Talk of mass stopping of direct debits to utility companies

[ivykaty44]

so rather than keep letting the utility companies take the money every month, and as much as they like

you put the gas and electric money to one side instead and stop letting the companies have your money between bills to use to make millions

In my own personal situation, myself and my partner will actually be moving in with family for a year in October, to enable me to have a year off work with our baby. So bills will be split between 4 adults rather than two.

So I don't need to be in credit, thankfully.
I just think it's very wrong to increase people's dds stating that is how much they are using currently, when I argued for 5 minutes we've never used close to that amount.
I was happy to over pay by £10-20 when it was my own choice, but not by £60pm with no choice if I wanted to keep paying by dd.

When discussing the earlier increase I heard it said that paying by DD was cheaper.

I just pay the bill when it comes in. When the prices went up I checked vs DD rates and for me and my personal usage it wasn't much more expensive at all, its worth checking and comparing.

You don't need to research that, it's nonsense

Common sense should tell you that of course a cost of living benefit wouldn't only be available to those who pay their bills in a certain way

What if your direct debit isn't due on the 1st?

Do you have online banking? You set standing orders up yourself, the account details should be on your bli

I have never had a problem with my direct debit, I just adjust it accordingly

What is this supposed to achieve? It isn’t going to reduce the wholesale price of energy or sort out the issue with Russia.

I don’t have a direct debit, I pay quarterly for what I use and put away the same amount every month, then I have built up a small
pot for the winter.

I generally read my meter every month or two and check direct debit looks correct if not, I change it, BG, I certainly won't be stopping it as there would be no benefit

It is

Also curious what the objective is?

It seems reckless to deny an energy company the cash flow needed to buy wholesale energy…such a strike if done by enough people would increase their energy bills as the company wouldn’t be able to negotiate the best prices and if done by a critical number of people could even cause the energy company to collapse.

We got moved to shell much to my disgust. They “advised” we put out DD up to £320 a month. I’ve submitted readings and our last 3 bills are in the region of £100. Obviously I understand that’s going to shoot up when colder weather comes but why would I use shell as some kind of savings scheme?

ive set my day at £150 a month

id rather save the money in my own account that theirs

It seems reckless to deny an energy company the cash flow needed to buy wholesale energy

it’s a precarious business model to use money that’s not guaranteed to be there, customers could move or switch to quarterly billing at any time

I've never paid my business one by DD. It's 1000 a month and I basically wait until I get a demand each time. Fuck em

We have a direct debit with British Gas, which is a reasonable amount after I insisted on cancelling the previous one because we had credit of over £900 that was like getting blood from a stone when I asked for it back. This was years ago, so nothing to do with the huge increases recently.
Electricity is with EON Next and we pay monthly after I submit a meter reading. They put the direct debit up a ludicrous amount (also years ago) so I cancelled it.
I put money in an easy access savings account and we have an additional ‘cushion’ so we won’t be caught out.

I won't be cancelling mine, I get a discount for paying by DD and am happy to build up credit in the summer to carry me through the winter. Especially now😭 also as PPs have said, energy companies need to be able to buy wholesale energy in advance and the last thing I want is more suppliers going bust.

i don’t get the logic here. If you think the direct debit amount is too high, you can just contact the company and change it to whatever amount you think it should be, then pay extra as and when needed. That way you still benefit from the direct debit discount.

EON refused to do that, @Aposterhasnoname . I know they should have done it, but many frustrating phone calls led to me just cancelling altogether. Not wasting my time arguing with utility companies about why they don’t get to make interest out of my money.

Thanks so much for this thread as it reminded me when I moved house my old energy supplier emailed me to say they would pay back my credit balance of £300 by 5pm 20th May but they never did and have just checked my online account and they still have the credit balance.

Will phone them asap.

Bloody hell. Can't believe people are even considering this. If you stop your DD, after attempts to collect the debt, the energy company will put you on a prepayment meter. It will affect your credit score and ability to get loans, mortgage etc. it's the wholesale price of gas that's the problem- so your action is going to have no effect whatsoever on that.

Watch what they do with your dds too. I was on pure planet, swallowed by shell. My Dd was set always to cover what I used the previous month, so variable. Was in credit with pp. First couple of months stayed the same then had notice that they were setting it to 465 per month. Over double what I usually pay. When I looked they had set it to a fixed dd so I I could afford it in the winter” Cheeky twats. I’ve reset it to variable.

You are not at the companies mercy with a direct debit.

Just do regular meter readings and adjust accordingly! I just pay for what we use, its possible if you are vigilant.

Monthly consistent payments are very convenient for many people. Any talk of people changing as some form of protest against prices is just not going to happen.

I've seen this campaign.
dontpay.uk/

It's simple: we are demanding a reduction of energy bills to an affordable level. Our leverage is that we will gather a million people to pledge not to pay if the government goes ahead with another massive hike on October 1st.'

I'm not sure what impact it will have where people have already built up credit in summer as it will take a couple of months or maybe longer for that to run out.