To have not believed energy companies are THIS awful?

[mynamechangemyrules]

I got a letter saying my DD was going from £75 to £156. In a little fury, especially at the 'don't worry it's all done for you and we'll just whip the extra money out of your account despite your fuel not costing that much' letter, I cancelled my DD 🤪

Cue a letter which tells me my ACTUAL FUEL and the standing charge is HIGHER because I won't do direct debit. Is that even legal.?!

Anyway, I always pay and just about have the money but don't want to pay over the odds (I've only been in the UK 2 years and the first year I paid in full every 3 months with British Gas- OVO wouldn't allow this (will view it as defaulting if I leave it more than a month) despite me preferring/ asking for it upon opening an account.) At no point did BG mention that I was paying more- would I have been?!

Final bit of the boring saga- I decide last night that I'll sign up for the DD against my wishes just because I can't bear to pay more to not... Go onto the (shit) app and it says my calculated DD is £256 per month!! Obv I lose my mind. Then I think, well that's because I now owe this month plus creating a future direct debit. I decide to pay this month now and see about a DD later.

An hour later DD charge goes back down to £156. Surely they can't be that stupid that they can't work out that the £156 is still adequate it's just this is the heaviest usage month with Xmas lights and heating etc? (I hadn't missed a month of direct debit het as id cancelled well before the due date, IYSWIM so they wouldn't have lost out)

Not sure what I'm even ranting about now but the sooner our core utilities are back in public ownership the better. Why is anyone making a profit from selling goods which are essential to life?

Fuming abput the whole thing!

All energy companies offer a discount for paying by direct debit.

*many

Yes, it is legal.

Honestly, I’m more cross about the idea to charge all customers more to cover the bad debts of those who can’t/won’t pay.🙁

I don’t consider myself responsible for those that haven’t paid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67725424

That sounds stresful! I am with scottish power and can set my own dd amount on the app. If they raise it to more than is needed I go on the app and lower it. They seem pretty good at estimating it quite accurately though.

Energy companies, like all companies, are interested in only one thing, profit, everything they do is to generate that and not just profit but huge profit, billions and billions if they can.

Energy companies are already renegading on restricting the fitting of pre payment meters, applying for more and more orders to fit them, not making the checks and still breaking in to fit them.

They also work hand in glove with Ofgem (the regulator) hence the profit of the energy industry is also Ofgem's number one concern too, hence the passing on of customer debt to everyone else, not the energy industry, so we all pay an extra £16 (at least) so they can keep their high salaries, bonuses and dividends.

The general public cannot even reduce consumption as all they do is put up the unit cost and or standing charge plus as the industry operate via a price cap, there isn't even any competition, as they all charge the same.

They've tried to double my mils dd even though she's like 4 grand in credit. They keep fobbing her off when she calls asking to get some of the credit back.
I'm lucky in Ireland I just pay for my usage, so you get a bill and 7 days later that amount is withdrawn from your account.

It's technically a discount if you pay by DD, so not discount if you choose not to.

I also don't understand not wanting to pay by DD especially at this time of year where your actual bills will be much higher than an averaged out DD.

It was a bit daft to cancel the direct debit in the first place. Prices have risen so what you pay is likely to need to rise too.

I like the convenience of a direct debit so you don't need to pay lots in winter and less in the summer as its spread out throughout the year. I can change my direct debit easily on the Octopus app and when I give meter readings I can see almost immediately what my current balance is so I can assess if I'm paying too much or too little.

Energy companies will never go back into public ownership.

We make too much money and pay too much tax for the government to take back all the costs of running the network.

We pay our staff really well which feeds back into the economy.

Same as anything else that's been privatised.

Since privatisation we've seen huge improvements in the energy infrastructure. Back to the power cuts of the 80's anyone?

No didn't think so..

Take a look at Octopus energy

I came on to recommend octopus too. They’re not there purely to make money.
they seem to want to make things easier for customers and also heavily invest in and promote renewables.
we love them!

When my energy company come up with a new DD figure, I work out if I think it appropriate or affordable, of not, I change the DD amount.

My energy company kept trying to raise my DD as well despite being well in credit. In the end I changed it to keep the direct debit but pay for actual usage for the month. Perhaps see if you can do this too if you can budget? Bills are obviously more during winter but I can save over Summer and get the interest in my own account without it sitting with the supplier.

If your energy company recalculate your DD and you think it is excessive you should talk to them and recalibrate it to better reflect your average usage, not just cancel your DD.

Lots of companies charge/less more if you are a more convenient customer (different prices in Sainsbury's if you have a nectar card for instance). Of course it's legal.

Best companies for being in touch if you need to are Good Energy and Octopus. I work in this sector.

Working out if your DD is sensible is just a matter of looking at your annual consumption and the cost at current rates (these change of course) and dividing it by 12 if your DD is monthly.

If your energy company have asked for more you don't have to accept that you agree to pay what you know is right. Too much or too little paid = credit or debt.

Octopus are a bit shit as well as, maybe better than some but very bad at sorting out issues with smart meters

OP you need to have at least one winter month's amount of money in your energy account.

When you set up direct debits they over charge you as don't know whether you will randomly cancel your direct debit or run up a debts you can't pay.

Once you have been with them nearly a year then you can argue with them about how much the monthly amount should be.

I work for an energy company. It's usually all automated, most direct debits increase at this time of year as people are using more energy. If you want it decreasing you just have to phone and ask, at my place we're happy to set it to a reasonable amount as long as there isn't debit on the account.

You still get the DD discount if you opt to pay the exact bill each month by DD. If you can set aside enough to cover the winter months (my max was about £500 last year, summer bills were about £100) then you never build up credit with the energy co so the money stays in your bank account as long as possible.

Last April, I was nearly £600 in credit so rang them and asked for a refund of £500 of it. It was in my account within a day or two.

The fixed-term deal I was on prior to the price hike in 2021 came to an end last month, so I signed up to a new one. Their algorithm wanted me to increase my DD from £80-something to £120-ish. I pointed out that even at £80 a month, I was overpaying by £50 a month, and the new prices weren't 50% more than I was paying, and that I wanted to keep it the same.

They didn't bat an eyelid, so £80 it is.

The only company who automated refunded large credit amounts was British Gas. Every single other utility supplier I have ever used I have had to fight with them to get my credit back. A simple phone call has never worked.

I got refunded a large credit back from Eon Next when I asked a few months ago. I'm still £700 in credit.

As PPs have said, you can set your own DD amount. EN tried to up mine from £60 to £85 when my deal ended in September but I just went on the app and changed it back to £60.

I have a smart meter, can see my usage, I check the app regularly so I'm sure you will be able to do the same. Just change your DD back to what it was and remember paying that way is cheapest.

I'm a customer of Good Energy and my credit was automatically returned to me this year without any action on my part.

That's because the real money maker for octopus energy is Kraken Technologies.

They use their energy company to promote their customer service software to other energy companies.

My actual bills are lower than the averaged out DD. Dec should be highest I think and it's 110. From April (when I moved in) to September they averaged 50 a month.

I think I need to find out if they can just pay the full amount each month, as I wanted to, but by Direct Debit.

I lived in the UK between 1984-92 and never had a power cut except after a big storm where a tree landed on a pylon on our street.

I like the statement 'we make too much money' for the govt to take it back...! Exactly, kind of proved the point against yourself. See also: we pay our staff really well- fab excellent great- but 'drip down' economics doesn't work so not convinced that Chris O'Shea getting £4.5m was really a benefit to the people at large in the uk?