So energy

ruthel

By - July my account with So Energy was about 500 in credit- which made sense as we were careful with our usage- and gave me some sense of security for the winter months. 

At the end of August my bill read almost a 100 in debit. On contacting So Energy I was informed that the reason for this was the fact that - although they had been taking my DD of £270 a month - they had not actually been billing me for 5 months and took it all out in August.
Is this common practice? I'm not unintelligent but I have tried to make sense of their billing and can't make head or tail of it. Has someone else had experience of this?

Jyana

I'm with British Gas, who bill every six months. This is not uncommon, though there are a few companies who bill more often. A mistake some customers make, however, is confusing their monthly direct debit for a bill, when it is equivalent to stashing some cash away in a jar towards a future bill instead.

I am not overly familiar with SE, others may know more and be along soon. But there should be more details in your sign up terms and conditions in the mean time.

ariarnia

unfortunately if this was a mistake then its one there allowed to make. back billing rules limit bills for use over 12 months ago so 6 months would be fine. 

but if you are on an account where they bill you every 6 months then they should have done the same in feb for all winter. can you tell if they did or not? if they did then you know they are going to bill you again in feb for all winter so you need to think about how much credit you should be building up between now and then to cover the bill. 


i would also suggest if you take regular meter readings can you give us two readings about 12 months apart? then we can help work out your annual use and what your dd should be given the current cap and forecasts for the cap from april. that will help you set your dd to a better level to mean your not in debt going into winter. 

Robin9

EDF also have this 6 month billing cycle and their online account can be misleading -  it shows the balance at the last bill plus DD's received but EXCLUDES energy used -  that is only added on the day the bill is produced.

@ruthel - get into the habit of reading your meter at least monthly and keep one of those wee spreadsheets.   

Cautiouslyoptimistic

ruthel said:

By - July my account with So Energy was about 500 in credit- which made sense as we were careful with our usage- and gave me some sense of security for the winter months. 

At the end of August my bill read almost a 100 in debit. On contacting So Energy I was informed that the reason for this was the fact that - although they had been taking my DD of £270 a month - they had not actually been billing me for 5 months and took it all out in August.
Is this common practice? I'm not unintelligent but I have tried to make sense of their billing and can't make head or tail of it. Has someone else had experience of this?

Sounds very strange to me. 

If they have taken your DD then presumably they have had your cash?  And if they have had your cash then why have they not set that against your 5 months used OR, are you suggesting that once they have reconciled your actual usage against your money paid via DD that you still owed them money hence why you are now in debit? 

I'm not sure I understand TBH. 

I'm with So Energy. I monitor my gas meter and electric meter like a hawk. If the bill was one unit wrong, I'd probably know about it.  From my experience, So Energy have always billed me based on meter readings or the occasional estimate.  I pay by DD and that is always shown on my monthly statement which usually accords with the meter reads taken.    

SpanishBlue

I'm also with So energy. They email me bills every month.

They ask for you to send in meter readings every month. If you don't you still get a monthly bill but it is based on estimated readings.

badmemory

The real problem is that most of the energy suppliers left are incompetent.  The ones that went kaput had to keep up to date.  This shower don't.  I gave BG my meter readings and they still did estimated AND didn't show it as estimated it just didn't say customer reading.  As it had just gone onto a new system I didn't complain but if they do it again they WILL know about it.  Just so long as I have a couple of my phones to hand because last time one of my landline handsets went flat after just over an hour.  An hour and threequarters later & one of the handsets looks like it may never recover.  I really hate the fact that I was dumped on BG with no choice & nowhere to transfer to.

Gerry1

badmemory said:I really hate the fact that I was dumped on BG with no choice & nowhere to transfer to.

Try phoning Octopus.

[Deleted User]

badmemory said:

 I really hate the fact that I was dumped on BG with no choice & nowhere to transfer to.

Most suppliers will accept a switch if you call them up and are a little persistent.

ariarnia

ovo have put there 'give me a quote' button back on the front page. 

badmemory

Thank you everyone I thought a change was still an expensive idea.  Obviously not.