EXTRA CHARGE PER KWH AFTER CHANGING FROM DIRECT DEBIT TO STANDING ORDER

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername

The amount of customers who put in "Gas and elec" as the ref, then kick off with the supplier because the payment has not been added to the account, lol

MWT

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

if you were on a fix with your DD, unfortunately you wont get as good a deal now.

Changing payment method will not usually change the tariff, so that shouldn't be a problem.

SusanEThomas

Yes I understand it all now... I tried to change back to direct debit but, as feared, they quoted me almost double what I was paying before.  I went back on to the online chat and they have adjusted it back again for me.. if I wasn't so much in credit now(and had already received a few hundred pounds back in May) I would've agreed to a larger monthly outgoing... I won't bother changing anything again ! Thank you everyone for your help, I should have asked first !

QrizB

SusanEThomas said:

Ok thank you.. I'm beginning to be sorry I ever thought to do this in the first place, it's taken over my life for three days !

I'm glad we've been able to explain it to you.

Hopefully you'll be able to switch to variable DD and will get back onto the previous rates.

SusanEThomas

Yes I've gone back to my previous direct debit. It was relatively easy to do it via the online chat so I'm back where I started at the beginning of the week !

Sea_Shell

SusanEThomas said:

Yes I've gone back to my previous direct debit. It was relatively easy to do it via the online chat so I'm back where I started at the beginning of the week !

Spread the word!!!!

Now you know, don't let your friends and family fall into the same trap.

Snwps

The problem is that this is splashed all over social media at the moment. The amount of posts and videos I've seen where people are saying "Don't refuse to pay for your gas and electricity, instead cancel your direct debit and pay by standing order the amount you're actually using". I've even seen posts where they say that Martin MSE advises this. I've even seen post saying that even if you don't pay all that's owed pay what you can. 

No mention of the implications of this, as shown in this thread. Nothing about different rates/changes in tariff, or even saying to be prepared for higher bills in the winter. I was personally shocked when I worked out how much a variable DD would be over the winter months so am happy to stay on set DD amount each month. 

The posts are even saying to raise a complaint and refer to Ofgem so that the energy companies get charged per complaint. I'm not sure if this bit is true to be honest however if there are charges per complaint, you can guess who these costs will be passed onto. It's not helping the situation. I agree the situation is bad at the moment but be careful before following these online posts.

OP, I'm glad you've got this all sorted now.

uksitebuilder

A lot of people are very scared, simply cannot afford the rises, and some people will do all manner of reckless things when backed against a wall.  The G dragging their feet on what possible help / additional help they will be offering is simply exacerbating the problem.  The majority of posts I have seen regarding don’t pay uk are seemingly coming from people who will be / are struggling to make ends meet (or worse), whereas on MSE, at least in this category, people are just trying to deal with making cuts, getting the best deal possible, dealing with energy related queries.