Scottish Power Direct Debit hike!

lisyloo

molerat said:

lisyloo said:

Hedgepigs said:

lisyloo said:

...
I agree they set it too high and also don’t appear to be factoring in the £400 we’re getting.

Scottish Power are taking the full DD then refunding the £60-odd back, so no, their calculations are correctly in this case not taking into account the £400

Thanks, I hadn’t realised that would deducted from DDs.

That seems to be the misunderstanding of a large portion of the population. For the vast majority of suppliers the £400 should be completely ignored and the DD set as if it didn't  exist.  The £400 will then be returned to the customer's bank account either by an automatic reduction in the correctly set DD or by a refund direct to the bank account.

I still think the one I’m managing is a little high (about 17%).
im using their figures for usage and the guaranteed rates.
I guess they can demand you pay for winter up front to get the discount but smoothing would seem to me to be spread out over a year.
it seems they do something like Apr to Apr e.g. they time it so they get max extra cash up front.

personally I do mine variable DD as I don’t like the way they do theses.

I find it actually easier to manage my own budgets that way than having large credits with multiple companies.
my own budgets are calendar year.

[Deleted User]

lisyloo said:

it seems they do something like Apr to Apr e.g. they time it so they get max extra cash up front.

And there is where your argument falls down.  You ascribe maliciousness to the situation.

A quick look on the last couple of days of this board shows at least three different users who have just had their credit balance refunded as their year is running Sept-Sept.

Some suppliers got a kicking from OFGEM for letting their customers get into too much debt so they are trying not to do that.  Some customers get very worried when they see a negative balance on their account.

The suppliers also got a kicking for having DDs too high and leaving too much credit balance as well though, so I don't know quite what OFGEM expect them to do.

lisyloo

Not malice just in their favour.
I can do simple maths.
I calculated £150 including discount, £180 without the discount for a year.
their figure was £210.
Perhaps their system is set to use the current high fixed rate?
The usage figure I used was their estimate, so why do they want more?

KeithJohnAlger

I think the Scottish Power Direct Debit manager may be broken:


Our Direct debit used to be about £75/month, it's been increased to £140/month, we're £650 in credit, and they want to increase it to £8500/month

MikeJXE

I had an email from OVO a couple of weeks ago, they said regarding your usage your DD needs to increase, almost double or it will be £740 in debt by December 2023. I emailed customer services and wrote to the CEO. I told them I refuse to have it increased and gave them my reasons.  I told them they had no idea what my usage would be as they have no history. I had been transferred from SSE a couple of months ago and had kept by bills and SSE annual estimates that showed at the new rates my DD should be £9 mare than they are now, I sent them the figures to prove my calculations, Not heard back yet.