What do you think Scottish Power will do?

[ditalini]

I've been paying monthly on receipt of bill (after submitting reading) for 4 years now, but after yet another email from Scottish Power about how foolish this is, decided to go with DD. We're an all-electric property with storage heaters.

They've set it at £190 which seems reasonable for my predicted annual usage.

But of course, as I'm starting from my November reading I'm going to be in debt from December - my usage when the heating is on (will be on from 1st of the month until April) is about double the rest of the year.

Will Scottish Power:

A) Suck it up - after all, they'll get their money back in the summer months and it'll all balance out.

B) Freak out and make me increase my DD enormously

And since it'll obviously be B, why are they suggesting that customers who don't currently use DD start one at this time of year?

I'll be delighted to be proven wrong.

I pay monthly by variable DD so my bills are obviously higher in the winter than they are in the summer but I'd rather pay what I owe than have my money in their bank account over the summer when I would be in credit.

I guess I can top up my payments over the winter until my usage drops back in April.

I've always been happy to just pay as I went but finally succumbed to the 5% saving.

Have you been with them a while so they know your annual usage? They should have set the DD so that it is a yearly average. You are also allowed to refuse an increase to the DD as long as you don't go massively into debt so I would just keep an eye on it and make sure it seems about right.
I am with SP too and I go into debit over the winter and it all evens out in the warmer months.

We were in debit with SP over last winter. We are in credit now. The amount we are paying seems to balance out over the year and SP have never demanded more money. We set what we wanted to pay monthly.

I've been with SP for about a decade, on direct debit. My DD is set at a rate where I pay for my annual usage over a year. So I go in debt over the winter and pay it off over the summer. They adjust my dd in April and September, but you can ask for it to be reviewed whenever you want if you don't think it's right.

Ooh that's good to know. We're stuck with SP (complex meter) so we've had our account for over 10 years.

I've got a spreadsheet recording our usage. This shows it as down year-on-year for the last 4, so I think their estimate of future consumption is fair as, while I doubt it'll be lower this year as we've really nowhere else to save, it's extremely unlikely to be higher.

I'll not make extra payments then and just bung it into savings in case.

Resurrecting this as the outcome turned out to be option B (although to be fair they didn't hugely increase it - just by £20 per month).

They've sent me an angst ridden email re: their concern that my current dd would leave me in terrible debt and so they were increasing it by £20 for my Own Good, and were advising a further voluntary increase.

Thing is, I've kept meticulous records for years of my consumption so I know that their "health check" estimate only works if I ramp up my electricity use for the rest of the year (based on current unit costs and daily standing charge). Given that my consumption has been lower year-on-year for the last 3 years that's unlikely.

They really are a bunch of shysters (or need to get a better algorithm).

Yeah, I was fed up of British (and Scottish) Gas always erring hugely in their favour when setting DD. I switched to Octopus. I'm intrigued by why you're 'stuck with SP' ??

Complex metering system due to a now obsolete set up for all-electric properties with storage heaters in Scotland with SP.

Eventually we'll get the meters replaced and move over to standard Economy 7 or whatever, and then SP won't see me for dust.

We'll have to pay for the work ourselves though (it's not just meters, the circuits will need rewired) and will probably replace the old storage heaters at the same time so it's a few grand.

Thanks for that info. I think I had a similar meter - it switched to low tariff by a radio signal - you could hear it clunk when it switched?? I've moved now. I didn't realise it was a problem to switch suppliers in your situation.

I feel your pain - I ended up in credit to the tune of 10 times my monthly DD. When I asked British Gas to switch me to variable direct debit (just paying for actual monthly usage) I was told that it's not one of their payment options, even though it's shown on the website! When I showed them the web page, they still couldn't do it.

Some of the energy companies don't play fair. Look forward to the day when you finally ditch them...

This had the extra 'useful' fancyness of having your storage heater input controlled by weather forecast from the Met Office 🙄. I think they ditched it years ago but now I'm left with a tariff where the "cheap" rate is a whopping 2p per unit less than the day rate. Whoop whoop.

The standard rate isn't as high as E7 standard so it probably balances out more or less, but who knows really, because when you ask an energy advisor (or SP) about it they look like rabbits in the headlights and say they can't help.

I'd been on dd with them for ages but they had stacked up a HUGE credit of £800.... holding onto my money. It was ridiculous. And I couldn't get them to pay it back- spent ages trying on line. Finally cancelled the dd, so they were forced to use it up to pay my bills. It's now used up and of course they want me on dd again.

I think it's shocking how they think they can hold your money , and yes all for our sake of course!

so they were increasing it by £20 for my Own Good, and were advising a further voluntary increase.

I've heard similar sentiments a few times on threads like these about energy companies. I wonder if there are any other industries that routinely talk down to their customers in this way and expect customers to pay them in advance for costs not incurred? I managed to switch to a variable debit with Bulb without 'concerns' on their part: they did at first tell me they couldn't find my account, despite me using the same email to contact them as I did to log in, but at least there was no condescension.