AIBU to think they should have told me before changing Direct debit by nearly £200

[LG93]

Will try to keep this brief. Moved into a new property last year which is much bigger than our previous house so had no idea how much our electricity would be, particularly as we don't have a gas supply and have an electric powered aga. The energy company set us up on a direct debit for £90a month and said they would review in 6 months. This was after them causing us to end in arrears after failing to set up payments despite my best efforts for 3 months after we moved in, but got it sorted in the end. We also needed a new display unit for the house for the smart meter to see what we were using but they were apparently out of stock and never sent one.

Now admittedly, I haven't chased the display unit or paid much attention to our energy usage as I fell pregnant immediately after moving in and had a complicated pregnancy with ongoing health concerns for my daughter, so it's not been my number one priority and just assumed no news was good news. I checked the joint account yesterday and found it down to £1.48 as they have amended the direct debit from August from £90 to £269 as they have now reviewed our energy use and decided it's much higher than expected and that we are nearly £1000 in debit.

I don't understand how we can possibly have used that much electricity for 2 adults and a baby, but I guess I have no way of proving that so I accept we will have to pay what they are telling us we owe, but surely somebody should have either contacted us on December/January when we were due the 6 month review and it would have become evident that we were way above our direct debit amount and worked to correct it then, or failing that they could have called/written/emailed to warn me so I could have been prepared and tried to adjust finances accordingly? We are paperless but I normally get an email notification when someoos updated/changed on the account/terms so I assumed a change to the direct debit would have been the same?

I just want to check if IABU before I call them to complain about the lack of communication!

How big is the property?!?
It sounds like an error to me, have you phoned them for this to be looked into?

Sorry just saw, definitely phone them! Sounds like an error to me and totally unacceptable without notice.

If they have not notified you of the change then call your bank and get the direct debit refunded under the direct debit guarantee

The Direct Debit Guarantee means they have to inform you of a change, or if a DD varies month to month inform you in advance of the money being debited. Have you checked your emails, post and account preferences with them online or in any app to see what you have selected for communication from them? Have they complied with those preferences? If not they'll need to refund you. You'll still have to pay them, but shouldn't be left with so little with no warning.

www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/pages/directdebitguarantee.aspx

It's the bank that refunds you under the direct debit guarantee but you sell need to contact the company to set up a reasonable payment amount

Is the aga on through the summer too?

Electric agas EAT money.

@shahlalala, it's 4 bed, but there is only 2 adults and a baby currently. I was expecting us to use a bit more while I was on maternity as obviously home more, but they are saying we have used approx 11,500kWh in 18 months which seems an awful lot. Looking at the smart meter data online there is a spell of a month or 2 where the meter lost communication with them so not sure if they have made a mistake there, but I still have our opening reading and the meter is now reading 11,500 on from that so I don't know if or how I can dispute that really

£90 isn't that much for that size of house. How many months did you miss? Electricity is much more expensive than gas too

That does seem a lot. I would have expected communication for a hike in price this large too.

FWIW we have been with British Gas (one of the most expensive ) for just over a year. (New build - I was waiting for a year to get an idea of costs and now switching)

We are in a largish 4 bed detached. 2 adults 2 electricity-using kids.
Our current annual costs are Gas £800 (ish) and Electricity £700 (ish) so our monthly costs for combined (I know its a bit different if you are only electric) is approx £125. So I cannot see how £90 a month isn't adequate for 2 adults

Please call them.

But gas is cheaper than being all electric so I wouldn't expect £90 to go as far

All this is immaterial - did they notify the OP they were taking a larger amount is the key question.

@lifecouldbeadream - no, we would have boiled! It was on from end of November to approximately March, although it was off for about 4 weeks in that time as it broke and couldn't hold any heat, so I have a suspicion that it was drawing an awful lot of electric prior to us realising it was broken trying it's hardest to keep hot, rather than topping itself up like it should.

Thanks for the opinions all, we have kerosene oil for heating and hot water so that's not electronic but obviously would expect our electricity bill to be larger than those on dual fuel, but will accept that the usage is probably correct if you take into account the aga and me being home all day with the baby we probably use more electric than normal, but I'm cross nobody told me. When you go into the online account it does say they have changed the direct debit, but I didn't get any notification that they had put anything on there so hasn't checked. Will look at my notification settings before I phone them, thanks to the pp who suggested that!

If they have not notified you of the change then call your bank and get the direct debit refunded under the direct debit guarantee

I once had electricity company take something like £1500 instead of a £200, after they read a meter wrongly. My bank refused to do anything, even when I explicitly mention the so-called guarantee, just went broken record with "talk to the electricity company."

"Just talk to the electricity company" meant being on hold for an hour, before you got to talk to a human.

I noticed that the electricity company had promised that they would always send you a bill before the direct debit was due, so you could check the amount, but on that one occasion only, the bill arrived after the payment had gone out. What a remarkable coincidence.

Sounds like you have an issue with the meter

Same happened to us (two adults and 4 bed house) they whacked up our direct debit to £300/mnth and I noticed when I logged into online banking for something else. I now do meter readings every two weeks and this month we used £60 (despite them taking £300 odd still), but in the winter obviously a lot more. I refuse to get a smart meter. We have got a gadget that constantly monitors our electricity use though so we can see when it spikes and work out what it is.

@LG93

It’ll be the aga. We are oil heating, and have no other method of cooking. Aga cost and other electric during winter months was £240ish/mth.

Have you been submitting your meter readings? This might be estimated fare not the actual calculated one. See if you can submit meter readings and get it down. You might have to fight them on this. Also if you don't already start making a spread sheet and record your meter readings every month. This will help you track your units yourself.

@bananasaidso it's a smart meter so they get an updated reading every 30 minutes automatically

Have they been billing you regularly and correctly? They have no excuse if you have a smart meter. There are rules about back billing so I would take a look and see if any of that applies. They can't charge you extra for energy used more than 12 months ago if they made a mistake.

www.ofgem.gov.uk/consumers/household-gas-and-electricity-guide/who-contact-if-its-difficult-paying-energy-bills/energy-backbilling-guide-your-rights

I would also check your usage month by month (they should know that from the smart meter) and make sure that you have been charged the correct amount. The cost of electricity varies so you should be charged the price at the time it was used, not the current price.

The smart meter could be faulty. It is not unheard of. I would get that checked too. If it is, they have to base the bill on your average usage.