Energy Direct Debits: Get money back & your payments lowered Discussion

Ninanoonah · 2 January 2015 at 11:21PM

I moved to Scottish Power in March 2014. They immediately set my direct debit at £375 per month which is extortionate for a low user in a modest three bed semi. After several attempts at trying to amend my payments on-line, I eventually cancelled the direct debit. Received several communications from Scottish a Power asking me to pay £150 into my account, this was despite the fact that my account was over £600 in credit.
I contacted them via phone to request a credit but they fobbed me off. After numerous attempts to contact them, they eventually advised they had a query with my electricity reading. I sent them many readings, a photo of my meter and the reading and even suggested they send a meter reader to my property to read the meter, but to no avail. Eventually, in desperation I transferred my dual fuel to another supplier and raised a complaint with the Energy Ombudsman in September. Three months later (and six months from the original complaint to SP), I am still waiting for resolution and SP owe me £571. The energy ombudsman move at a glacial pace and are about as effective as a chocolate teapot and SP are possibly the most shockingly incompetent, immoral organisation that I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. I have lost count of the number of times I have phoned and written to them. I am seriously beginning to consider going down the small claims route. I am not sure what else to do. SP seem to be exempt from the law and contine to hold on to my £571 and I can't even claim lost interest! They are an appalling company.

intend · 18 July 2015 at 3:39PM

Npower are billing me for a gas meter that is not mine. We are in dispute over it. They have just taken £685 from account to pay for gas used in this fictitious meter. Is this legal? I have been paying our agreed DD for my own meter but by taking this money they have left me in debt for the 1st time in 70yrs. Engineers have checked my gas meter and have stated it is a different meter to the one Npower are billing me for. I constantly ring but nothing is sorted. How do I handle this situation?

Nada666 · 18 July 2015 at 5:38PM

intend wrote: »

Npower are billing me for a gas meter that is not mine. We are in dispute over it. They have just taken £685 from account to pay for gas used in this fictitious meter. Is this legal? I have been paying our agreed DD for my own meter but by taking this money they have left me in debt for the 1st time in 70yrs. Engineers have checked my gas meter and have stated it is a different meter to the one Npower are billing me for. I constantly ring but nothing is sorted. How do I handle this situation?

Contact your bank to get the payment refunded under the Direct Debit guarantee scheme.

macpep1 · 29 August 2016 at 12:22PM

I hope someone can help. I am with Sainsbury Energy, I recently submitted my meter readings to them, I was already over £250 in credit. With my new bill generating I am now over £459 in credit, can I request this back. My last bill for 64 days of both Gas & Electric was £121.00 they are now cutting my DD to £88.62 from £165.00 ( this was supposed to change to £138.00in March when I changed tariff but it never has). I know the winter has still to come but I am very careful of the usage & we are at our caravan most weekends. If I pay £88.62 from now until the tariff ends on 17/02/17 as well as whats in credit, it will be more than enough in my eyes. I could put that money to good use rather than it sitting in their account making interest for them! TIA for any advice.

YorksClare · 29 August 2016 at 1:07PM

I have just switched energy supplier because EDF hiked my DD yet again without telling me. They did this before when I was in credit, citing that over the winter my usage would go up. I had one heck of a fight to get back the money I was in credit by and to reduce an unnecessary rise in the DD. They did eventually refund me after very rude emails from one of their so-called customer services supervisors, but have since done the same hike but bigger.

When I switched this week, I was just in credit, which is how it should be. I put the exact meter readings in - I'm on economy 7 - for the last year instead of telling Uswitch what my current monthly DD is. This said that I should have paid £919 over the last year on the standard variable tariff (in my dreams - it has been £1308.) So the switching site has promised that if I switch to SSE I will be paying about £83 less per year and my new DD should be £77. It had better be, otherwise I will be giving the new supplier "What for?".

I put that saving at more like £472!

Troublemaker66 · 26 October 2016 at 9:39AM

Every year, I consider switching. When I moved here 2 years ago, I was with EDF who I was with in my previous house. After a year I switched to Eon. They were charging me a figure based on EDF's figures which incorporated a huge over use due to a rogue fridge that thought it was a freezer. Not really excessive but annoying. I live in a small cladded bungalow, and had it insulated outside, roof and walls, returning the cladding on top of the insulation. So my bills should be less now my insulation was working right? They said in December they would review my usage in February so I was overpaying (because of the rogue fridge replaced and the earth wire reconnected). I then rang them 3 times being cut off after a long wait twice. I gave my annual usage, and went to read the meter again while I was on the phone. They did their stuff and I got my Direct Debit reduced from over £50 per month down to £40. This was in February. My contract fix ended in June, and the renewal was £48 per month. I know this doesn't sound much and it was OKish, but I could switch to a Green Tariff for less, £47 per month so I did. I have an air source heat pump and I live on a coastal strip where we get cold winters once every 7 years on average. I shall be seeking better solutions, on an annual basis. I take a meter reading about once a month and record it on a spreadsheet. This shows my usage over a year, and takes in seasonal variations. I am the smart meter in my house.

osiangwynedd · 26 October 2016 at 2:42PM

I am with Scottish Power on monthly direct debit, and my "review date" is in April. This is when they reassess what the direct debit should be. They set the direct debit amount with the aim of achieving a zero account balance at the end of the review period. This is not tied in with my fixed-rate deal, which ends in February. That seems to be when all their fixed-rate terms end and roll over.

They claim that during the year your account balance can be either credit or debit due to the amount of the direct debit remaining constant, but obviously the amount of electricity used will vary throughout the year.

In practice, it's not possible to achieve a positive balance one point in the year and a negative at another points, because the review date is in April. This is just after the heftiest time of the year for electricity usage. (I'm on Economy 7 by the way, i.e. exclusively electric heating, so my winter bills are huge).

