Southern water billing

davyarcher

Wednesday, 14 May 2008

Southern water.

This may be a little off-topic here but I wondered if anyone else feels the same.

I have just received a final demand bill from Southern water demanding instant payment for £ 206.

Probably just like a lot of other people.

The point here is that I am being charged for services up to the 1st April NEXT YEAR.

Services that I have not yet received.

I am also being hassled to pay by direct debit, which is financial suicide for anyone on Incapacity benefit, like myself, because they take just whatever amount of money they like, and when they like.

So I regularly send them a smaller cheque every time I am "Paid ".

Is it not true that if people pay these bills in total now, Southern water benefits from a year’s worth of interest accruing at the bank, as well.

Nice extra little ‘earner.

Why is this company allowed to demand charges so far in advance ?
Do other water companies do this ?

Seems to be on a parallel to banks sponging money out of customers over service and credit card fees.


## addition ##

Well I have spent two hours reading lots of threads on here while searching for a similar moan to this one, and it seems to me that all water companies around the country are just plain rip off merchants.

In comparison to the problems that some people have on this site, I am lucky.

Offwat don’t seem to be too interested, or speedy, in dealing with peoples financial water problems, or anything else, are there not any web sites to send collective complaints to some minister in the government ?

Seems that we need individual headline post sites here for complaints about the seperate water companies in different areas around the country.

Sunny Andover - Hampshire.

Cardew

Most water companies(for non metered accounts) give you a yearly bill which you pay in 2 instalments, or by DD.

You pay for many services in advance - TV licence, car tax, car insurance,(in fact most insurances) Phone rental(quarterly) Council tax etc etc

The reasons are cash flow, and that many people would not pay for goods received.

You are wrong about Direct Debits in that they cannot "take what they like when they like" .They must notify you in advance of the amount of the DD and then give you in advance notification of any change.

If they don't you can recover the money from the bank under their DD Guarantee.

davyarcher

Hi Cardew, :rotfl:

Yes you are right about me being wrong :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I did not phrase my point too well, I must clear up this point.

What I meant about the water company taking what it wants refers to this time last year, and up to the beginning of this year, when I was paying them by direct debit.

They were taking £ 32.40 per month, each month, from my account by direct debit, and they would not agree to lower this amount.

When it wants, refers to a fixed day for payment every month, which was not always convenient for me.

I was then, and still am, on incapacity benefit, and sometimes could not always afford to allow them ( on EVERY consecutive month ) to take that FULL amount, because occasionally, by just a few pounds, a direct debit draw would over run my overdraft limit and then the bank would hit me with their own charges on top.

I was being forcing down the debt spiral without, myself, having any direct control over these DD money jugglings to keep in the black.

Because of this danger I do not now have any direct debits on my bank account for anyone. I cancelled them all.

Now, I sent payments by cheque to everyone, and as much as I can afford in the great juggling act, whether it is enough for them or not.

Now I can safely predict to the nearest penny that I will not have any nasty surprises by being unexpectedly plunged into overdrawn.

I had written the post because I was annoyed that they had sent to me a final demand for such a large amount in one payment.

It was a bit of a nasty shock !:mad:

Many thanks for replying to my post. :rotfl: