Energy company increasing direct debit

we pay on receipt of the bill, yes a little more than if we paid by dd but worth it i think. They don't have any of my money sitting in their bank

Try changing supplier. Octopus are excellent, no hanging on the phone, you can email and get an answer fairly quickly. We have a smart meter and I love it. I can see what I am using at a glance and we have a tracker account so the electric is much cheaper at the moment.

Don't let them increase if you are in credit it shouldn't be necessary. I just rang my company and told them not to increase and if I owed extra at the end of the year I would pay the balance.

Germanshepherdsmum

I received my electricity bill by email today, quickly checked it then as usual paid online by credit card (paid off in full each month before anyone leaps on that). No faffing at all. I always pay bills immediately - I don’t like owing money.

I think we are in the minority GSM.

But, like you - I don't find it a faff either.

I know anyone can check their fuel consumption at any time - but there's something about opening your latest bill which concentrates the mind somewhat on the consumption.

I received my electricity bill by email today, quickly checked it then as usual paid online by credit card (paid off in full each month before anyone leaps on that). No faffing at all. I always pay bills immediately - I don’t like owing money.

LottieLouise

I have never had a problem with Direct Debit, it saves all the faffing about making payments each month by cheque or money transfer or online. If I have overpaid then I just request the overpayment back and then amend my direct debit accordingly. I have been with my company since we were married in 1967 and have never had a problem. Many years ago, I used to go into town with my Gas and Electricity bill and pay cash at the counter but now I love the simplicity of having a direct debit so I can forget about paying the bills but, I always check every month before meter readings are sent in and work it out myself so I know exactly what my bill will be, I am always correct to the penny. I check my other direct debits at the end of the month for the other things I use them for and there has never, ever been a mistake.

It's good to hear that you've never had a problem with DDs. Clearly, though, some people do, and it seems suppliers vary in their willingness to pay back any over-payments as well as increase the DDs without consultation to an amount that is frequently then lowered when the customer complains.

DDs work for some, but not for everyone, and we all need to have a choice.

My experience is not everyone's experience, but I don't find paying a bill online much of a 'faff'. The billing is online, I press a button, and pay it.

... I doubt there are many who pay by cheque anymore - but for some, perhaps the very elderly who are not online, this is their only method.

Each to their own.

I m in a fight with British Gas over similar issues & Im really had it up to the back teeth over ‘ estimated ‘ bills. There is no one in the UK you can actually speak to . Their customer service agents are all in Durban with heavy South African accents & you get cut off if on too long. It beggars belief & yes I’m leaving British Gas as soon as I sort out my CREDIT 😡Any advice ?

Rather strange they have upped it if you are in credit. I thought prices had come down. My provider, Octopus, have reduced our monthly payments,

I agree GSM. I prefer to pay all my bills via BACS not by direct debit.
They still try though. I quote Martin Lewis to them.

I have never had a problem with Direct Debit, it saves all the faffing about making payments each month by cheque or money transfer or online. If I have overpaid then I just request the overpayment back and then amend my direct debit accordingly. I have been with my company since we were married in 1967 and have never had a problem. Many years ago, I used to go into town with my Gas and Electricity bill and pay cash at the counter but now I love the simplicity of having a direct debit so I can forget about paying the bills but, I always check every month before meter readings are sent in and work it out myself so I know exactly what my bill will be, I am always correct to the penny. I check my other direct debits at the end of the month for the other things I use them for and there has never, ever been a mistake.

when i became an octopus i told them that i would give them my bank details and authorise them to take the exact sum i owed them each month.
i send them the meter readings.
one month i was a day late and they estimated it based on the previous readings.
they are excellent.
wish i'd changed sooner.
you don't have to agree to the average system.

All things considered, I did get my way and the DD will remain at the previous figure - but not before I threatened to report them to OFGEM and my local MP.
In conclusion, I wasn't rude or vehement, I simply made my point and refused to accept their decision.

