davieG Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 I think of changing my Energy supplier I've always had pay on receipt of bill generally avoiding Direct Debit as I've had problems in the past getting these cancelled. Has cancelling a DD improved or is it still a pain in the arse? What do people use and would you recommend DD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strokes Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 You can cancel a direct debit online with both banks I use, in minutes. Do you use online banking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince Vega Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 I agree with Strokes. I do all my banking online and DD is the best way for regular payments. you have full control and a guarantee if 'unauthorised' / unexpected payments are made. Easy to amend and cancel too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davieG Posted 9 August 2017 Author Share Posted 9 August 2017 7 minutes ago, Strokes said: You can cancel a direct debit online with both banks I use, in minutes. Do you use online banking? Yes, I always thought it was down to the company your dealing with to cancel DDs and Standing Orders were under your own control, has that changed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom27111 Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 5 minutes ago, davieG said: Yes, I always thought it was down to the company your dealing with to cancel DDs and Standing Orders were under your own control, has that changed? You can cancel the DD at anytime, after the first payment has been taken, through online banking. It recommends you let the company know, but the bank won't pay anything once you've cancelled it with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joachim1965 Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 I am with santander and my list of direct debits is displayed online and one click and it's cancelled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strokes Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 8 minutes ago, davieG said: Yes, I always thought it was down to the company your dealing with to cancel DDs and Standing Orders were under your own control, has that changed? I don't know if it has changed, but you can definitely cancel a direct debit from Barclays current account online and nationwide. Ive seen the options on there to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPH Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 39 minutes ago, davieG said: I think of changing my Energy supplier I've always had pay on receipt of bill generally avoiding Direct Debit as I've had problems in the past getting these cancelled. Has cancelling a DD improved or is it still a pain in the arse? What do people use and would you recommend DD? Prefer Matty James to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davieG Posted 9 August 2017 Author Share Posted 9 August 2017 Thanks for the feedback probably go with the DD then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BlueBrett Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 Energy companies are the worst. When I took on my place they were basing my bills on 'estimates' for the first few months. Took me ages to get them to actually record and track the meter readings and when they eventually agreed to have another look at my expected usage my bills came down by more than 200%! No wonder they were reluctant Pay by DD as I'd probably never even open the bill letters never mind get round to actually paying them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPH Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 The only thing i would really advise about paying by direct debit is linked to what @BlueBrett said. Make sure you do still check your bill because if you dont, you could end up with a huge charge based on a mistake they have made and its possible that could go unnoticed for several months.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajthefox Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 I can't be the only one who saw this on the homepage and was trying to work out if this was something to do with buying an industrious replacement for Drinkwater..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPH Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 Slightly off topic... quite a few years ago now my uncle bought a house - an elderly lady lived in it on her own, passed away and family sold it. Well when he finally moved in, the electricity was already switched on, which he thought was very odd. Couple of weeks after moving in he eventually found out who supplied the previous owner, wrote to them and advised him of the situation. He got a written reply a couple of weeks after that in which they categorically denied they were still supplying the house with electricity. He left it for a couple of months waiting for the new supplier to contact him but they never did.. he then then became worried that he would end up with a big whopping bill so he wrote to every single electricity supplier he could think of to ask them if they were supplying the house... Over the course of several weeks they all replied denying they were the ones supplying him with electricty. Now i would of just shut up about now... but still concerned about an impending huge bill, he contacted the ombudsmen.. Offwhat is it? and they told him " don't worry sir, we will get to the bottom of this and we will find out who your supplier is". Couple of months after that they wrote to him and explained that they were unable to solve his query and here was a cheque for 50 quid as a way of apology! In the 4 years he was in that house he never paid a penny in electric costs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innovindil Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 16 minutes ago, MPH said: Slightly off topic... quite a few years ago now my uncle bought a house - an elderly lady lived in it on her own, passed away and family sold it. Well when he finally moved in, the electricity was already switched on, which he thought was very odd. Couple of weeks after moving in he eventually found out who supplied the previous owner, wrote to them and advised him of the situation. He got a written reply a couple of weeks after that in which they categorically denied they were still supplying the house with electricity. He left it for a couple of months waiting for the new supplier to contact him but they never did.. he then then became worried that he would end up with a big whopping bill so he wrote to every single electricity supplier he could think of to ask them if they were supplying the house... Over the course of several weeks they all replied denying they were the ones supplying him with electricty. Now i would of just shut up about now... but still concerned about an impending huge bill, he contacted the ombudsmen.. Offwhat is it? and they told him " don't worry sir, we will get to the bottom of this and we will find out who your supplier is". Couple of months after that they wrote to him and explained that they were unable to solve his query and here