Shell Energy changed my direct debit without notice

B0bbyEwing

Has anyone else experienced this?

Suppose there's not a lot I can do about it now as it's too late but I'm going to have a bit of a moan regardless.

So as Santander bumped their cashback on energy to 4% for 2 months, I upped the direct debit to as much as I could to cap out the most cashback. It wouldn't let me do £250 as £248 was Shell's max, so that's what I did.

October's payment went - £248, no problem.

Just now seen November's payment go out ... £182. 

Ok not much difference once the cashback is paid out but it's not the point. I set it at that to max it out & then after the 2nd month was going to put it back 'normal' again.

I remember they contacted me to say they advised me to increase it a while ago. Would've been nice of them to contact me to say they were reducing it.

400ixl

Isn't that due to the £66 per month government grant? Are Shell reducing people's DD and crediting their accounts rather than paying the grant back to customers accounts.

luvchocolate

Yes Shell are reducing direct debit  payments by £66 and crediting your account 

bagand96

From https://help.shellenergy.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/8410515236497-How-the-Energy-Bills-Support-Scheme-works-

If you pay by monthly Direct Debit

You’ll automatically receive the discount as a reduction to your monthly payment.

For example, if your monthly Direct Debit amount is £200, we’ll deduct £66 in October and November, then £67 from December to March. This leaves you £134 to pay for the first two months, then £133 for the remaining four months. 

If your monthly Direct Debit is collected three working days after the discount is applied, you’ll see £66/67 deducted from your payment.

If your monthly Direct Debit amount is collected more than three working days before the discount is applied, you’ll see £66/67 deducted from your payment the following month 

They’re not the only supplier doing it this way, Octopus are too

B0bbyEwing

Ahh. If only I'd known. 

Not to say the info wasn't out there in advance. It probably was. I'd have hiked my direct debit back up to max the 4% cashback. 
Oh well, it is what it is. Now that's the 2 months over then, I'll drop it back to normal. 

B0bbyEwing

Well Shell have literally just emailed me about 30mins ago to inform me they're lowering my direct debit. 

Surely lowering comes before the payment. 
Lowered comes afterwards. 

Top job Shell. 

dunstonh

B0bbyEwing said:

Well Shell have literally just emailed me about 30mins ago to inform me they're lowering my direct debit. 

Surely lowering comes before the payment. 
Lowered comes afterwards. 

Top job Shell. 

Its worth noting that the EPG was arranged at short notice and without consultation and companies had very little time to take in the information, and set their systems up for it.    So, rather than being critical about it, maybe show some understanding about why these things happen?

B0bbyEwing

Am I supposed to know how much time they had? 

All news to me. Never heard about any of it.