Oh well done you, Astitchintime! You need a or a stiff

But at what cost to your wellbeing? It takes over your life for a while. If you have to 'threaten' to make them understand reason, it's a pretty poor show.

Severn Trent recently changed my meter. I asked for an up to date bill at the changeover and when I found I was £130 in credit I requested and received a refund. I rang them and got my DD reduced considerably. They were easy to deal with over the phone.

Thought I would come back and update on my OP. I called the energy company yesterday as I had not received a response or acknowledgement to my three emails.

Their excuse for the 38% increase in our DD was based on our energy usage over the winter period!!.........I pointed out that we are approaching much warmer weather and our energy usage will be reduced massively - I know this from experience. The call handler was adamant they were doing the right thing but I was very firm and pointed out that we were in credit and always have been, although this does fluctuate, and I did not want the DD increasing by such a huge margin.
I also raised concerns over the huge amount of money that they are accumulating when customers are in credit but the call handler claims to know nothing about that - I guess they are working from a script after all.
All things considered, I did get my way and the DD will remain at the previous figure - but not before I threatened to report them to OFGEM and my local MP.
In conclusion, I wasn't rude or vehement, I simply made my point and refused to accept their decision.
We are on a water meter and I have never had this problem with Severn Trent, if I am in credit they leave the DD amount alone or reduce it, depending on the amount.

How true this is, I really don't know - but I've just had a mail from the political-activist group, 38 Degrees, which states that energy companies could be sitting on hundreds of pounds of your money via Direct Debits.

They have calculated it as £3 billion from 16 million households. But where they get their figures from, I have no idea, and don't have time to research it - or the activist group history... though I believe they've been 'in business' since 2009.

If it is anywhere near that figure, then that's an awful lot of money. But I do realise that some energy companies are better than others in allowing you to downsize your DDs and are quick to repay credit owing.

However, it's food for thought.

I must, at some time, have looked at their website and clicked on the "accept Cookies" option, because they are not a group that I look at online. And there are others... but that's a separate thread...

A few years ago we changed to a company which lets you amend your DD yourself. They also have a graph showing your usage, over a year, related to your payments, with anticipated usage and payments over the coming months, so you can see and adjust your DD accordingly. I like that everything is so transparent. Yes, I agree that the credit building up during the summer months could be in my savings account rather than in theirs, but I like the security blanket.
It is also easy to get credit refunded on request. I am with Octopus. They are an ethical company, and electricity is produced using green energy.

I've been told mine will ve going down in July...I have a smart meter so pay for exactly what I use every month

I am partially sighted, and can no longer read the meters well placed outdoors so I have a smart meter. To date, I have had no problems and when I accrued some money last year it was returned without a hassle.

My previous company EDF changed my direct debit almost monthly so I was delighted to move to Octopus when it was a fledgling company.

My energy company has reduced my payments a couple of times recently. I do read the meter for the solar panels but that's only four times a year. The only awkward part of it is that the installers put the meter in a very dark corner, but once I realised that all I had to do was photograph the numbers and enter them at my leisure it was no problem.

I am another who pays on meter readings every month.

Learnt the lesson of average monthly payments over 50 years ago when we bought our first house. At a time when we were really strapped for cash we paid twice as much as needed to heat the house because British Gas would not accept that we would not leave the heating on all day when both of us were at work. Never again.

Yes customer can but I think only within 10% or something like that

PaperMonster

Just change your DD to the amount you want to pay.

But can customers do that??

We have a smart meter. Our electricity company have just reduced our DD payment

I read my meters every month takes less than 2 minutes and I pay be DD mine has recently gone down quite a lot fine by me I’ll keep an eye on it and if I go into debit will up my repayments

My DD was revised downwards a few months ago. I asked for the credit I had accrued to be returned and it was.

I am going to claim my money back from now on, especially during the summer months.

My supplier never leaves me hanging on the phone and always deals with calls promptly and politely.