was a cheque for 50 quid as a way of apology! In the 4 years he was in that house he never paid a penny in electric costs... Offtopic but an interesting post nonetheless. Wonder where the hell it was coming from. Think ol' granny just rigged the meter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellend Sebastian Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 The reason some people don't like DD is that while the mandate is in force the institution it's with can take what they like, i.e. up your regular payments without seeking your permission first. They should notify you if what they're doing, so if you read your post (not everyone does) there shouldn't be any nasty surprises. As others have said, you can cancel the DDM yourself so that's always a fallback if they make a hash of things. It works best if you're on top of meter readings (or you have a smart meter they can access) as they're less likely to have to muck about with your payments once they've established what your energy use is through the year. It's not unusual for them to drop your payments when your energy use drops in the summer, which can be a pain in the arse as they'll more than likely whack it up at the end of the winter when they realise you've started using more. The way round this is just to tell them to keep your payments at the same level whenever they tell you they're going to decrease them. You'll build up a bit of a credit balance in the warm weather but that'll get swallowed up when it turns cold again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legend_in_blue Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 If you organise DD through the energy company and go with duel fuel, you are entitled to a discount. Not a lot, but it all helps. I prefer DD simply because I know exactly what I am paying every month and can easily check energy use online and compare with previous quarters/years etc. The cost of energy varies a fair bit so it's pretty pointless saying go with British Gas, when for one person it may be cheaper but then for another more expensive. I was with EDF, but now find myself with Npower. Their online service is pretty good. Monthly meter readings and there's no losing track of where you're at imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPH Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 20 minutes ago, Innovindil said: Offtopic but an interesting post nonetheless. Wonder where the hell it was coming from. Think ol' granny just rigged the meter? Someone must of on her behalf! Poor sods next door paying haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trav Le Bleu Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 3 hours ago, tom27111 said: You can cancel the DD at anytime, after the first payment has been taken, through online banking. It recommends you let the company know, but the bank won't pay anything once you've cancelled it with them. You'd think wouldn't you. I used to work for a bank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck'em Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 4 hours ago, BlueBrett said: Energy companies are the worst. When I took on my place they were basing my bills on 'estimates' for the first few months. Took me ages to get them to actually record and track the meter readings and when they eventually agreed to have another look at my expected usage my bills came down by more than 200%! No wonder they were reluctant Pay by DD as I'd probably never even open the bill letters never mind get round to actually paying them. Did they start paying you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m4DD0gg Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 DD all the way as you save money and if you can really afford it get some solar panels, may eleci bill is about 5 quid per month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orangecity23 Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 I'm currently using Direct Debit for my Energy bills, and it's ok. The only thing to note is that it might depend who your energy supplier is - when I moved into my current house, I got automatically switched to Spark Energy. That is a company I wouldn't trust with a DD. Fookers automatically blocked my first attempt to leave them, turns out they'd been abusing this with everyone who tried to go in the past http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/energy/11416590/Spark-Energy-fined-after-blocking-29000-customer-requests-to-quit.html, and they were still at it last year even after being caught and fined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanSP Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 as others have mentioned you have to be careful the supplier doesn't up your bills withour your permission. A mate of mine was paying £50 per month for about a year and a half, occasionally getting in to credit and the usual winter spike would come. In February just gone, the energy company decided to up the DD to £76/month despite being in small credit and purely basing it on winter usage. The bills steadily decreased as expected as spring came along, but did the DD reduce as quickly as it went up? Obviously not . He had to contact the supplier to reduce the DD back to what it was. But he couldn't do that. He had to 'ask for a reassessment' and then get it reduced . Of course they're always happy to take your money when it suits them!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanSP Posted 9 August 2017 Share Posted 9 August 2017 7 hours ago, MPH said: Slightly off topic... quite a few years ago now my uncle bought a house - an elderly lady lived in it on her own, passed away and family sold it. Well when he finally moved in, the electricity was already switched on, which he thought was very odd. Couple of weeks after moving in he eventually found out who supplied the previous owner, wrote to them and advised him of the situation. He got a written reply a couple of weeks after that in which they categorically denied they were still supplying the house with electricity. He left it for a couple of months waiting for the new supplier to contact him but they never did.. he then then became worried that he would end up with a big whopping bill so he wrote to every single electricity supplier he could think of to ask them if they were supplying the house... Over the course of several weeks they all replied denying they were the ones supplying him with electricty. Now i would of just shut up about now... but still concerned about an impending huge bill, he contacted the ombudsmen.. Offwhat is it? and they told him " don't worry sir, we will get to the bottom of this and we will find out who your supplier is". Couple of months after that they wrote to him and explained that they were unable to solve his query and here was a cheque for 50 quid as a way of apology! In the 4 years he was in that house he never paid a penny in electric costs... 6 hours ago, Innovindil said: Offtopic but an interesting post nonetheless. Wonder where the hell it was coming from. Think ol' granny just rigged the meter? don't think that was it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.