Energy Direct Debit huge increase

KTAB2105

Hi. I'm with Scottish 

 our fixed Tarif ended 28th Feb 2022. 

At 1st we were getting reasonable quotes to fix our renewed Tarif but then it shot up massively. I mean £23k a year!!!

On 1st March they increased our DD from £112 (this is what we had reduced it down to by carefully managing our energy usage).

Anyway, they upped our DD without warning to £246 bearing in mind our account is £98 in credit and after Febs meter reading our monthly usage was still around £112.

I rang our Bank (Santander) and requested refund under Direct Debit Scheme which they honoured and the £246 was back in our account same day.

I contacted Scottish Power several times and basically somewhere along the line (this is what they told me as their explanation) is they have mis entered our energy usage which is causing the massive price increase on our estimated usage. 

Apprently they are unable to correct this...don't know why but this is what they are telling me. Even though they can see from our monthly bills, meter readings, Direct Debit etc, our usage is no where near what they are now saying.

I managed to get them to agree on keeping our Direct Debit at £128 ((which was January's bill) but we still haven't had our usage rectified.

We are still getting quotes for new fixed Tarrifs for £23K and our recommended DD us £844pm... thats almost as much as our mortgage!!!

We are onbstandard variable rate (no fixed tarif) and done our calculations on what this will be from April and works out about £225 pm. 

How do I get Scottish Power to correct our usage on their system?

TadleyBaggie

Where are you getting £23K from, that's almost £2,000 per month? Your maths seem to be out of whack.

Gerry1

Just use SP's Direct Debit Manager to set the appropriate amount.

ImaGiant

I had something similar with British Gas. There was no way of altering it online. However, when I spoke with an actual person, it was agreed that we could pay £200 pm [instead of £3000]. and be reviewed in 6 months time.

Chrysalis

People need to stop fixating on direct debits and more on the tariff and bill itself.  The industry has become so dumbed down to the point everyone is focused on the size of the direct debit.

One reason I say this is that on another forum, someone reported Octopus were raising their direct debit to around twice what their new annual cost was quoted at, someone who was attentive wouldnt notice that and just have a massive credit balance.  I actually think the default payment method should be variable direct debit as well instead of fixed (variable to what the bill is, paid in arrears).

Switch to variable direct debit and ask for the credit balance to be transferred to your account as its your money not theirs, you get money from this right away as you pay in arrears instead of upfront, and also instead of been in credit 10 months a year (maybe all year as is for some people) you only pay for what you use.

Gerry1

Chrysalis said:

I actually think the default payment method should be variable direct debit as well instead of fixed (variable to what the bill is, paid in arrears).

That's long been a cause célèbre for me.  Fixed DDs cause widespread confusion for Joe Public, hence the endless wails that 'Arcs'n'Sparks Energy have just quadrupled my fixed price deal', not to mention all the collapsed Ponzi schemes that Fixed Direct Debit encouraged.

If dozy Ofgem had made VMDD the default we wouldn't be in such a big mess with SoLRs.

k_man

I think that would lead to hardship for those households that have lower income and/or are not as good at variable budgeting as most forum users.

Many people get a lot of value, and peace of mind from fixed monthly amounts.

MWT

k_man said:

Many people get a lot of value, and peace of mind from fixed monthly amounts.

As long as they understand that they are not actually fixed...

There are problems with both methods, just different problems, but both cause issues if people fail to pay attention to how much energy they are using and how much they are paying..

Gerry1

k_man said:

I think that would lead to hardship for those households that have lower income and/or are not as good at variable budgeting as most forum users.

Many people get a lot of value, and peace of mind from fixed monthly amounts.

I'm not advocating that anyone should be forced onto Variable Monthly Direct Debit, only that Ofcom should mandate all suppliers to offer it, and that VMDD should be the default option.

Fixed Monthly Direct Debit would be always be available as an opt out, so no hardship whatsoever would result.  However, the 'peace of mind' apparently given by FMDD is often a dangerous illusion because so many people mistakenly believe that the monthly amount is fixed, not realising that it's merely the kWh rate and the daily charge and will therefore be increased twice if actual usage exceeds the estimate.

The only losers would be Ponzi organisations and those who set unrealistically low FMDDs to lure in unsuspecting punters.

Sea_Shell

VMDD can work for those who are able to budget (and save) for their winter bills.

Unfortunately, the outcome would probably result in debts and defaults come Spring.  Especially for those not billed monthly.

The current issues are made 100x worse because of a lack of understanding of the whole process from "use to meters to rates to billing"☹️

Gerry1

Sea_Shell said:

VMDD can work for those who are able to budget (and save) for their winter bills.

Unfortunately, the outcome would probably result in debts and defaults come Spring.  Especially for those not billed monthly.

Monthly means Monthly !