Scottish power

nickyhicky

Hi, I had a man come to my door last July selling for Scottish power, and being a wally I fell for it... it is a fixed term until July 2023 for £60 a month for both Gas and Electric. I thought great like the sound of that  and signed away. Anyway this morning a recieved a email from SP stating that I am £415 in debit and my monthly payments will be going from £60 to £190 a month (that's over triple what I pay now.) I am really f**cked off that I listened to this bloke, and should of stayed where I was.... my hubby is being really supportive, but I should of listened to him, when he said NO... we live in a 3 bedroom house, there is my hubby, 3 kids and myself... 

Can someone please help, when I try and call them tomorrow 

Thank you 

Nicky

QrizB

Welcome to the forum!

This is the "lpg, oil and other fuels" section but one of the forum team will be along eventually to move your post to the main "Energy" section.

In the meantime, you said:

nickyhicky said:

Hi, I had a man come to my door last July selling for Scottish power ... it is a fixed term until July 2023 for £60 a month for both Gas and Electric.

A 2-year fix taken out in July could be a good thing although £60/month seems rather low.

Do you know exactly what tariff you're on? It should have a name and on your bills you should be able to see the rates your paying? There will be prices per kilowatt-hour for gas and electricity, and a daily standing charge for each. Can you share those here?

nickyhicky

this is all I have from them, thanks for the reply 

QrizB

OK, Scottish Power "Fixed Price July 2023 YM1" isn't a bad tariff, it's better than you'll find anywhere else today.

Rates will vary by region (and I don't know where you are) but in my area it charges:

• Gas: 3.69p/kWh and 24.13p/day
• Electricity: 19.866p/kWh and 21.65p/day

That is a good tariff and there are plenty of people on the MSE forum who would love to have that fixed until July 2023. You might not think so but you've actually done really well!

What isn't quite so good is the salesman promising you that you would only have to pay £60/month. For the average household, using 12000kWh/year of gas and 2900kWh/year of electricity, your tariff would cost around £1200/year, £100/month. with five of you in the house you're bigger than average and so  your bill will be higher than that.

I don't know how the salesman calculated his £60/month figure but it was clearly wrong.

Through no fault of your own you've been underpaying for 6 months and so you need to catch up, plus pay more in future. I suspect that's why SP are asking for £190/month.

Brie

Have you taken readings before you switched and regularly since?  That will be the basis of what your monthly payments will be. 

As for why the sales person told you it would be £60/month....well they lied to you....they picked a figure out of mid air and used that to get their sale.  Make sure you mention this when you talk to them.

And you don't actually have to accept what they are proposing.  They've likely gone quite high to account for the fact that they believe you are behind on payments and as it's winter you will be using a lot of power - both gas and electric.  If you have your bills from your previous provider pull those out so they can do a proper tally of what you need to pay over a year and tell (not request) that your monthly payments be set to that amount.  They'll disagree but you can compromise by making a one off payment to bring yourself a bit more up to date and maybe go a bit higher on the monthly amount.

Gerry1

Don't forget to add 5% VAT to the rates shown in the calculations.

It sounds as if you may have been mis-sold, but it will probably be almost impossible to prove what was said on the doorstep.

However, IF you have a copy of the paperwork that you signed, and IF it shows a hopelessly low Estimated Annual Consumption considering your circumstances, then you might be able to make a complaint and perhaps get a modest amount of compo.

Otherwise, the best you can hope for if it's difficult to pay would be to set up a Payment Plan.

Sadly you've learned the hard way never to sign up to anything at the door.  Good idea to get a Neighbourhood Watch / Police 'No Cold Callers' sticker.

nickyhicky

I have kept all the emails that SP have sent me... I thought I had a good deal too, until my email this morning... I also mentioned to the 'saleperson'  we are a family of five and said that's okay, my hubby is my witness so i have him to verify what I have been saying....I feel it is my fault, as I was the one who signed my life away, (well I feel like it atm)
Thanks for all your help, and hopefully will update you all tomorrow when we have spoken to them 

Reed_Richards

Don't beat yourself up.  Prices for gas and electricity have increased hugely since last July.  You may have been paying a bit over the odds from July to September but now you are sitting pretty and if prices increase hugely again in April (as is widely forecast) then you will be sitting even prettier (until July 2023).  Once you have paid-off the debit it should be possible to decrease the monthly payments, to maybe around £130 per month at a guesstimate.    

nickyhicky

My hubby spoke to SP this morning and has set up a DD to pay off the arrears, but I still have to pay £160, (which we can not afford) for 3 months, as we have used 'loads' according to the bloke on the phone, but we have a 6 year old, 10 year old and 16 year old who is up to 2/3 in the morning (weekends and holidays only) on his computer or Xbox... then have to call them again to lower our amount.... I really want to go back to PAYG so don't have this again... would it be worth going back to it? 
Thanks lovely people for your comments 
Nicky

Reed_Richards

You would pay more per unit on a PAYG (i.e. prepayment) tariff and I doubt if you could continue on the cheap deal you have at the moment.