Electricity company want to drastically increase my DD

Jed Shields · 31 Mar 2011 at 10:37

Hi guys,

no judgements please, just advice ...

I've been with Utility Warehouse for 12 months and have run up a defecit of -£700. This was only around -£200 at Xmas and has shot up recently due to the difference between estimates and actual readings. I assume.

Anyway, they want to change my DD's:

Currently
Gas 52
Electricity 36
Total 88

New
Gas 19
Electricity 150
Total 169
+VAT

So my point is ... do I have any rights as to minimising the amount of overpayments? I am aware that I need to clear the debt, and this would do it over 12 months but I can't afford such a huge increase. I've offered a combined total of £150 inc VAT that is well over the actual amount of usage and the addition will start to pay off the defecit. However, this will obviously take longer than 12 months.

As I mentioned ... I don't need to be told that should have been more on the ball, as I said, it's suddenly shot up ... not a gentle rise over the 12 months.

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers,

Jed.

boxman2000 · 31 Mar 2011 at 10:40

The point is you have used that amount of electric, just not spread equally during the year.

I don't really see you have much comeback to be honest. Think of it as spreading the cost over the year so you don't get a huge bill over Christmas again.

Saying that if you really can't afford it then speak to them and explain the situation, they may be able to adjust your DD once you have cleared your deficit and up it in the winter.

If things are really that tight then you may want to look at night storage heaters etc

Raikiri · 31 Mar 2011 at 10:42

£146.33 would pay off the £700 over 12 months if I'm reading that correctly.

Morba · 31 Mar 2011 at 10:57

Our gas and electric supplier want to up our payment by £10 a month, even though they have just sent us a cheque for £280 total overpayment for the year last year (at current DD rate).
How does that even make sense? lol

Mr Jack · 31 Mar 2011 at 11:03

You owe the money, time to pay it back. I don't see anything unfair about it.

If you really cannot pay, talk to your provider and try to agree more generous terms.

Jed Shields · 31 Mar 2011 at 11:10

Raikiri said:
£146.33 would pay off the £700 over 12 months if I'm reading that correctly.

No, that is would mean that I'm using £1000 of Gas and Electricity and then paying back £700 defecit.

As I said, I know that I've used this and I need to pay for it. The advice I'm after is how do I negotiate a more reasonable and affordable replayment plan.

Morba · 31 Mar 2011 at 11:12

Jed Shields said:
No, that is would mean that I'm using £1000 of Gas and Electricity and then paying back £700 defecit.

As I said, I know that I've used this and I need to pay for it. The advice I'm after is how do I negotiate a more reasonable and affordable replayment plan.

If you cannot afford it then yes of course you try and negotiate a more reasonable plan

Jed Shields · 31 Mar 2011 at 11:13

Mr Jack said:
You owe the money, time to pay it back. I don't see anything unfair about it.

If you really cannot pay, talk to your provider and try to agree more generous terms.

I'm not saying it's unfair, reread my post please.

I've spoken to my provider and they won't budge. My question is do I have any other options?

Mr Jack · 31 Mar 2011 at 11:29

Jed Shields said:
I've spoken to my provider and they won't budge. My question is do I have any other options?

You could try to contact, say, the CAB and get them to negotiate on your behalf. They might do better, but you'll struggle to get an appointment.

Your other option is to borrow the money from elsewhere over a longer period, make a lumpsum payment and just pay at a level which will prevent a debt to the company building up in the future.

shine · 31 Mar 2011 at 11:33

Offer to pay a lump sum to reduce the overall debt to show good faith and then negotiate a lower payment.

Jono · 31 Mar 2011 at 12:12

Then try to cut your usage if possible to get in credit for winter

Brookert · 31 Mar 2011 at 12:21

Jono said:
Then try to cut your usage if possible to get in credit for winter

this, Its amazing how much you can lower bills if you try really hard.

utajoker · 31 Mar 2011 at 12:31

Maybe borrow half of family and then pay a lump sum and negotiate a rate you can pay, repay family at a lower rate.

Or

Make cut backs so u can afford the bill. Don't go out as much, buy cheaper food etc.

Jed Shields · 31 Mar 2011 at 13:03

Some good suggestions guys, cheers.

mlbtheshow · 31 Mar 2011 at 14:52

Get out of Utility Warehouse, they are a con - some bloke at the end of our road is one of them, he knocked on my door... said switch all my bills to him and he will make it cheaper. I said how can you make my Virgin Media cheaper, they already offer me the cheapest deal.. he said well you pay us the lump sum, we pay your providers and if you can recommend friends you get cuts of their bills each month..

Told him where to go - its one of those pyramid schemes imo, plus he is a Paedo (wild accusation).

As for your defecit, i assume its just Electric in the main... have you not got 'overpayment' in the gas account you can switch to clear some of the debt, as going from 46-19 is quite a drop as well?

Do a couple of things, first ask for their cheapest tariff for electric... even if it ties you in for 12 months, it looks like you are a heavy user... so get the electric cheap and overpay = quicker payback.