Shell Energy: Do YOU have to change your D/D payments?

JustAnotherSaver

Since I've owned my house the monthly D/D has been the monthly D/D without change apart from one time where the company I was with (forget who now) changed it saying my usage had gone up so they were increasing the monthly payment.

Going in to my account now and it says I'll be underpaying by just over £100 so they advise >I< increase the monthly payments. I thought this is something they would've done.

So having not really dealt with it before I'm just checking in with others - is this something I have to manually do then? Sounds like it but for the sake of asking I thought i'd just check & have someone say to me what a silly question as I can deal with that

For the record my fixed deal ended 28Feb so i'm now on a variable.

pochase

From their site

 Every 3 to 12 months we review your payments to make sure it’s aligned with your usage. If we see that your usage is higher or lower, than expected, we’ll adjust your monthly payment amount to reflect this.

I assume they will increase you direct debit in a few week if you don't do it yourself.

Ultrasonic

I don't think it's physically possible for you to change the DD amount? I think I may have had to confirm a change via the Shell website, but they definitely applied the change rather than me contacting my bank.

MWT

Ultrasonic said:

I don't think it's physically possible for you to change the DD amount? I think I may have had to confirm a change via the Shell website, but they definitely applied the change rather than me contacting my bank.

You certainly can't change a DD amount via your own bank, that would make it a standing order, not a direct debit.

The supplier requests the amount it wants from the bank, so it would always have to be done via the supplier.

EssexHebridean

Some suppliers let you request a change to your DD level within certain tolerances, but it's then down to the company to action this. 

JustAnotherSaver

Well uploaded via their form on 31 March my meter readings, including photos of the meters.

Somehow they've uploaded the reading out by 1 number.

Even with the cap I suspect we're only talking pence difference but i'm an awkward OCD fool so I'll be telling them to look at the readings again.

prowla

My Shell account allowed me to change the DD amount; I did so after they advised it should be increased.

JustAnotherSaver

Yeah I did that yesterday. They wanted me to up it to £179. I had a play with it & upped it to £200 and they said i'd be in debt.

Anyway, settled it at £175. See how we get on since we've started to make active alterations to how we use energy.

Feb & Mar 2022 is already down on usage for 2021 on both E&G, Gas especially. Probably as I used to run all rads on max setting & just set the thermostat on the wall to be whatever it was.

I've dropped all rads down from max (most 5, some 6 depending on the TRV) to 3 as max, some as 2. The heating is now set to come off at about 7pm -7:30pm instead of 10pm.

So hopefully their prediction of £179 is excessive.

Eye watering considering I was paying £76.

Spacie22

JustAnotherSaver said:

Feb & Mar 2022 is already down on usage for 2021 on both E&G, Gas especially. Probably as I used to run all rads on max setting & just set the thermostat on the wall to be whatever it was.

I wouldn't get your hopes up too much Winter 2022 has been a lot milder than Winter 2021.

Back to Shell I just changed mine manually to £231 (from £156) which is what they suggested. My projected use is £203 (down frm £207 yay!) but there's a small debt from the changeover from Pure Planet.