INSANE Direct Debit Price Hike By SSE/OVO

wild666

Attackthebanks said:

So i am FULLY aware of the hike in energy costs and the increase to direct debits on the variable rate.

However...

My friend on a variable rate with SSE has been paying £244 per month for about 6 months BEFORE the energy hike (which i thought was high).
They are currently £350 in credit, and havent missed any payments, they stay in a 3 bedroom house, with average energy use and dont even have radiators in every room.

SSE emailed them today to say the £244 direct debit wasnt covering their projected energy use, and that they needed to increase the direct debit to £561 per month, their estimated energy use is £3802 by April 2023.

Now maybe i am wildy off on this and its correct, but did Ofgem not price cap at £1971 a year.

They called SSE and they said this was correct.

Surely this cant be right?

On your bills it gives a predicted usage in price and kWh for electric and gas. Use the April prices to work out your usage including the SC then divide the total by 12 this will give you the price your DD should be. 
I would expect that energy companies are NOT including a predicted October increase in the new DD amount. If the figure you calculate are greatly DD complain as the monthly DD you have worked out would include you having a credit balance for October when the next increase/decrease is put in place.

wild666

pochase said:

Is it maybe that they are not 350£ in credit, but in debt? Also it is very unusual to build up a credit during the winter months?

I built up a credit with Bulb when I was with them through the winter months as I overestimated my usage by 20% it quickly got to £900 in a little over two years.

Fyne

Similar thing happened to me with SSE, their usage figures were way out and when I called they admitted they take actual usage to make the calculation. Turns out they had included 15 months usage as the 12 month reading was an estimate and they had gone back to the previous actual. 

pochase

Fyne said:

Similar thing happened to me with SSE, their usage figures were way out and when I called they admitted they take actual usage to make the calculation. Turns out they had included 15 months usage as the 12 month reading was an estimate and they had gone back to the previous actual. 

That should only make a difference if either the three additional months are winter months and this increased the average, or if they used 15 months but only divided by 12.

Fyne

pochase said:

Fyne said:

Similar thing happened to me with SSE, their usage figures were way out and when I called they admitted they take actual usage to make the calculation. Turns out they had included 15 months usage as the 12 month reading was an estimate and they had gone back to the previous actual. 

That should only make a difference if either the three additional months are winter months and this increased the average, or if they used 15 months but only divided by 12.

It made a tremendous difference their calculations were from Jan 2020 to April 2021with no annualisation. So 2 winters and 15 months usage. That's why I keep a spreadsheet with weekly meter readings.

pochase

Fyne said:

pochase said:

Fyne said:

Similar thing happened to me with SSE, their usage figures were way out and when I called they admitted they take actual usage to make the calculation. Turns out they had included 15 months usage as the 12 month reading was an estimate and they had gone back to the previous actual. 

That should only make a difference if either the three additional months are winter months and this increased the average, or if they used 15 months but only divided by 12.

It made a tremendous difference their calculations were from Jan 2020 to April 2021with no annualisation. So 2 winters and 15 months usage. That's why I keep a spreadsheet with weekly meter readings.

I think that is exactly what I  wrote for the two scenarios where is makes a difference. You did not mention that in your initial post.