Scottish Power Dispute

Ady87

Hello all, help needed.

We had a Scottish Power top up meter. Meter beeps, we topped it up. Somehow we ran up a balance owed of £1,000, possibly due to the infrequency of the tops ups of gas over the summer. It was never explained very well.

In any case, an off shore agent  said we could pay by card to clear it or they could take a % of future top ups. Great, keeping £1k cash in the bank, I elected for that route.

A month later an arrangement to pay is on my credit file. I call and immediately pay. I opened a complaint to dispute. Case handler said it was an oversight and off shore agents probably aren’t aware of credit score impacts of suggesting such schemes. I asked them to listen to the call because at no point did I require financial assistance and at no point was it remotely suggested it would have the impacts it did. My credit score came down from 980 to 680 instantly and is still recovering.

I’d been told on the phone they have a team that handle defaults and such and that the complaint would go to them. The case handler that called today said they have no such team and he would send me a deadlock letter saying they can’t do anything which I now have.

Is there any responsibility on Scottish Power when recommending these repayment options because I’d have paid cash immediately had it been positioned correctly. The lady spoke broken English and they’ve not listened to the call like I suggested.

Is it worth pursuing this with the regulator? I want to buy a house and my credit score has been obliterated. Credit file shows full settlement the month after it was added to my file.

QrizB

Firstly I think you need to go back to SP and get a proper, written explanation of how you ran up a £1000 debt on a prepayment account. That shouldn't be possible under normal circumstances.

Secondly, if you've got a deadlock letter your next step is to take your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman. You'll find details on SP's website. Be clear to them as to what your complaint is - that SP put an arrangement to paymarker  on your credit file without discussing it with you - and what you want to happen - for SP to remove that marker. Include whatever supporting evidence you have; in particular anything from SP where they admit having done this.

Ectophile

If the property was empty for several years, and you didn't top up anything to cover the standing charges, then running up a bill that large might be possible.

Otherwise, I can't see how you could possibly have run up a debt that large on a prepayment meter.  The meter should have shut off long before.