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[Deleted User]

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QrizB

You've fallen into one of the common logical traps.

Your monthly DD is not your bill.

Deleted_User said:

So - how about some advice from MSE on what to do if your energy company refuse to accept that you won't be using the same number of units that you used last year?

After you haven't used those units you can request a refund of your credit balance and/or a reduction in your future DD.

ariarnia

are you that board you need to start another discussion (aka argument where you try to make a point about why you dont like 'the system')? 

you know your dd is not your bill. so cutting your energy use will cut your bill. after a few months of reduced usage you can then either request a refund of your credit or a review of your dd. 

if you are in hardship (like i told you on your other thread maybe yesterday?) then you should contact your supplier and use the word 'hardship' or asked if they have a specialist team for people not able to afford there bills. not just ask for your dd to be reduced.

that's because lots of suppliers have extra support available for people in hardship and can do things like immediately drop your dd or review your dd more frequently or might offer a cash grant or free energy saving or insulation products. this is completely separate from normal account management so they can do things to help that the normal customer support teams can't (but you may have to prove eligibility like your monthly disposable income). you should also contact citizens advice as they can help refer you to places for support with general bills not just energy. 

an example is ovo's support here: https://www.ovoenergy.com/customer-support-package 

ariarnia

franticly searches for an xkcd comic suitable for the occasion. gets distracted by xkcd comics. 

GingerTim

At the moment a good number of pre-payment tariffs actually work out a little cheaper than paying by direct debit, or not much more expensive. See multiple threads on the board.

rothesy

I advised EDF last month I had a new boiler installed and I was told it used less gas and they reduced my DD by 30% from £50 to £35 no problem.  I was £400 in credit.  I'm sure is does use less gas but with the price rises of late it's difficult to calculate it yet.

dunstonh

When people are on DD tariffs the energy companies work out how much they think you should pay each month. Yes, you can get a refund if you've overpaid but often that's not until the end of the year - certainly not on demand.

Many suppliers will alter the payment if you provide them with a logical argument to change it.  

I advised EDF last month I had a new boiler installed and I was told it used less gas and they reduced my DD by 30% from £50 to £35 no problem.  I was £400 in credit.  I'm sure is does use less gas but with the price rises of late it's difficult to calculate it yet.

The price rise shouldnt stop you working that out as cost is not how you measure use.

giraffe69

Perhaps it is how you go about it and whether your consumption merits a reduction. My supplier put my dd up by more than my usage justified imo but was willing to compromise when asked.

dunstonh

Read through the posts on these boards Duntosh - people are being told they can't have their credit balances refunded and they can't have their monthly payment reduced.

Indeed they are but most of those same posts are by people who haven't worked out their annual use and are just plain guessing.  Many don't understand the need to build summer credit or the amount of summer credit they need.     The countless threads where people are trying to empty their summer credit or only leave one or two months worth suggest the larger problem is the inability of many to understand the amount of energy they use and how much it varies over the year and how much it will cost them 

Think about it - it's utterly insane. People are left powerless to help themselves. If they can't afford energy then their only course of action is to stop using energy - yet energy companies are taking huge sums of money from their bank accounts regardless - even though people have no intention of using the energy that they're being forced to pay for.

Or they can move to variable direct debit and never require any annualisation estimates ever again.

This is surly the kind of thing that Martin Lewis needs to intervene over.

Why?   Most providers cater for different methods.   

The crisis isn't the making of the consumers. People need to be allowed to pay for the energy they actually use without being forced onto a higher tariff.

And they can do that already.    

Jyana

I've cut my usage, and my direct debit was reduced by my supplier due to that. I'm paying £19 at present rather then £21.50 compared to last winter.

I've never had large credit or debit on my account, and my direct debits have always been more or less exactly what they need to be. Then again, I have given my supplier a meter reading at least monthly for the last 15 years or more, and never missed a prompt before then if I got a note through the letterbox from a meter reader who called to the house. So my supplier knows my usage, and what I need to pay. 

ariarnia

Deleted_User said:

rothesy said:

I advised EDF last month I had a new boiler installed and I was told it used less gas and they reduced my DD by 30% from £50 to £35 no problem.  I was £400 in credit.  I'm sure is does use less gas but with the price rises of late it's difficult to calculate it yet.

That's great, I eventually got mine reduced. But read through the threads on these boards - lots of people are being told they can't reduce their payments. Others are being told they can't have the money back that they've built up in credit.

This is an insane situation. If people can't afford to pay last years energy usage at this years prices then they need to be able to pay for what they actually use WITHOUT having their tariff increased. 

but the thing you might be missing is where people are successful its normally because they've given a logical reason for the reduction and can use meter readings or some other evidence to show why the algorithm is wrong.  

Ofgem doesn't like it when suppliers do things which could lead to people getting into debt such as giving them a large amount of credit back right before winter when all the info says there going to need that money to pay there energy bills.

unless you are in actual hardship (which is different from most of the threads we see here where people are struggling but not to the point they can't feed there kids). which is when you would qualify for immediate support, like the info i linked to from ovo where you can apply online by filling out a form or via citizen advice for other hardship support.