Unfair Direct Debit Increase

MattMattMattUK

ClaireBear83Sx said:

I've just had similar from SSE.  On my bill issued today, I am £144 in credit on my gas and just under £100 in credit on my electric (bear in mind, I am a single person household who works full time) and that my gas usage compared to last year reduced 33% and my electric went up 3%.  Yet they wanted to up my gas payment by £6 and nothing on my electric?!  How do they work this out?!  I've gone online to drop the automatically changed DD but couldn't go any lower than £1 a month more than I have been paying.
I have no idea how they work this out.  It is ridiculous.

If you can let us know what your annual usage of gas and electricity is, as well as your region then someone on here will be able to calculate your annual cost taking in a best guess for the October price rise. 

MrChitty

Has anyone had any joy with their provider factoring in the £400 credit into the calculation when working out their future payments?

I'm coming up to being 12 months into a 24 month fix. It looks like that I'll be about £150 in credit at that point. I will be asking them to drop my monthly payments by £20ish so this time next year we'll be "even" so to speak.

However, on top of the above I reckon they should also drop my monthly amount by £33.33 to allow for the £400 that will hit my account over Autumn/Winter. 

The above seems logical to me but how receptive are the providers today to this approach regarding the £400?

GingerTim

The £400 is almost certainly going to be paid as 6 x £66 credit instalments rather than as a lump sum, and I would be very surprised if energy companies generally applied the credit before the first one arrives in October for a whole host of reasons. For instance, you may not be at your current address by October, the SVR rate which I suspect the majority of people will be on won't be known for a few months - but the most important being that the credit hasn't actually been applied to any accounts yet.

Mstty

MrChitty said:

Has anyone had any joy with their provider factoring in the £400 credit into the calculation when working out their future payments?

I'm coming up to being 12 months into a 24 month fix. It looks like that I'll be about £150 in credit at that point. I will be asking them to drop my monthly payments by £20ish so this time next year we'll be "even" so to speak.

However, on top of the above I reckon they should also drop my monthly amount by £33.33 to allow for the £400 that will hit my account over Autumn/Winter. 

The above seems logical to me but how receptive are the providers today to this approach regarding the £400?

I suspect the systems behind all the payments can only take account of the money when it goes in, not the promise of it being in your account. So I suspect most systems will have to wait til October when the first installment hits and if you are with EDF for example and 6 month billing it will all have to wait.

Energy companies making little to no money certainly won't be reinventing the wheel with their billing systems and spending money to accommodate this.

RogerBareford

EllaRedRose said:

Just wanted to update that we received a reply from EDF this morning to our complaint and that they agreed to leaving the DD at £179.
They also apologised for the way the call centre advisor handled it and said that her manner did fall below the standards they expected etc etc
Thank you all for your advice 🙂

What did they say about changing to a variable monthly direct debit as your still overpaying with the £179 a month?

wsussex747

I am with Octopus Energy and my DD went up from £189 a month for Gas/Elec to £356 despite me being over £200 in credit. Not happy with this I first emailed them, to which they replied with the standard scripting about the market being really tough, but nothing about why they had doubled my DD. So I replied again via email and they told me its about my overall yearly average and also the fact where I live in the UK ! I was not aware that my energy is affected by where I live. Anyway, I eventually rang them and said I was not happy with my new DD and that I wanted to reduce it as I was in credit. They said "yes no problem". So I reduced it to £250 a month which I felt was fair based on my energy use. I am fully aware that during the winter months my usage may increase, but I am keeping the extra £106 a month to one side to help pay for any spikes later in the year. 

si_74

pochase said:

Here is the current SVT (not your region, but the differences are minimal) and the predicted new SVT. 



As you can see you are overpaying a lot just with the £179.

Hi

Is the October prediction your own based on a percentage increase or have has this been sourced elsewhere?

pochase

It is based on 

https://www.cornwall-insight.com/press/price-cap-predictions-soar-as-eu-sanctions-on-russia-cause-volatility-in-the-wholesale-market/

from 01/06/2022.

If you remove the standing charges that are supposed not to increase from the amounts and dive by 3100/12000 you will get to the new unit rates.

Ofgem prediction from late May is slightly lower with £2800, but they don't give a split between gas and electricity.