Worrying electricity bill increase

Hi,

As you are that much in credit then there's no reasons why they should accept less payment each month. My energy supplier wanted to increase both my gas and electric by a considerable amount and rang them because i thought it was a little too much. They did agree to less monthly direct debit for my electric.

You say they didn't want to back down but does this mean they wouldn't decrease your DD each month?

There's the warm home discount available to those on certain means tested benefits, or those on low income. It does depend on your energy supplier whether they are part of the scheme and their criteria. It's £140 off your bill for the year, so it certainly helps. Google it and it will come up then you'll be able to check the criteria for your energy supplier. You can apply and payments are made sometime from Jan-March 2019.

Hi Mike your energy supplier cannot force you to increase your monthly payments unless you are in debit, because you are now in credit ring them tomorrow and ask why they have asked you to do this, its possibly because they are looking at what they think you will owe when you reach your anniversary bill. there is also the fact that although your in credit now it could be that your bill for your next quarter hasnt been raised yet.

Hi,

I wasn't sure if this was an acceptable subject for the patient site so did not go deeper.

I used to be on monthly d/d at £116 pm. Due to an error on the part of sse my account was cancelled some years ago. When I reinstated it I arranged it through a s/o, so that I increased the payments, not them. The account ran merrily from that point. Last week I received my latest bill with an credit of £57. But it also notified me that I must increase my payments to £166 pm. I phoned them to enquire as to the steep increase, only to be informed that it was calculated from this year's use to next year's use. After 15 minutes of waiting and arguing I hung up, I suffer with anxiety and depression and it is on my file that I may hang up, no one's fault, just me not able to cope. I rang back a few hours later, same experience with a different person, again hung up after 20 minutes. Rang back next day and after 10 minutes was asked to hold on, I did, for 15 minutes they had obviously beat me to it. After days of worrying my daughter phoned them and got nowhere. So she rang the complaints department. Got through to a person who checked the account and agreed that I have never missed a payment, never been in arrears and was indeed in credit and altered the payment back to £116 pm with my assurance that any debit would be settled at end of year.

How many vulnerable, frightened people are there out there, that don't know how to, or can't, fight their corner and are going to be to frightened to put the heating on this winter.

Mike.

Hi Mike,

I think many people are suffering from the soaring energy prices, mine just went up a few weeks ago.

We are heavy users on electric and I asked our supplier to put in SMART meters on Pay As You Go. \so where I am now I can see my electric is £19.28 in credit and out gas is £30.86 in credit.

I refuse to pay many companies by Direct Debit due to hackers exploiting servers. Hence, why the BBC TV Licensing website that stated it was fully secure was breached just a months ago. They keep sending me letters to go paperless - the statistics show too many breaches a day, many are not publicly announced so they are not fined.

Paying our energy bills used to be a pain with direct debit, you always pay more because the companies say so, with Pay As You Go, you only pay for what you use.

Summer we put hardly anything on our meters at all - it is winter we find difficult the problem period. 😕

Regards,

SteV3

I personally change my energy supplier every year because when the good deal ends ,you are automatically transferred to their highly expensive variable rate unless you contact them to change you over to their next best deal. This probably won't be the cheapest on offer do I recommend you switch to a better deal. Having said that, I phoned my energy supplier yesterday after finding out that I was £189 in credit and asked them when they were going to refund me this money. Bearing in mind that it is exactly 1 year since I moved to them (eon) so the payments I had made this past year were more than sufficient to cover the same next year. However, if they were to transfer me to their highly inflated cost variable rate, then it probably would have eaten up all my credit!. The chap I spoke to said they were not going yo refund the £189 because, we were heading into winter when this amount would cover any extra cost. Promptly told him I was moving energy company and they'd have to refund it. Spent 10 minutes on line to Uswitch and Ive apparently saved £300+ . Job done. Don't stick with an energy provider just because they're what you know as I know a lot of people do and end up quids worse off.

I also got a notification yesterday. I have only just changed to bulb but they want to raise my monthly amount despite already being in credit. What really bothers me is i think it's a right scam. Imagine if a fuel supplier takes everyones account to £100 in credit, and they have perhaps one million customers, then that's £100m they have to invest and receive the interest on.I consider them to be worse than bankers really. It's not their money they are receiving interest on, it's our money and that money could go on other things that are necessary for our health. I have medical equipment on the go 20 hours per day so can't really keep myself warm. Heating does matter to me, but i also can't stand companies that want our money to invest. The interest must be loads each month for them and they aren't giving us anything for it. I'd be so much happier if they were to let me send photos of my gas/electric meters. Otherwise i too might ask for pay as you go. I've never had payg, nor have i had monthly direct debits either. I've also not ever been in debt with a supplier. It's just unfair in my opinion.

Hi All,

I am on two meters from the same cables. One for night storage heaters, (no gas supply), and the other for general use. I am also on a "legacy " off peak E meter for the heaters which give 8 hours charge. I have tried many times to change suppliers who all say they can supply me, until they come across the off peak E. I have asked my supplier to put in a separate feed for the off peak, but they are none committal as it would cost them and then I could change supplier.

Why make it easy when it's easy to make it hard.

Mike.