Can Bulb increase my DD without my permission

dez82

Bulb increase my DD from £150 to £460. I only used about £75 a month of gas and electric and always in credit, which I have to request back every month. I know its all going up but £460 seems over inflated. I have asked them to stop the DD and will now pay for what i use - have i done the right thing?

400ixl

Yes they can change it without permission, but should do it within guidelines that you do not go into debit. Sounds excessive as to how much they have raised it. Are you currently in debit to them?

As for stopping the DD, you will need to check if Bulb have different rates for those on pay on bill as for some companies that could be a 7% additional rate you will now be changed to. May be better to arrange to go to variable DD where you will pay for what you use each month if you want to do it that way. Just check your current balance as if you are in debit then you will also pay that in the first month.

MWT

To answer the question in your title, yes, they have to tell you before they do it, but they do not need your permission to do it...

dez82 said:

I have asked them to stop the DD and will now pay for what i use - have i done the right thing?

If you have asked them to put you onto a variable direct debit which means they will only take the correct amount for what you have used each month (assuming they have an accurate meter reading), then yes, that is a good thing to do if you can handle the variability of the bills each month, especially over winter.

If you have just cancelled the DD and asked to pay on receipt of your bill (standard credit account) then no, that is a bad idea as your energy cost will increase since they are allowed to charge higher rates for that sort of account...

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername

If you are also requesting a refund every month this might be why the increase is more than normal, as the account is not building credit the way it should.

[Deleted User]

dez82 said:

Bulb increase my DD from £150 to £460. I only used about £75 a month of gas and electric and always in credit, which I have to request back every month. I know its all going up but £460 seems over inflated. I have asked them to stop the DD and will now pay for what i use - have i done the right thing?

You have fallen into the trap of thinking that last month’s energy bill is indicative of what you will use over the coming Winter months.  I used no gas last month but the central heating will go on in November.

If you were an average consumer ( and not many of us are) and if you put £100s worth of energy into your shopping basket in October last year, then the same amount of energy will cost you £195 from next week onwards. For an Ofgem average consumer, the annual bill from 1st October will rise to £2500 a year. If we assume there is no credit or debit balance, then the consumer will be expected to pay £208 per month for the next 12 months but the payments for October through to March will be abated by £67/66.

You need to determine your ANNUAL usage in kWh and apply this to the tariff that you will be on from next week. Add/subtract any debit/credit balance and divide this by 12. This will give you the monthly DD that you should be paying (bear in mind that the coming Winter may be colder than the last Winter). By doing this, you can check your supplier’s calculation.

By cancelling your DD, you have just added a further c.7% to your energy bill. 

400ixl

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername said:

If you are also requesting a refund every month this might be why the increase is more than normal, as the account is not building credit the way it should.

Good point, missed that bit. Yes if you have been taking back the credit each month then as we are now going into winter with higher consumption and a price rise they will be predicting you will have increasing bills. Their prediction will not be taking into consideration the government grant, that will either be dealt with at the time by reducing the DD for that month or refunding you that payment directly and keeping the DD the same.

pochase

MWT said:

To answer the question in your title, yes, they have to tell you before they do it, but they do not need your permission to do it...

dez82 said:

I have asked them to stop the DD and will now pay for what i use - have i done the right thing?

If you have asked them to put you onto a variable direct debit which means they will only take the correct amount for what you have used each month (assuming they have an accurate meter reading), then yes, that is a good thing to do if you can handle the variability of the bills each month, especially over winter.

If you have just cancelled the DD and asked to pay on receipt of your bill (standard credit account) then no, that is a bad idea as your energy cost will increase since they are allowed to charge higher rates for that sort of account...

Bulb does not have different rates for paying on receipt of the bill

Payment method - Monthly Direct Debit in advance, or payment on receipt of bill

Electricity Unit rate 35.0564p per kWh

dunstonh

Bulb increase my DD from £150 to £460. I only used about £75 a month of gas and electric and always in credit, which I have to request back every month.

Its unlikely you use £75per month every month.  In the winter months you may use as much as 80% more than what you use in the summer months.

What your direct debit is set to (before or after any change) is not your usage.   

I know its all going up but £460 seems over inflated.

We cannot comment on that because we don't know what your usage is as you haven't told us.     We don't know if you have got behind with your summer credit or that you £150pm was an accurate figure to match your use.

I have asked them to stop the DD and will now pay for what i use - have i done the right thing?

Probably not.   But until we know what your usage is, so we can see what sort of payment you should be making, we cannot give any useful guidence.

 and always in credit, which I have to request back every month

All that said, this is probably why it is being increased.   You have wiped out your summer credit.   A monthly payment of £150, if we assume was accurate to your use, would need around £600 of Summer credit going into the cold months.     You have drawn it all out.    So, Bulb needs to recover the money you have drawn out as well as ensure there is enough money in there for the cold and dark winter months.  So, it will tell you that it needs to increase the DD.

Until you know you real use over a year (and tell us) you are going to be in the dark as to what your monthly payment should ideally be.

dez82

in August my bill was £73.55 the month before £68.40. For Dec 2021 it was £96.80. My debit order is currently £150 and they have changed it to £460 (I have 160 credit). I check my account every month and I request the credit back because I need the money and now that its increased to £460 in will be in debt every month. I work to a strict budget but I worry about those who are in a worse situation than I am. 

Thank you all for your responses, I have asked for a variable Direct Debit. 

dunstonh

in August my bill was £73.55 the month before £68.40. For Dec 2021 it was £96.80. My debit order is currently £150 and they have changed it to £460 (I have 160 credit). I check my account every month and I request the credit back because I need the money and now that its increased to £460 in will be in debt every month. I work to a strict budget but I worry about those who are in a worse situation than I am. 

But were those bills based on actual meter readings or estimates?   The worry here is that they have used either estimates for all of them or some of them.  That can lead to you paying too much or too little 

[Deleted User]

dez82 said:

For Dec 2021 it was £96.80. 

If that was your energy cost on the Ofgem-capped tariff at that time, then you can just about double the cost for the same amount of energy this December.

We all need to sit down and work out our projected energy costs going forward.