Thieving gas/electricity suppliers

For the past few years, I've been consistently paying £85 per month by direct debit for our gas and electricity. My account is always in credit, as we don't use £85 worth of energy each month. I usually ring them up about this time of year and ask for a refund of the excess, which they duly give me. Obviously the amount I get back has been dropping each year, but still I'm always in credit.

I am in credit now. I.e. I have paid them too much as usual, and after deducting the latest bill, I'm currently 70 odd quid in credit.

Then today I receive a letter. They've reassessed my payments, and decided they need to increase the payments from £85 to £106 per month.

I've asked them to explain how they reckon they need so much more when I am always in credit, and told them if they don't come up with a very convincing answer by next Monday I'll be switching suppliers.

Basically they are earning interest off people's money for being in credit, and because with rising prices people will be less far in credit than they once were, they'll be earn less interest on their customers money. They're just thieving so and so's.

Anyway, rant over. Anyone else getting robbed in this manner?

 

They always do this, I'm currently paying £165 a month, but then I've pool pumps going 24/7 and because of my wife's disability, she can't manage a washing line so the tumble dryer always seems to be going.

I find the comparison sites are useless to work out the cheapest rate, unless you've accurate figures.

You need a year's usage to work it out as you have to apply the different rates for "first usage" and all the other nonsense they have that makes it difficult.
Then there's percentage of "night rate" electricity which you need the readings to calculate.

I usually work it all out and put it on an excel spread-sheet to get a true picture.

If you get too far in credit, don't cancel your direct debit as they'll take you off the tariff you're on and put you on a higher one.

I really hate it when utility companies try to get you to change but accosting you in the street. They never know the unit charge for gas or electricity and just try to con you.

I'm always amused when they try to make you believe they know what they're doing by asking you daft questions like "How many bedrooms have you got?"
My stock answer is usually "Blimey! You're estate agents too?"

 

I have just viewed my bill..and I am £296..in credit..but they suggest until my next assessment,I should not claim the money back..so that is telling me my charges are going up..it really makes me very angry

 

Claim it back anyway. It will be a nice bonus just before christmas. Even if you don't spend it, let it earn interest in your bank rather than theirs.

 

The only way is, as Doghouse Riley says, to stay on top of it and do your own calculations on a spreadsheet.

However a lot of the public don't help by allowing themselves to be hoodwinked. My neighbour told me she had changed her energy supplier when accosted by two men outside the supermarket. They asked her what her monthly standing order was, and then said that they would charge a bit less on their standing order. It was only when she told me the next day that she realised the standing order was not directly related to their charges or what she would have to eventually pay.

But the act that annoyed me most was by my previous supplier nPower. They charged the first 4572 gas units per year (a figure set by law) at a much higher rate than subsequent units. When I went through the accounts I notices that they had charged many more units than 4572 at the higher rate. Their reply was that their year did not need to be 365 days long. It could be any length they liked, and started again every time they changed their rates. They said they had taken advice and had been told it was legal.

I immediately switched supplier, and ignored the fact that I had been overcharged by about £15 - but of course they had overcharged several million customers by the same amount. I really should have taken them to court.

 

Ive noticed that edf have slowly done the same to my bill. The cost per unit stays the same but the first 200 units, at say 17p each, have changed to the first 800 units at 17p then any extra units at 10p.Easy way for them to say they have not increased their unit cost for people but are still making more money.

 

British Gas Wanted double to what i was paying, So I came off the scheme and pay by card at my nearest shop,. I can pay what I want but when the bill comes in i have to pay whats owed, Im ahead, So it Go's towards the next bill.. It works for me..

 

I always pay the bill when it comes in, I'd never go direct debit on anything like this.

This way I only pay for what I use and always in arrears.

And I never pay estimated bills until I've checked them out.

