Direct debits

pochase

wild666 said:

If the £85 was covering your monthly usage then they should only increase your DD by 54%, this would be £130.90. If you have a debt then they can increase it by more to collect the debt but if in credit the most they could increase is by 54% that is assuming the credit is only a few pounds.

I would open a complaint if you have a large-ish credit and they are increasing it from £85 to £246. With the figures quoted, unless you have misread the readings they claim then your yearly total bill is £737.47 giving a monthly DD of just £61.46 per month.

At £246 per month the total of the yearly bill on your figures will be paid in roughly 3 months.

B61 was already saying that he was in debt, which he has paid off. From the statement that he was 300£ in credit when he joined the new supplier and 131£ in debit at the last bill he was 431£ short in total.

Calculated over a 12 months period B61 was 430£ divided by 12 = 36£, so the debit order with the old rates to cover him would be already 85£ + 36£ = 121£ to cover the use.

From the predicted use it seems he is a very heavy user for gas, and the increase for gas was not 54%, more like 80% or 90%. The figures from the supplier show that they of the total cost they believe 65% will be spend on gas and 35% on electricity (excluding the standing charges), so the cost for 2/3 of the old gas charge would be almost doubled.

While electricity would have increased by only 35% that does not make up for an average of 54% increase.

So even using the 54% increase I already see 180£ as justified, taking into account the higher increase for gas it will be even more.

Update:
Increase for gas for your area (North Wales/Mersey?) should be 80%, while electricity is 35%.

So based on 65% gas and 35% electricity the direct debit should be 195£ if the use stays the same.