Its a bit of a myth that DD is massively cheaper than not paying by DD. Well, maybe not a myth but its a few pounds annually as opposed to hundreds. I think its £15 difference estimated over the course of a whole year on my electric. Dont get me wrong... i think its a real cheek they do it at all but for the sake of a little more you can have total control over what you pay and when.
- Thread starter rosinante
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Screwdriver
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What happens is if you subscribe to a direct debit, there is a set minimum which can be (and always is!) higher than your actual usage. Eventually it will float to eye watering levels if you're not watching them closely. Like I said, the excuse is that bills go up in winter and they're "helping" you by averaging it out over the year i.e helping themselves to free money.
YES they can shut off your electric and gas especially if you have a "smart" meter. What they do is a neat trick. If you fall behind in payment AND have a "smart" meter, they can unilaterally decide to switch you to "pay as you go". A neat trick but entirely despicable because once you're on pay as you go (which is also more expensive!!) and you don't top up your meter, they can claim you have switched off your own supply! Really, words fail me, I mean I have plenty
but I can't post them here...
ajlelectronics
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Exactly what they did to one of my tenants.
vw-al
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No smart meter for gas but there is one for electric, it was there before we moved in but it doesn’t talk to BG, which is good, just checked my account and payment arrangement is called “variable direct debit”
Morrisman
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The house my daughter rents, both she and the agent read the non-smart gas meter when she moved in, took a pic of the reading. She contacted the gas company to arrange direct debit, they told her she would need to wait 3 months to generate a first bill.
She did that, they contacted her, and she tried to enter the reading in the online billing page they linked to, and it said the last reading was quite a bit higher than what she was trying to put in. Half an hour on the phone and they are still arguing that her reading is wrong. Eventually they sent her a bill for about £40
I think the previous tenant had put in far higher number, essentially buying gas ahead of the planned price rises, so he must have paid it all up when he left, and they have just 'invented' a bill for my daughter to get some cash out of her.
She did that, they contacted her, and she tried to enter the reading in the online billing page they linked to, and it said the last reading was quite a bit higher than what she was trying to put in. Half an hour on the phone and they are still arguing that her reading is wrong. Eventually they sent her a bill for about £40
I think the previous tenant had put in far higher number, essentially buying gas ahead of the planned price rises, so he must have paid it all up when he left, and they have just 'invented' a bill for my daughter to get some cash out of her.
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The house my daughter rents, both she and the agent read the non-smart gas meter when she moved in, took a pic of the reading. She contacted the gas company to arrange direct debit, they told her she would need to wait 3 months to generate a first bill.
She did that, they contacted her, and she tried to enter the reading in the online billing page they linked to, and it said the last reading was quite a bit higher than what she was trying to put in. Half an hour on the phone and they are still arguing that her reading is wrong. Eventually they sent her a bill for about £40
I think the previous tenant had put in far higher number, essentially buying gas ahead of the planned price rises, so he must have paid it all up when he left, and they have just 'invented' a bill for my daughter to get some cash out of her.
Unlike the last tenant in my mums house, he closed his account a few days before the tenancy ended and Shell Energy expected me to pay for the gas & electric he used
luckily, photos and signed handover sheets got it sorted. Going by the mail that came to the address over the following few weeks he owed a few companies money, most went back in the post as "return to sender", but some of the debt recovery companies had a box on the envelope for a forwarding address which I filled in 
RaceDiagnostics
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Myth? This is fact, the prices given to me by OVO after I cancelled my DD, so ~£250 more per year.
rosinante
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Well I have been in communication with BG, from next month my dd will be variable meaning I will pay for what I use monthly instead of 6 monthly with estimated usage installments, combined with the Water bill taking into account energy and water used to date I am entitled to £671 refund , how many more like me are lending money to these massive companies ,
Fair enough. I have accounts with British Gas and Eon and it barely makes any difference.
Anyway - regardless of that i dont really understand how there are rules saying they cant charge more anymore if you pay by credit card over debit card but if you choose to pay for what you use as it is billed they can charge you so much more as a very much made up admin charge.
rosinante
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This just isn't fair how can the standing charge differ because of the method of payment ? Wtf are our politicians and watchdogs doing ? Never mind over 10% increase , no wonder BG skipped answering my question on that subject ,
It was in the small print when you agreed to be their customer paying by their suggested DD . . . you just needed to refuse that suggestion and take up there perhaps less well sign-posted option of simply paying the actual bill by DD.
You can't really blame a business by trying to make the most of the opportunity of make money if the customer simply signs up for it . . .
Well. It seems to vary a fair bit. Mine isnt a DD. They email me a bill and I pay it. So slighty different. As long as they get the money owed for whats used i dont think any charges are fair. As others have said, the DD system they use where they basically hold your cash (and it must add up to millions) is really bizarre and must give them a massive cashflow that they can invest etc.
rosinante
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Well they know exactly what I use each month as listed in my account , December we used the most by about 60 pounds ,the combined total was £163, yet the DD still stood at 254 ish , so how can that be defended given the estimated usage is exceeds the actual by 50% minimum . We have averaged these figures for months, even with the increases ,
Morrisman
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"Eventually it will float to eye watering levels if you're not watching them closely"What happens is if you subscribe to a direct debit, there is a set minimum which can be (and always is!) higher than your actual usage. Eventually it will float to eye watering levels if you're not watching them closely. Like I said, the excuse is that bills go up in winter and they're "helping" you by averaging it out over the year i.e helping themselves to free money.
YES they can shut off your electric and gas especially if you have a "smart" meter. What they do is a neat trick. If you fall behind in payment AND have a "smart" meter, they can unilaterally decide to switch you to "pay as you go". A neat trick but entirely despicable because once you're on pay as you go (which is also more expensive!!) and you don't top up your meter, they can claim you have switched off your own supply! Really, words fail me, I mean I have plenty
And therein lies the problem. People don't pay attention, and just leave it to their utility people to sort out, thinking they are doing the best thing for the customer......
Utilities companies are in the business for profit, there's no other reason they exist. They're not looking after your best interests in case of a hard winter, trying to minimise the impact of a winter bill, they're trying to maximise profit, and the people who complain about having £500 in credit to their electric supplier have simply fallen for the sales spiel.
mike os
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About 25 million dwellings in the uk... assuming half are on dd, and most of the remaining are prepay ... all are in credit to some degree and all dad are say £100 in credit.. that's £2500 000000 in cash they have to play with ...
Morrisman
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I'm £150 in credit, but it's government money.
They pay me more than I use every month.Chatting with some biker mates last week, one guy is paying £300 a month for electric, lives on his own, in a bungalow, like me..... The mind boggles. He can't explain why, maybe he supports global warming, has heaters in his back yard?
Morrisman
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Or, you contact them and ask WTF is going on? Why they need to bill so much? It seems like an alien concept for people to actually question these companies.
20 years ago British gas tried to increase my DD by 300%, so I cancelled it, called them up, and they blathered on about a computer error....... Of course it was......
Morrisman
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Sorry, that should have been £300 in gas, not electric. Late night postings.....
My bulk lpg tank only cost £300 to fill last April, and it's still half full now.
So to turn it around, how can you defend not checking what you were paying against what the bill was, and then questioning it?
You are as much to blame . . . more so, it's your money!
Change it to variable DD - pay the actual bill.