In order to achieve a zero account balance in April, I have to have a credit balance all year round. The credit built over the lightest period from May to October needs to pay for the heaviest period from November to April. In other words, having the review date in April benefits the energy company rather than the consumer because you are paying in advance for your electricity all the time, rather than half in arrears. By the end of summer, my credit balance is massive, roughly 5 or 6 months' payment. The review date would have to be either July or January, approximately, to achieve the perect balance of credit and debit amounts, that is halfway through either the summer or winter periods, not at one end of them. A July date would allow you to be in credit for a short period initially but then go negative for a while before coming back up to zero...a January date would go negative first for a short time.

I'm just wondering whether it's standard practice with the energy firms to have the review dates like this, or where it actually comes from. It can't be the anniversary of setting up my account - that was done in October one year.

Do you think I would get anywhere by asking for my review date to be changed? What month do other people have their review dates in? Querying the direct debit in the past with Scottish Power has always been difficult, just getting a standard copy-and-pasted reply back about how the direct debit amount and the balance can vary over the year and this can be due to many factors...

Is this indeed standard practice, and is this why it is claimed that direct debits are cheaper than paying quarterly in arears, becuase they have your money in adavance all the time?

Butterfly21 · 19 December 2016 at 11:26PM

There are many green energy companies out there proposing Better deals but I'm dubious abou them
Are these suppliers truly offering fixed rate tariffs?!

In the past, some have lied about their 'fixed' rates. Take EON for example, they offered the iChooser fixed rate plan and about 7 months into it they changed the direct debit monthly payment by an additional £60, when we contacted them about this they said its due to 'usage' and government terms and conditions. We challenged them about their use of the word 'fixed' as this new increase proved the rate was not fixed at all, and the original contract clearly stated the monthly cost would be fixed at a certain rate.
It didn't boldly state that the rate would change subject to energy usage! It left us really confused. We also noticed later EON very cleverly stated these tariffs maybe withdrawn at any time without notice! Since then we're conscious of these ambiguous fixed rate tariffs!

Cardew · 20 December 2016 at 12:02AM

Butterfly21 wrote: »

There are many green energy companies out there proposing Better deals but I'm dubious abou them
Are these suppliers truly offering fixed rate tariffs?!

In the past, some have lied about their 'fixed' rates. Take EON for example, they offered the iChooser fixed rate plan and about 7 months into it they changed the direct debit monthly payment by an additional £60, when we contacted them about this they said its due to 'usage' and government terms and conditions. We challenged them about their use of the word 'fixed' as this new increase proved the rate was not fixed at all, and the original contract clearly stated the monthly cost would be fixed at a certain rate.
It didn't boldly state that the rate would change subject to energy usage! It left us really confused. We also noticed later EON very cleverly stated these tariffs maybe withdrawn at any time without notice! Since then we're conscious of these ambiguous fixed rate tariffs!

This has come up a couple of times lately.

There is nothing ambiguous about stating a tariff is fixed; it simply means the unit(kWh) price, and daily standing charge is fixed. I would be surprised if you had a contract that stated 'and the original contract clearly stated the monthly cost would be fixed at a certain rate.'

If you looked at the Direct Debit mandate that you agreed, it will clearly show that the energy company can vary the amount you pay as long as they give you notice.

If BP advertised that they would fix the price of a petrol at £1.00 a litre for a year, would you expect to be able to have 10, 20, or 100 litres for £1?

Years ago there was a tariff called 'Staywarm' by a now defunct firm called Powergen, that did allow certain properties to pay a set sum per month regardless of consumption, and I suspect that some people are getting that tariff confused with the term 'fixed tariff' that all energy companies now use.

P.S.
Eon stating they can withdraw the tariff at any time, simply means that it will be not offered to new applicants. Not that it can be withdrawn for those already receiving the fixed tariff.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 21 December 2016 at 6:53PM

Butterfly21 wrote: »

There are many green energy companies out there proposing Better deals but I'm dubious abou them
Are these suppliers truly offering fixed rate tariffs?!

In the past, some have lied about their 'fixed' rates. Take EON for example, they offered the iChooser fixed rate plan and about 7 months into it they changed the direct debit monthly payment by an additional £60, when we contacted them about this they said its due to 'usage' and government terms and conditions. We challenged them about their use of the word 'fixed' as this new increase proved the rate was not fixed at all, and the original contract clearly stated the monthly cost would be fixed at a certain rate.
It didn't boldly state that the rate would change subject to energy usage! It left us really confused. We also noticed later EON very cleverly stated these tariffs maybe withdrawn at any time without notice! Since then we're conscious of these ambiguous fixed rate tariffs!

Hello Butterfly21 and not a lot I can add to Cardew's excellent advice. Thanks Cardew.

As Cardew says, it's the unit price per kWh and daily standing charge that are fixed and not the Monthly Direct Debit. With our iChoosr Collectives, we made sure these rates stayed the same until the end date shown in the tariff details confirmation.

Monthly Direct Debits, though, are based on current prices and past usage. If either changes, a payment review is triggered. The aim is to achieve as close as possible to a zero balance by the annual review. Sounds like your usage went up and this triggered an increase in the monthly payments to stop the account building up too much debt.

We're conscious that circumstances change and have an online tool to help customers make sure accounts aren't building up too much credit or debit. The 'Direct Debit Manager' lets customers change their payments both up and down should they need to.

Also agree, although our tariffs can be taken from sale at any time, once signed up to a fixed tariff this will continue right up to the end date unless the customer decides to move to another of our tariffs or changes supplier.

Hope this explains Butterfly21.

Malc

Energy Direct Debits: Get money back & your payments lowered Discussion

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