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

Gerry1

bristolleedsfan said:

Gerry1 said:

sammyjammy said:

I've got past this issue by changing to payment on receipt of bill (still DD)

,  I am still on a good fix until Jan 2023 and got fed up with them increasing my DD every month for no reason, I'm perfectly capable of putting money aside and paying it when its needed.

Just for the record, presumably you mean Variable Direct Debit?  Paying on Receipt of Bill is a different method and usually costs more.

EDF, Eon Next, British Gas, none of these charge more for Variable DIrect Debit which is Paying on Receipt of Bill by DD , Octopus do not charge any more irrespective of payment method.

Post you quoted was clear "still DD"

My understanding is that Payment on Receipt of Bill denotes a payment made manually, e.g. by Cash or Cheque.  Because it's not an automatic DD it would certainly cost more with EDF.   However, YMMV !

bristolleedsfan

Gerry1 said:

bristolleedsfan said:

Gerry1 said:

sammyjammy said:

I've got past this issue by changing to payment on receipt of bill (still DD)

,  I am still on a good fix until Jan 2023 and got fed up with them increasing my DD every month for no reason, I'm perfectly capable of putting money aside and paying it when its needed.

Just for the record, presumably you mean Variable Direct Debit?  Paying on Receipt of Bill is a different method and usually costs more.

EDF, Eon Next, British Gas, none of these charge more for Variable DIrect Debit which is Paying on Receipt of Bill by DD , Octopus do not charge any more irrespective of payment method.

Post you quoted was clear "still DD"

My understanding is that Payment on Receipt of Bill denotes a payment made manually, e.g. by Cash or Cheque.  Because it's not an automatic DD it would certainly cost more with EDF.   However, YMMV !

I think you know how Variable DD works, ideally meter reading gets submitted, bill gets generated, full payment gets taken 14 days ish later

EDF call it exact monthly payments and refer to it as Direct Debit whole amount monthly'.
"As you pay by Direct Debit, it will be paid automatically." - It is an automatic DD
https://www.edfenergy.com/for-home/help-centre/faq/i-pay-direct-debit#chapter-23133-3

Payment on Receipt of Bill by DD - No extra cost
Payment on Receipt of Bill by Cash/Cheque - Extra cost

Post you quoted "I've got past this issue by changing to payment on receipt of bill" (still DD)

Gerry1

Yup, I'm on Variable DD with EDF.  The OP's description was neither fish nor fowl, so I flagged it up in case others chose a supplier's 'Payment on Receipt of Bill' option only to discover that it was costing them more.

oliverbrown

"Manual Payment on Receipt of Bill" is perhaps a more clear phrase emphasising the lack of automatic direct debit processing. Gets pretty wordy though!

Tracey1_2

I only bought my new property in November and moved in December. With the way things were, I had to stay with the current provider, which was Shell Energy. There were two smart meters in the garage (no monitor/display etc in the home left by the previous owners and I’d never had a smart meter before). When I first contacted Shell, they said my monthly DD would be £115. This was a lot more than the £80 I’d been paying at my previous property but as it was a bigger detached house and prices were rising, I accepted it. However, I noticed that they’d been taking  £139 each month without contacting me. At the end of March, I took photos and sent readings, as advised to by MSE, along with an email asking for an explanation as to why I’d been paying nearly £25 more than agreed. My meter readings were accepted, my email ignored and my query closed, even though I responded with a second email to keep it open. No other reply was received from them. I then received two more emails saying my DD would be going up - first to £179 and then to £232. I called them to ask why it had gone up over 100% of the original price given and she explained that it was estimated on the previous 6 months. I suggested that maybe it had been estimated on the previous owners who were an elderly couple at home all day, whereas I’m a single person out of the house working long hours. I then clarified that I did have smart meters and she confirmed they had my exact meter readings. I then asked why, if when I sent my meter readings, the meters stated that I had used a total of about £80 gas & electricity (in a winter month), I was being told my DD was going up to £232? I told her then that I only wanted to pay for what I was using (instead of the average DD, which I’ve always done). She did not understand this concept and kept asking me if I wanted to reduce my DD to £150. She then told me that April’s bill was estimated. I asked her why, if I’m on a smart meter. She couldn’t answer. I left the phone conversation very frustrated and none the wiser. When she sent me the breakdown on my account as requested, neither I, nor my friend (both teachers) could understand/follow it and interestingly, none of the detailed breakdowns for each month would download. Lo and behold, the average £110 bill for each month shot up to £450 in the ‘estimated’ month. Do I try to contact them again to see if I can speak to someone who makes more sense, or do I forward all my information to OFGEN?

pochase

You need first to open a formal complaint with Shell, only after they give you either a deadlock letter or 8 weeks pass you can go to the Ombudsman. Ofgem does not deal with individual customer complaints.

What exactly do you want to complaint about?

At the moment it seems that your problem is that you don't understand the invoice and why you pay as much as you do.

Can you please post

- meter readings when you moved in
- meter reading at 31/03/2022
- meter reading today
- exact date when you moved in (for standing charges)
- rates for December to march including standing charges
- new rates from April or region you are in
- what have you paid in total by direct debit up to date

Once you have done that somebody will do a calculation.

To change to variable debit order just follow the steps in this link

https://help.shellenergy.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/360001142398-How-do-I-change-from-a-monthly-to-a-variable-Direct-Debit-

Andreacl

Hi,
I was with Pure Planet and paying £43 a month, prior to that I was £65 with Eon.
I'm frugal and live on my own in a 2 bed mid terrace, double glazed etc.
I was £190 in credit but as Pure Planet closed I was moved to Shell, my credit has gone and direct debit has increased to £178 a month, so 4x as much, I would have been happy with double! 
I have no idea what to do, how can this be right? 

Andreacl

......I was with Pure Planet, I was moved to Shell, my payments have gone up 4x the amount, not double!

Pure Planet £43 a month with £190 in credit (prior to Pure I was with Eon at £65 a month and in credit).

Shell are charging me £178 a month and my has credit all gone......no idea what I am to do, the £150 council tax rebate didn't do much for me, I'm not poor poor but no way near this amount of 'spare cash' to top up this bill month after month.......what do we do? how do we cope? I'm already very frugal. 

Chrysalis

Well, this is the problem I have been trying to say,

The correct statement is the cost of energy has doubled, so obviously it means they pay more per month to pay for the energy, but since most people only check their DD amount, not unit price, usage etc., we get this happening.

BUFF

Andreacl said:

......I was with Pure Planet, I was moved to Shell, my payments have gone up 4x the amount, not double!

Pure Planet £43 a month with £190 in credit (prior to Pure I was with Eon at £65 a month and in credit).

Shell are charging me £178 a month and my has credit all gone......no idea what I am to do, the £150 council tax rebate didn't do much for me, I'm not poor poor but no way near this amount of 'spare cash' to top up this bill month after month.......what do we do? how do we cope? I'm already very frugal. 

Your £190 credit should reappear as a credit with Shell at some point through the SOLR process.

Everybody coming off old cheap fixes & going on to the current SVR is going to see their bills go up by probably ~3x depending upon when/what their original fix was.
Check that what Shell are estimating your usage at & therefore DD are correct & not overestimates.