How can continually overpaying be cheaper? A shocking £3000 in credit.

TooOrangeyForCrows

Update.

After they finally got off their lazy butts (well Morrisons outsourcing at least) to go and check the meter (even though readings were actually sent online 2 days previous) the actual credit balance was a still SHOCKING £2900.   
I'm still onboard with the Moneysavingexpert article - that is a complete RIP-OFF! I suspect they would just have continued onwards taking free money. When was the last time any of you guys were able to borrow money indefinitely at 0%? Please let me know and I'll have some of it.

Currently looking at a new supplier as the cheeky gits have recently sent my dad a letter to say they are increasing the DD by £12 a month. 

Might even suggest going onto a pay for what you actually use - like in the good old days. Cheaper by DD might end up being mostly a marketing trick anyway. As I said that money invested would have easily yielded £100-150 in interest with the rates being upwards of 5% for most of the time plus the 6.5-7% regular savers (and that's before we get into any stocks/crypto investments). 
So it would depend on what 'cheaper' actually means in reality.

Is anyone actually pleased with their energy supplier? 

Spoonie_Turtle

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

Might even suggest going onto a pay for what you actually use - like in the good old days. Cheaper by DD might end up being mostly a marketing trick anyway. 

You can do that whilst keeping the DD rates, but it would require the financial ability to pay for larger bills in winter than in summer.  And it woukd require monthly readings to be definitely submitted if they aren't taken remotely from the smart meter.  Variable Direct Debit, with a bill raised and exact DD payment taken ~2 weeks later.

'Cheaper by DD' means being billed at lower rates than non-DD payment methods.  So it is cheaper, you are charged less for the energy used.  The problem you / your dad have run into appears to be an inappropriate DD amount being far more than actually charged for the energy used.

Just to check, you say about them checking 'the' meter, have they definitely billed based on readings for both gas and electricity?

MWT

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

Is anyone actually pleased with their energy supplier? 

Since you asked, yes, extremely happy with Octopus.

None of them are perfect, but there is a lot to love about Octopus. 

QrizB

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

When was the last time any of you guys were able to borrow money indefinitely at 0%? Please let me know and I'll have some of it.

Credit card stoozing. Currently have £5k or so at 0%, and I'm a lightweight. Some forumites have had £50k or more.

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

So it would depend on what 'cheaper' actually means in reality.

For the average consume on the SVT, paying by DD saves around 8%.

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

Is anyone actually pleased with their energy supplier? 

I'm happy with Octopus (who supply my electricity and gas), and my limited interactions with EON Next (who handle my FIT) have always been satisfactory.

Robin9

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

 

Is anyone actually pleased with their energy supplier? 

With Edf for both Elec and Gas -  no issues. Both meters are Smart and communication fine. I do check consumption with my own readings.

nologo

I love octopus,dd £8 month currently making £60 month on export 🙂

debitcardmayhem

I am happy with my supplier, but of course I also check my bills monthly not every xx months or whenever.
Direct Debit does save you if are on a SVT, not sure about TOU but that isn’t affect by the cap

mmmmikey

Robin9 said:

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

 

Is anyone actually pleased with their energy supplier? 

With Edf for both Elec and Gas -  no issues. Both meters are Smart and communication fine. I do check consumption with my own readings.

Yes, I always found EDF pretty good - only issues I had were a faulty meter which had a fading display and was replaced quickly and issues with a direct debit, which I had caused myself by accidentally cancelling it. After EDF I switched to Octopus which was trouble free, and I'm now with E.On who also seem good having responded quickly to an issue I reported when I switched.

There are plenty of examples of people who aren't happy with their supplier on this forum, but that's because this forum is where people come for help, advice or just a good old moan to get things off their chest if they do have issues. 

These are huge organisations with millions of customers supplying a product where there's lots to go wrong so it's not really surprising there's a constant stream of complaints. That's not OK of course, particularly where it goes badly wrong, but there's always a balance to be struck between service and cost and that strikes me as being about right ( but that won't stop me complaining if I'm the one with the problem )

Finally, if anyone is not happy with their supplier they do have access to an independent ombudsman for seeking compensation which makes it much easier to seek recompense than through the courts. And it's now very quick and easy to change supplier if you're really not satisfied.

If you don't report an issue and the supplier is not aware then you can't expect them to fix it, which is what seems to have happened here. Easy enough to sort out. Quite apart from the unnecessary build up of credit, it is important to keep an eye on bills etc. in case of errors which inevitably happen from time to time, and to ensure you are on a tariff that best suits your current needs.

Grizzlebeard

TooOrangeyForCrows said:

Is anyone actually pleased with their energy supplier? 

Yes.

Very low energy user on dumb meter. Readings submitted monthly.

Currently Octopus - very very happy.

Previously BritGas (Ebico takeover) - very very UNhappy.

Ebico - absolutely very very happy.

Never needed customer service with Octopus but response to questions rapid, sensible and polite.

BritGas - C S nightmare with many issues never resolved even after I escaped to Octopus.

Ebico - customer service perfect. No complaints, onlly ever used for queries and for changes of tariff which happened on the day of request.

mmmmikey

.....just waiting for someone to chip in with a comment to the effect that we're obviously all energy company stooges