 

I also pay the bill when it comes,enormous amounts of hard earned money.
I keep hearing how much cheaper if I change supplier,have done that and it's still extortionate.
I keep hearing it would be cheaper if I payed by direct debit,but like Pete I can't see the point of paying over the odd's in advance.
I guess this is something we have to lean to live with...............
JUST WHY CAN'T THEY ALL CHARGE THE BL**DY SAME???????????????????????

 

I have had no problems with BG who have just reduced my monthly payment. I was evidently in credit but this was less than £100.

Pete, you will get a cheaper bill if you pay by DD.

Clueless, with interest at say 3% a £200 credit balance accumulated over a year with have lost you about £3 in interest before tax.

Now by broadband connection is a total rip-off and will be moving that pretty soon

 

True, but consider if a company has say 100,000 customers paying by direct debit, all of whom are averaging £200 credit over a year. That's £2 million of other people's money sat in the energy company's bank. At 3% they've earned £60,000 of their customers on top of what they've earned just for selling their product.

To be honest to me it is more a matter of principle. While I'm already consistently in credit with them, I think its a bit cheeky of them to ask for more money.

Its a bit like if I asked everyone on here to each send me £100, and in one year I'll send you back £100. By then I might have made a few hundred in interest to put in my back pocket. I bet nobody would be up for that, but that's effectively what the energy company is expecting its customers to do.

 

Yes and thats the sprat that catches the mackerel.

As Clueless says, every company wants you on DD, so they can get your money in advance and make a killing.
No way will I bank roll the big companies.

They must make more money that way otherwise you can bet they wouldn't be doing it.

I think if everyone demanded any extra cash to be returned all at the same time they would all go bankrupt.
They are using your money to their advantage, even if its only 10 quid, its your 10 quid not theirs.

As to why they cant all charge the same Roders, I'm willing to bet that if it was actually possible to unravel all their jargon and different charge bands, you would find that over a given period they probably do all charge the same.
Depending of course on when you actually use your energy.




l

 

The best part of this technological age is you can take your own meter readings and submit them on-line.
I tell the meter readers who call, that it isn't necessary for them to read the meter. They kick up a fuss but I haven't let them read my meters in two years.

 

We have one national grid for electricity, so all electricity is on the same circuit. We have one network of gas pipes too. That means that energy companies can't possibly actually supply us with anything.

What happens is the retail energy suppliers are just agents of the company (or companies) that own the main gas supplies and electricity supplies.

When we pay, say E.On or nPower, we're actually paying them to handle the administration of our accounts. They take their cut and pass it on to the main supplier(s). The amount of commission they charge and how they work it out is largely down to the company.

It puzzles me when E.On and probably others offer eco-friendly packages, where you pay a higher rate but supposedly get more energy from renewables. I challenged PowerGen on this a while ago, and asked them to explain to me how that works. It went something like this:

Me: If I take your eco product, how will that benefit the environment?
PowerGen: Well sir, we buy more of your energy from renewable energy companies, so your electricity supply will be made up of a large proportion from wind, solar and hydroelectric sources.
Me: But we only have one national grid, do you have to lay extra cables to my house to connect me to these renewable power sources?
PowerGen: Oh no sir, there are no extra cables, no inconvenience to you at all sir.
Me: Then how do you differentiate which electrons within the national grid cables came from renewables and which ones didn't?
PowerGen: Sorry Sir?
Me: Well, its all one circuit surely. All the generators feed into one main circuit. If one generator fails, any number of others just takes up the slack and keeps the power flowing in the same grid. Is this not so?
PowerGen: Oh, erm, yes sir, all one circuit sir.
Me: Then how do you tell which bits of my electric come from which generator?
PowerGen: Oh, erm, well we can't. What we do is we charge you a little extra so that more renewable energy sources can be brought on line.
Me: And will an extra few quid from me pay for a new wind farm?
PowerGen: Well, no sir.

I continued winding up the poor lady for about half an hour before letting her off the hook and sticking with their cheapest deal.