Increasing monthly Direct Debit, when they refund you,Gas/Electric

Just had my invoice from April 6th to October 5th from EDF, They’re sending me the £106 credit back but increasing the monthly D/D by £34 an increase of about 34% based on my estimated annual consumption? Now my current tariff expires at the end of this month so no doubt they’ll be increasing it again. It’s worrying that they’ll increase the D/D by that much based on my current Tariff/usage, what about when it all goes up again? If they were to increase it again by the same amount that would mean a total increase of 68% of what I’m currently paying. FFS

 

I was trapped in a daft cycle with British Gas for ages. At the end of summer they'd write me a letter saying "oh you've not been using owt so we'll drop your DD to **** all".

Then in March I'd get a letter saying "**** me, you're absolutely rinsing gas so we're upping your DD to a sum equal to the GDP of a South American country".

This repeated endlessly and led to the daft situation where I was paying an eye watering amount for my heating in summer and next to nowt in winter.

 

It's all a con mate, grifting of the highest quality.
A global financial collapse is coming down the tubes, either imminently or it'll be put off by around 6-18 months by tricksters in governments and financial institutions like last time. They're moving cash and debt around like crazy. The Chinese dominoes fell last week, its just folk aren't fully aware of it yet. They've had rolling energy blackouts in China, and power outages have occurred elsewhere in the world. All not being reported on by mainstream media.
Michael Burry once again forecasted this months ago.

 

On top of this, it was mentioned on BBC news that the utility companies are also increasing their Quarterly charges as well

 

Same happens with me and EDF. I think they look at what you’ve used in the winter and calculate you’ll use the same amount in the summer. (Which makes your summer bill too high) At end of summer you get a refund (because obviously you’ve not used that amount) and they then calculate you’ll use the same in the coming winter as what you did use in summer. (Which drops your bill too low.) Must make sense to somebody.

In March I made what I thought was a pretty poor decision. Took a fixed deal until 2023. Be interesting to see how they wriggle out of that one.

 

The thing is they say it’s based on an annual consumption, whether estimated or not, surely the monthly D/D should be based on that and not a seasonal one. They can still refund any credit at the end of the invoice period. I worked in the industry many years ago, and we used the (Annual Actual Consumption) as part of the calculations.

 

I was with Green Energy & have been transferred to Shell Energy. I'm electric only in my flat.

Probably the last supplier on earth I would have picked!

I went through Look After My Bills, who have suspended operations for the time being. I guess I'll just keep on a variable tariff for now & see what happens.

Gonna be a tough winter for many on limited incomes.

 

I exercised my option with the bank under the direct debit gaurentee scheme earlier this year with the cowboys that were utility point. They had over charged me by 100 for two months. I claimed a full refund of both direct debits and dropped mine to 20. Per month. They said in my last bill I owe them 500 now. They've gone bust so it's down to the liquidator if he wants a dispute, I would be surprised if he did. They are all nearly as bad but utility point had actually took it to a whole new level.

 

You're right and that's what I thought. Doesn't seem to work that way in practice through

 

In my experience they can’t alter the fixed Tariffs but they can (attempt) to Increase the D/D if it’s showing a considerable Debit

 

I am with EON, and I'm looking at moving. If anyone knows of an ethical provider, please let me know.

 

I'm with utility warehouse and they just invoice me every month via dd so it varies. Had a refund of over £100 the other month and the next was only charged 20. But I am lazy about letting them know my meter readings!

 

I’m with look after Bills and unfortunately my fixed term tariff with EDF ends this month so they couldn’t help me. I too will be on variable Tariff suppose we’ll be at the mercy of the Energy price cap

 

I ended up going on top up cards for similar reasons . British gas were taking £200 plus a month off me even though I was nearly £500 in credit with them . I'd phone up , they d agree to drop my DD then still take the same amount at the end of the month . I do know going the card top up route costs a bit more but it puts me in complete control of how much I choose to spend .

 

Get one of these.It`s the future.

 

In the short-term, allowing deals to expire and being protected by the price cap is the recommended action, compared to the fixed rates currently on offer.

 

I was with AVRO, I was paying under 3 pence per kilowatt of gas, it’s about 7p now. I’m being switched to octopus energy. It’s telling they haven’t rang me yet to arrange anything, the price cap has increased today, I’ll bet you any thing I’ll get a call tomorrow

 

I've been with both Ovo and now Octopus. The latter I've been particularly impressed with and they seem to have been the best value for the last few years but also have a pretty easy layout for your bill. Even have a wheel spin to get a possible rebate. Never won it, but some obviously do.

I plumped for the account with just green electricity, which was slightly more, but I felt it was something I wanted to aligned with.

The fixed term runs out in about a week and a half though, so I'll be staying with them on a variable for now given fixed rate deals have either been removed or are eye watering in comparison to before.

 

I'm with Scottish Power. I don't have many good things to say about them, but at least their app allows me to amend my direct debit level whenever I feel I need to. I'm currently a few hundred quid in credit, due to low summer usage, but I've deliberately kept my DD at the same level knowing that I'll use that slack over winter.

Despite being on smart meters, I still use the app to generate an invoice every month end, thus updating my balance. I'm effectively doing exactly what I did before the smart meters were fitted, even to the point of going out to check that the readings on the app match the meter readings. It may sound like overkill, but you're either in control of your money or someone else is in control of it.

 

Thanks, my bills have just gone up and it seems it's not a good time to move, but I do need to keep in mind changes.

And bills are something that EON, and nPower before them weren't very good at. I know it's me, but they could try to simplify them. The other thing I want/need is automatic upload of readings.