Utility Companies Direct Debit Rant

[BYTEr]

Starting to loathe having direct debits setup with utility companies as it seems their system which calculates direct debits always seems way off.

I’m with OVO for both gas/electricity and from October 2017 – November 2018 provided a meter reading every month for both energy supplies and my direct debit was always £86 per month and never heard anything. I didn’t provide a meter reading for December or January this year and in February I get a notification from them that they’ve estimated my usage has gone up and will be increasing my DD to £116 per month. After this I decided to actually work out my monthly cost and discovered on average we’ve only used £52 a month, check my bill, and yep we’ve paid a few hundred pounds more than we’ve actually used, yet, somehow they think I should increase my direct debit to something over double my actual usage, which seems to have stemmed from not providing a meter reading for 2 months.

Anyway, I ring them, and they agree to pay the extra money back, however, stated they can only bring the DD down to £76 a month, despite, from over a years’ worth of actual meter readings, we use £52 a month, so I guess at some point they’ll be paying back another lump sum, I’d rather just pay less a month.

Something similar, but the opposite has now happened with our water supplier, from October 2017 until now, the DD has been £20 based on their recommendation, in that time, they’ve taken 5 meter readings apparently and now want to increase the DD to £100 as it seems we’ve been using closer to £40 a month and so have fallen behind to the sum of £350. I’ve got no problem paying what we owe, but it just doesn’t make any sense because when working through the meter readings, we’ve never used £20 or less a month, so I don’t get why it’s taken until now to decide to increase our DD, especially since usage has been pretty consistent and should have been obvious from the reading after 6 months it would need to be increased.

I’ve spoken to the water company and agreed to pay £75 a month to cover usage and start paying what we owe of, although had no real answer to the fact it’s taken 5 meter readings to work out our DD won’t cover our actual usage.

So basically I’m just ranting, it doesn’t seem too hard to actually calculate usage when provided with meter readings and therefore work out the estimated usage and change the DD accordingly.

 

[BYTEr]

You don't have to pay by direct debit, just provide monthly readings and pay monthly. Usually slightly more expensive as you lose the DD reduction but you always pay for what you use, winter months will cost more obviously.

I used to do it as was fed up of them taking more than they needed and messing up my monthly budget. I do wonder what they do with all the excess payments though, probably making some interest on them.

But yes I agree with your rant, they are useless.

With gas/elec that's what I was essentially doing, I provided a meter reading every month for 13 months, not once ever using the amount my DD was, it doesn't seem the DD system analyses meter readings very often, because surely, after 13 months of meter readings and not once using the amount the DD is for should trigger the system to lower it. What it actually did was trigger to increase it, so, despite them sending me a reminder every month to submit a meter reading, it's a totally pointless exercise because the DD doesn't seem to change in line.

Then, with the water company, the meter readings would be telling the system that the last 4 meter readings over a 19 month period, not once would the DD cover a months usage, until suddenly it decides to kick and recommends multiplying the current DD by 5.

 

[BYTEr]

Octopus who im with have a variable option, I send a meter reading the direct debit takes that amount. Account stays at £0 I owe them nothing and they owe me nothing. God knows why the majority prefer fixed payments.

That's what I was kind of expecting, otherwise, what's the point of monthly meter readings if their system doesn't perform another calculation each time. OVO increased the DD when I failed to provide a meter reading for 2 months after 13 months of monthly readings, furthermore, they increased it to double what the typical usage was. They've now lowered it to an amount that I've never used, so will be in a situation where they owe me hundreds again.

With the water company, they had 4 meter readings which would have shown that our DD would never cover a months usage, then only decide to increase it by 5 times after 19 months and being hundreds behind.

Surely, all this can be smart metered and the DD change each month based on actual usage?