MSE News: 30% of British Gas, Octopus & Shell Energy customers say their direct debits have DOUBLED

pochase

Meter_Tech said:

Customers are 'enticed' into DDs by having discounts offered to their bills. The advantage is spreading the cost for you energy bill but presents challenges where increases are applied 'out of your direct control'. Furthermore, should your Supplier fail any accumulated credit is tied up for at least 6 months while the failed Suppliers affairs are sorted out. Is it time the DD discount is given regardless of payment method and people take control of their finances through standing orders?

You can do that already today by paying by variable direct debt. You pay each month what you owe and you get the cheaper price.

Why should everybody have to pay for the higher administration cost for the people who decide they don't like to pay by direct debit and pay by other ways?

gailsmail

I was with Peoples Energy last year paying £91.24 a month and when they went bust and I got switched to British Gas, I was in credit £405.85.  In December I switched from the old BG Peoples tariff to BG Green Fixed Dec 2023v2, and was told that I would be paying £122.86 per month.  I was still awaiting the transfer of my credit balance, so reduced it manually to £100 pm to review when the credit had been applied.  BG show a credit transfer of £386.53 on 28 Feb, a difference of £19.32, then I got a message on March 6th saying my new DD should be £129.99.  As this was a 42% increase on my last year's charge I agreed to it, knowing the rates were going up.  Next at end of April I got a message saying i was not paying enough and it should now be 180+.  As this was double the previous amount, I queried it on the on-line chat, and the lady said she would correct it.  Next time I looked they are wanting £235, so I phoned and had a heated discussion with an Indian gentleman, who eventually promised to revert the DD amount back to the £129.99, as I promised to keep an eye on my balance as I put in my monthly readings, and if I was proved wrong, as a small all-electric one-person flat with a night storage heater, who has ALWAYS ended up in credit at the end of the summer, I would pay the shortfall in September, or increase my DD manually without being forced into it.  I just checked my account today and they have not updated the amount of the DD yest, which is due on 15th of the month, and are asking for an even higher monthly contribution than the £235 of last week, so I am ready to fight my battle again....

Tiger_greeneyes

MSE_Petar said:

At least 30% of British Gas, Octopus Energy and Shell Energy customers who were in credit and on price-capped tariffs told the UK’s biggest consumer website, MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE), that they've seen their direct debits double – even though the price cap rise is half that, at 54%. Across all firms, 25% of customers in this situation reported direct debits doubling or more.

Read the full story:
'30% of British Gas, Octopus & Shell Energy customers say their direct debits have DOUBLED'

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

I've looked at my payments for my electricity. In 10 months, my bills have trebled. I'm pretty useless with working out anything to do with figures since I had meningitis so can anyone tell me if that's how it should be, please, or should I get onto my electricity supplier (OutfoxtheMarket)?

pochase

gailsmail said:

I was with Peoples Energy last year paying £91.24 a month and when they went bust and I got switched to British Gas, I was in credit £405.85.  In December I switched from the old BG Peoples tariff to BG Green Fixed Dec 2023v2, and was told that I would be paying £122.86 per month.  I was still awaiting the transfer of my credit balance, so reduced it manually to £100 pm to review when the credit had been applied.  BG show a credit transfer of £386.53 on 28 Feb, a difference of £19.32, then I got a message on March 6th saying my new DD should be £129.99.  As this was a 42% increase on my last year's charge I agreed to it, knowing the rates were going up.  Next at end of April I got a message saying i was not paying enough and it should now be 180+.  As this was double the previous amount, I queried it on the on-line chat, and the lady said she would correct it.  Next time I looked they are wanting £235, so I phoned and had a heated discussion with an Indian gentleman, who eventually promised to revert the DD amount back to the £129.99, as I promised to keep an eye on my balance as I put in my monthly readings, and if I was proved wrong, as a small all-electric one-person flat with a night storage heater, who has ALWAYS ended up in credit at the end of the summer, I would pay the shortfall in September, or increase my DD manually without being forced into it.  I just checked my account today and they have not updated the amount of the DD yest, which is due on 15th of the month, and are asking for an even higher monthly contribution than the £235 of last week, so I am ready to fight my battle again....

Unfortunately direct debit amounts don't have a lot of relevance.

Can you give us your meter reading when you joined the new tariff and todays? Can you also give us the unit rates?

Do you submit regular meter readings/have a smart meter that it is read by BG?

Usually BG only does a bill every 6 months, so it is very unusual that they would repeatedly increase your direct debit. 

pochase

Tiger_greeneyes said:

MSE_Petar said:

At least 30% of British Gas, Octopus Energy and Shell Energy customers who were in credit and on price-capped tariffs told the UK’s biggest consumer website, MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE), that they've seen their direct debits double – even though the price cap rise is half that, at 54%. Across all firms, 25% of customers in this situation reported direct debits doubling or more.

Read the full story:
'30% of British Gas, Octopus & Shell Energy customers say their direct debits have DOUBLED'

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

I've looked at my payments for my electricity. In 10 months, my bills have trebled. I'm pretty useless with working out anything to do with figures since I had meningitis so can anyone tell me if that's how it should be, please, or should I get onto my electricity supplier (OutfoxtheMarket)?

