Scottish power

sycamore11

My daughter who is always in credit and pays 131.00 per month on gas and electricity has had her new bill from Scottish power set at 437.00 per month, is this correct!!!  She is a single parent and cannot afford to keep her house now, dramatic but true. Any advice gratefully received. Thanks

TheMilkmansDad

is it correct? Maybe. Can you check it's correct? definitely!

What tariff is she on now? Has she recently changed from a fix to another fix/SVR?

The DD amount is not what you use, has she been paying enough? Is her latest bill in debit or credit? Is this bill based on actual meter readings or estimates?

Th dramatic rise in DD would indicate that she is either in debt (has not been paying enough to cover usage)  or she has recently coe of a fix and moved to another fix (or possibly the SVR depending on how good the fix was an if she was in debt).

Ultrasonic

If £131 was genuinely covering her actual usage then on the face of it, no, the new figure of £437 is not right. 

Scottish Power presumably haven't completely made the number up though so more details would be informative. Specifically, what is your daughter's estimated annual energy use for each fuel in kWh and what tariff is she on?

sycamore11

She is always in credit and she sends meter readings to them. I just don’t understand how it can go up so much. Where’s the cap on this amount 

Penguin_

Have you checked the meter readings have been received?

sycamore11

Yes she’s checked that too. All correct. She rang them and checked that the new dad was in fact correct they took the meter readings off her then and said they could reduce the new dd from 500.00 per month to 437.00 

Ultrasonic

sycamore11 said:

Where’s the cap on this amount 

There is no cap on bills or correspondingly DD amounts, just the standing charge and unit prices. If someone uses more energy, they have to pay more.

What is relevant here is the accuracy of the predicted annual use and the details of the tariff. Note that the price cap only applies to the standard variable tariff, not any fixed terms tariffs.

sycamore11

I’ll check with her I know she’s not on a variable rate cos they told her she could end up paying more.

jimjames

sycamore11 said:

I’ll check with her I know she’s not on a variable rate cos they told her she could end up paying more.

There is also no cap on fixed rate tariffs. Variable rate is likely to be cheaper at the moment

louism

Oddly enough, I've had exactly the same from Scottish power. I was paying £88 per month on their Online Fixed 2022. I'm in credit. My fixed tariff ends on 23/4/22. They have offered me to switch to 3 new tariff's each costing £380 per month (a four fold increase??) I know exactly how much I use and it's been consistent for years at 4000kwh for electricity and 11000kwh for gas.
The new tariff's standing charge and price per unit does not cost four times as much so I'm a bit lost as to how they can actually increase my direct debit by that amount?

superbigal

sycamore11 said:

She is always in credit and she sends meter readings to them. I just don’t understand how it can go up so much. Where’s the cap on this amount 

Is she in credit now ?   I for one cannot believe she is.