Utility Point to Cease Trading

Holeydel

I logged in and the first thing I noticed was UP increased my monthly DD despite being £250 in credit. I attempted to call them but the voicemail says they've gone kaput.

My contract ends in a week an all.

It shouldn't be an issue if I cancel my DD right? I mean I'm going on the SVR one way or another and there is enough credit to cover the next bill. Any thoughts?

james_smitha

CRISPIANNE3 said:

Inigo_Montoya said:

I have changed my mind about cancelling the UP DD after looking at their T&Cs

https://www.utilitypoint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/E011-140521_UP_Terms__Conditions-FINAL.pdf

If I am reading it correctly they say they will charge £15 per missed DD & switch you over to their standard variable rate

So I am going to keep paying the DD & just keep a manual record of my balance if the website login is down permanently 

Under normal conditions I can understand it by these are not. They have gone out of business. In my case I am over a £100.00 in credit. If I keep the dd going  this will just build up a bigger credit with them. They can  easily take out any outstanding amounts  from the amount they owe me. 

From Which

Should I cancel my direct debit?

Ofgem says that you can cancel your direct debit if you want to. 

If you are in credit the energy supplier should not take any direct debit payments from you.

If you are in debt and owe money to the energy supplier then any direct debit payments will be taken as normal. You will be able to set up a new direct debit with the new supplier when they contact you.

It will also help you set up your new account and explain how it will arrange your direct debit payments.

unquote.

If up have gone bust, how are they going to reproach anyone for a missed D.D. if the customer has credit with them?  Think of Monty Pyhon the black knight

Inigo_Montoya

james_smitha said:

If up have gone bust, how are they going to reproach anyone for a missed D.D. if the customer has credit with them?  Think of Monty Pyhon the black knight

I suspect that if you cancel the DD their system will *automatically* place a £15 charge on your account balance for each DD they try to take that fails (the £15 charge is mentioned in their small print)

Not saying they have the right to do it now they have gone bust but that is probably what will happen

Then when your final bill is generated you will have the added hassle of asking for any £15 charges to be removed - how easy it is going to be to sort that out is anybody's guess

I'd rather just leave the DD in place as I think it will be less hassle that way (especially now the web portal is accessible again) - we will all get our credit balances back eventually due to Ofgem rules 

pallyman

Shedman said:

razord said:

Yeh, aren't neon reef the same as utility point?

Neon Reef have same directors as UP but fortunately have their own electricity supply licence and are a different legal entity.  Fingers crossed they survive till at least past this winter period as both my stepdaughter and we are on good fixed deals at moment 

Same here

olip74

This year's been a doozy for me  
Had been with Simplicity for about 3 months before they went bust in January. Had new smart meters installed (another fiasco we all pay through our bills for) just prior to the liquidation but the gas meter was never registered properly. BGEvolve (the SOLR) failed to register the meter and UP have only just done it after 6 months but the initial reading they have applied is about £20 out, to my detriment. It's going to be a lot of hassle to argue my case and probably not worth it at the end of the day. Not only this but, by the time I've been SOLR'd and can switch my supplier again, I'll be at the mercy of the market going into winter.
This market is clearly broken, the regulator and even the govt need to step in and do something, the situation (with all the recently failed companies) is affecting hundreds of thousands of households!

poppellerant

I'm happier now that I've just logged into my Utility Point account and submitted my readings.  Having spoken with Citizens Advice earlier, they should regard these as opening readings for my new provider, although I've got readings in there less than a week old - so any estimates should be easy to make and accurate to less than a week.

In the meantime I was advised by Citizens Advice not to cancel my direct debit.  I wish I'd thought of phoning them before my bank and calling the DD, but never mind.  That's a mistake learnt.

From what I understand, I believe you can start a switch to another provider once the newly designated provider have sent us welcome packs by email.  Or perhaps I've got that wrong and we need to wait for something else? This is quite a fast moving thread, but I'd really like some opinions.

CRISPIANNE3

poppellerant said:

I'm happier now that I've just logged into my Utility Point account and submitted my readings.  Having spoken with Citizens Advice earlier, they should regard these as opening readings for my new provider, although I've got readings in there less than a week old - so any estimates should be easy to make and accurate to less than a week.

In the meantime I was advised by Citizens Advice not to cancel my direct debit.  I wish I'd thought of phoning them before my bank and calling the DD, but never mind.  That's a mistake learnt.

From what I understand, I believe you can start a switch to another provider once the newly designated provider have sent us welcome packs by email.  Or perhaps I've got that wrong and we need to wait for something else? This is quite a fast moving thread, but I'd really like some opinions.

Re your comment about dd. You could not have phoned them because there is no one to take the calls. If you try phoning you get recorded information if you have an emergency with your gas and electricity supply. Also Like you I cancelled mine because I have a very healthy credit balance and they can take any debt from that. BTW I only have gas with them. 

Also looking at PFP demise a new suppliers was found within 4 days.  Hopefully in the next few days we will know who our new supplier will be. Also once you know the new supplier then switch. However I am waiting until I receive official notification from the new company and what the tariff will be. 

chris_mse

any news on the SOLR?

I'm with PFPe for Electric and BG have taken over the account but not supplied details of Tarif just yet.

I help the in laws get their Tarif set for Winter the other month and saw if I changed then I would be looking ~£200 a year more, its nw looking like £900 a year more for us and no doubt going into October it'll be even more!!

Robin9

@chris_mse    The £900 will assume that you are at the end of your fix and that you will end up on a standard tariff. You need to look at the actual estimate of costs.

Or you are a very heavy user.

suffolkbar

Inigo_Montoya said:

ElwoodBlues said:

Looks like they've taken their customer portal down already, so I can't login and see any bills or info. Been a bit slack and haven't downloaded a PDF bill in about 6 months. I was in credit then (by a modest amount, not hundreds). But I use very little in the summer (my boiler doesn't get used from April to Oct/Nov, and I'm away quite a bit too), so I should be in a decent amount of credit by now, just no idea how much.

Is there any chance of the website coming back on, or a way to retrieve bills/statements? Or am I going to try and estimate it for myself?

now glad I logged on took a screen shot of my two account balances & transactions earlier today then 

Web site was working yesterday evening managed to download my statements