Cancel Your Direct Debit Day

fergman

I have an idea - consumers hold the power right?

A national 'Cancel Your Direct Debit Day'. This will give the power companies something to think about. I propose we all cancel our Gas/Electric DDs say on the 1st March 2008. The utility companies will not be able to cope with the cancellations and panic will set in. This will force them into reducing their charges, they'll have no option. Hit them where it hurts, No income, No profits, No shareholder payouts!

What do you think?

dmg24

Some people have some ridiculous ideas ... are you going to pay all the late payment charges?!

weegie.geek

Gas and electric companies both literally and figuratively hold the power. You NEED the services they provide, unless you have some other means of generating power?

You might not be happy to pay the prices they're charging, so vote with your money and move to whichever company is cheapest for you, if you can.

All these boycotting schemes would be fine if abstinence was feasible, but since these are necessities, all you do is delay things a little. I'm sure they take a hit from the interest they'd have gained had you paid them on time, but dmg24's right, they'd be happy that you were late paying, since the late charges would be much more than the interest they'd earn.

There'd also be increased admin costs on their end, to set up all the DDs again. Where do you think that cost will be passed onto?

Terrylw1

Suppliers never used to let you pay on DD until it became possible in this country. Even then for years, customers still payed on the Receipt Of Bill method they were used to for decades. They coped quite easily.

The shift to DD was because they can use your money and can collect ahead of schedule so they know you are more likely to settle.

So, will it affect them at all? It will only affect them if you then don't pay your full quarterly bill. However, the other side of the impact is that it might affect their ability to re-invest using that upfront payment.

Late payment charges won't be an issue if they convert you to ROB, besides it's banks that add those, not Suppliers in terms of bouncing. Some do add charges for collection stages though.

BTW, you will also lose your DD discounts. So, who is really losing out?

I realise people hate the fact that DD's are too high and I sympathise on that but you don't have to pay by DD, you can pay by ROB. Also, they are supplying you with the energy upfront which is pretty nice of them and they don't charge further interest on it like your bank would on your overdraft.

If customers allow estimates then they leave themselves wide open to overcharging with DD's but for those who always give readings, I can understand why they hate this overcharging system.

wishiwasarichgirl

nope, won't work, if you are still receiving your gas/elec from them you will still have to pay for it (and some of them will charge you more if you don't pay by DD)

JohnG

How about a "NATIONAL DO'NT PAY THEM AT ALL FOR SIX MONTHS DAY" ?

But seriously, I thought privatisation was going to be in the consumers interest yet that seems to be a myth as the different suppliers we can go thru apparently get the fuel from the same source anyway!

And from what I can tell, the costs to us end up being about the same unless you are prepared to keep hopping from one provider to another to get the latest 'Best' price.

On top of that, we have to fend off numerous sales people that come to our door (admittedly not so many as we used to get) claiming that we are paying more than we should blah blah blah!

Wouldnt it be far better to have one provider that was closely monitored to ensure fair pricing based cost of wholesale fuel, who would surely then have better leverage to get a better wholesale price?

As you might tell, I'm not at all happy with the situation at the moment, talk about being held to ransome - B^%$&£ds.

DGJsaver

JohnG wrote: »

Wouldnt it be far better to have one provider that was closely monitored to ensure fair pricing based cost of wholesale fuel, who would surely then have better leverage to get a better wholesale price?

As you might tell, I'm not at all happy with the situation at the moment, talk about being held to ransome - B^%$&£ds.

Surley we are NOT getting held to ransom , simply because we CAN move...

If we were stuck with the same one company , not only would that be a little too communistic it would also mean no competition

JohnG

Yes, well that sounds great but the truth is we end up paying higher and higher prices even with the choices available. And don't forget, there are many people, especially the elderly who simply don't like to change or they feel it's too complicated - british gas have benefitted greatly for that reason.

Besides, the so called competition doesnt seem to hold back these massive increases that keep coming our way!

Incidently, NPower have lumbered us with a 34% and 24% montly Gas and Electric increase, hence I'm not impressed! :mad:

DGJsaver

Oh dont get me wrong , i agree it`s just that if it was state owned or even just one company that had the contract , we would probably be paying even more , with riots in the street , old eastern bloc style

Terrylw1

I wouldn't agree with one "super" company because it was a mess before privatisation occurred. It's still a mess now but a lot has improved simply because it's private. You would need an even tighter control on one super company because they would have the market share and complaining about them would be a nightmare - they just wouldn't care.

However, by not having adequate controls in place over the private sector you get the current price hike situation. Isn't that how businesses operate? If they can get more money and get away with it, they will.

It should be rationalised a lot though as it's an overly complex industry which adds a knock on cost for the many unneccessary things that go on.

JohnG

Hi DGJSaver,

Apologies for my angst ridden comments, there not aimed at you personally.

The thing is, I don't really want to have to keep switching, we've kept with NPower for a number of years now yet being loyal and being a reliable payer makes no difference so now I have to switch if I want to keep payments to a better level but it just feels like a pointless exercise as next year the same thing is likely to occur and I may have to go crawling back to NPower because they then may have a better tariff once again?

It's one of life's little games ( :footie: ) I suppose so will have to try to get used to it.

Terry - I guess it's the lesser of two evils but as you intimate, the current arrangement needs some attention - complex it probably is but it feels very shoddy from my point of view. I don't have any confidence in the industry at all.