Were you on a fixed tariff 10 months ago, that would explain a huge increase.

Can you please let us know

- old direct debit amount
- new direct debit amount
- how much energy did you use the last 12 months. gas and electricity, or if you are on E7 day and night units
- were you in credit or debit on your last bill and by how much?
- current unit rates and standing charges

Justdontwasteit

I spent long enough in early 2021 arguing with Octopus who wanted to hike my dd by an unreasonable amount for me. I am really not bothered about getting in credit over the summer to pay winter bills, would be quite happy to pay 3 monthly bills in arrears as we used to. So having switched to Green then dumped with Shell I have opted for variable monthly dd and no arguing. If I was concerned about winter bills would put some aside anyway. 

Thrugelmir

"that they've seen their direct debits double – even though the price cap rise is half that, at 54%."

For a site suppossedly expert on the matters of finance that's a shocking piece of journalism. No wonder there's mass confusion if the experts cannot even get their facts right. 

NorthtoWest

I was with Bulb energy before they folded. I was moved to E-on Next in October '21. I have been paying £85 a month for my gas and electric. By the time each quarterly bill was issued I have always been in credit. Just before it was time to calculate the new direct debit amount in April (with the hike in electricity costs), E-on Next made 8 charges to my account making me in debit by -£990.26! They then recalculated my monthly direct debit to £190.76! Then reversed these charges! I had a back and forth, via email, with their customer services dept who would not answer the question as to why they had made these charges/refunds. I escalated it to the complaints department. The answer came back:

"When you were initially billed, there were anomalies in the calculations that were system driven as part of the move of supply to us. This was re-billed from November 2021 to March 2022, and is why the bill shows multiple reversed charges and them replaced with correct charges". - They didn't replace them with correct charges - they literally charged my account -£990, recalculated my DD they refunded these charges!

"On the back of rebilling your charges, the payment review we completed shows that the payments you need to be making to cover the consumption you use and so you do not remain in a debit balance every month (as you were prior to the the balance going up to £900 odd), that £190 is better suited" 

I have now been able to reduce the monthly DD but I think this is disgusting behaviour.  As your article says, a massive percentage of customers didn't think they could challenge their new DD amount. Anyone else experience anything similar?

Tiger_greeneyes

pochase said:

Tiger_greeneyes said:

MSE_Petar said:

At least 30% of British Gas, Octopus Energy and Shell Energy customers who were in credit and on price-capped tariffs told the UK’s biggest consumer website, MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE), that they've seen their direct debits double – even though the price cap rise is half that, at 54%. Across all firms, 25% of customers in this situation reported direct debits doubling or more.

Read the full story:
'30% of British Gas, Octopus & Shell Energy customers say their direct debits have DOUBLED'

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

I've looked at my payments for my electricity. In 10 months, my bills have trebled. I'm pretty useless with working out anything to do with figures since I had meningitis so can anyone tell me if that's how it should be, please, or should I get onto my electricity supplier (OutfoxtheMarket)?

Were you on a fixed tariff 10 months ago, that would explain a huge increase.

Can you please let us know

- old direct debit amount
- new direct debit amount
- how much energy did you use the last 12 months. gas and electricity, or if you are on E7 day and night units
- were you in credit or debit on your last bill and by how much?
- current unit rates and standing charges

Thank you - up until last June my bills were £39.25 per month. In April, ten months later they increased to £113.30. I wasn't on a fixed rate as far as I can remember. I'm £89 in credit. I'm a very low user plus I've stopped using my tv (except maybe an hour a day, on average) since beginning April to save more money. I don't have gas, I have oil fired heating and hot water and an electric shower.

Here's my usage table:

Apr 2021	148.69
May 2021	310.93
Jun 2021	402.60
Jul 2021	276.22
Aug 2021	347.72
Sep 2021	378.82
Oct 2021	332.12
Nov 2021	342.86
Dec 2021	375.41
Jan 2022	386.95
Feb 2022	316.66
Mar 2022	416.32
Apr 2022	219.66
May 2022	144.34

Supplier	Outfox The Market
Tariff name	Fox Standard Elec
Tariff type	Electricity Only - Variable
Payment Method	Direct Debit
Day Rate	35.659p per kWh
Night Rate	23.463p per kWh

I don't use much electricity at night, I'm usually in bed early. My oil boiler was recently serviced and is working at 96% efficiency, apparently that's good for a 12 year old boiler but I'm not a high user of oil - 1200 litres lasts me almost a year.

Thanks again.

molerat

Thrugelmir said:

"that they've seen their direct debits double – even though the price cap rise is half that, at 54%."

For a site suppossedly expert on the matters of finance that's a shocking piece of journalism. No wonder there's mass confusion if the experts cannot even get their facts right. 

MSE editorial content is now little more than a click bait red top rag run by a company with financial interests rather than the consumer focussed organisation it once was,