 19/20 Winter.

For switching purposes, a debit balance only becomes a debt if the consumer has been notified and the debt has remained unpaid for more than 28 days. The easiest way to remove the transfer lock is to settle the debt. There is nothing anti-competitive in stopping consumers from switching when there is a debt. Indeed, if your supplier did allow you to switch then the debt would become payable in full. In the context of switch blocking, I do accept that some suppliers play fast and loose with the rules when there is only a small debit balance on the account.

Gerry1

MSE DD advice

ThisnotThat

Reed_Richards said:

The only analogy I can think of to Persistent Debt would be if your direct debit payments were less than your accumulated standing charge.  It's not remotely in the interests of Energy suppliers to let clients fall into debt so surely it only happens when estimated readings fall short of actual usage?  

There is no connection to persistent debt as I'm not aware of any supplier who charges interest on outstanding energy charges.  If they're not even charging interest they're losing money.

That's in stark contrast to credit cards, where companies are profiting from customers who only pay back close to the minimum charge (not that I'm particularly sympathetic to them either but such is life.)

Hasbeen

Agentfox said:

Hello, I am hoping someone has some thoughts on this. 
We appear now to be c £1600 in debt with our energy provider - Pure Planet.
1.This is rather curious as we have been paying our bills in full every month.
2. We have never asked to pay less than what we owe and are perfectly capable of paying that each month.
3. However, the provider has not billed us correctly each month and as such, we are now in debt. This debt prevents us from switching to another provider and therefore,
4.  I believe could be in danger of being anti-competitive. I know that in the banking world, this challenge is being tackled by the persistent debt regulation - a phenomenon where customers end up paying more in fees and interest than the capital borrowed due to repayment amounts being too low. Is there anything happening to tackle this same sort of experience in the Energy world?

Thanks to advise

1. Sorry. Do not think you have been paying your actual bills once per month as it is more likely a fixed DD that goes into the pot to help pay your actual bills. You either end up being in credit or debit.

2. Would not think they would ask you to pay less than what you owe?

3. Have you been relying on estimated readings rather than you giving them actual readings to your online account every month?

4. Not true. They have now seemingly provided you with a catch up bill with an accurate? what you now owe them for energy used.

First. I would suggest looking at your online account and getting your first bill from PP and post the opening meter readings.
and what they are on last bill or what you are reading now.  And also what tariff you are on

Are you actually providing monthly readings? or are depending on a smart meter, if so it may not be compatible with PP systems and not sending any readings?

I would also whilst looking at your online account bills , see what  it says per bill on the debit or credit part.