Energy charge for not setting up direct debit

jimjames

whispernikki188 said:

Hi, 

I think it is bad that if I decide to cancel my direct debit and pay each month just what I use and not their projections they charge £48 a year!

It's not unlawful but you're very lucky if it's only £48. According to the OFGEM price cap the difference between DD and pay on bill is allowed to be over £200 a year.

pochase

Not quite true, it is this amount if you are using exactly the cap. If you use three times the cap (36000/8700) it would be 3 x £215 =615.

£48 sounds even a bit low. If you believe you use £121pm = almost 1500 that would be almost 40% of cap and therefore almost £90 more.

From the Ofgem briefing.

Customers who pay by standard credit (cash or cheque) pay an additional £215 based on the higher cost for energy companies to serve them. 

MWT

pochase said:

£48 sounds even a bit low. If you believe you use £121pm = almost 1500 that would be almost 40% of cap and therefore almost £90 more.

From the Ofgem briefing.

Customers who pay by standard credit (cash or cheque) pay an additional £215 based on the higher cost for energy companies to serve them. 

Shell are a bit different, they give a £4/month per fuel discount, applied to the standing charge, for payments by DD. 

[Deleted User]

wrf12345 said:

With systems overload it is quite possible that you won't be able to give them a reading (smart meters no problem, usually) and they will do a silly estimate of three to four times actual usage and blow the balance in your bank acc if the vari dd goes thru, so potentially giving far too much power to them. You are not dealing with a normal business (bad enough) but businesses that are absolutely desperate for cash one way or another.

Have you had direct experience of this?

I pay by variable DD (with Eon Next) and to date they have always billed to the actual reading supplied to them (either smart or customer reads).  Have I not been able to submit a reading/or see a smart reading on my account? No!  Besides which you have approximately 15 days (at least this is how Eon Next do variable DD) after the bill is raised to object to an inflated estimated reading and request an updated bill/forthcoming DD amount. 

Teezy59

I am with OVO, they do not do a variable DD.

MWT

Teezy59 said:

I am with OVO, they do not do a variable DD.

Fortunately the OP is with Shell, and they do...

OVO are one of the rare exceptions in this regard.