soooo........ Angry Scottish Power

[hillsy]

I have been paying £25.00 per month to scottish power for electric. Sent them a letter to change bank details for direct debit. They said sorry can not pay direct debit need to clear balance first £200.00. I said all i want to do is change banks and carry on with the direct debit, and increase payments to £50.00 per month as £25.00 was obviously not enough. Still refused saying we need to pay balance now. Just received another bill from them today for £226.72 saying this amount is now due. I decided to phone them to see if they can help in any way, as we have not got this money. Lady I spoke to said fine I will set up direct debit for you now, hold on I will give you a figure. She came back with £90.00 per month which I said was too much, she said she would speak to complaints department if I could hold for a moment. Suprise suprise got cut off, got straight back on phone spoke to someone else who refused to speak to me at all as the account is in Hubbies name, this is such a wind up. I deal with the finances so it is easier if I deal with it as I know exactly what has gone on. He now has to speak to them when he gets home. I am worried though because we can not afford £90.00 per month. Not our fault in the first place, we have now got a high bill.

[stressedtothemax]

Hi
I work for an energy company but without knowing your annual usage its a bit difficult to work out what you should be paying per month but i can say for the amount outstanding they are prob looking for this to be cleared within 6 months which works out to about £40 per month for the outstanding so i assume your usage is about £50 per month hence th balance.hence £90 per month however they will spread this balance over 12 months at a push which would bring the monthly amount down to £68 per month.
Get ur husband to give them a call and ask to clear the balance within 12 months they should go for that.
As for not speaking to you about the accounts this is in fact the law data protection get your husband to add your name to the accounts when he calls to solve future problems.
Hope this helps
sharon

[jane.l]

I used to be with Scottish Power but I changed companies as I was sick of them! They upped my direct debit without telling me, ( I could have incurred bank charges, but luckily there was just enough money in account)

They kept sending me letters threatening legel action, saying I was behind with my bills but I was on monthly direct debit and I was not behind. They kept saying they would add £40 onto my bill for late payments but I WAS NOT LATE!

When I rang them up, they kept me hanging on the phone for ages and then cut me off. [:(!]

I changed companies cos I was sick of the hassle in the end

[Skippy]

Can I ask what is probably a really dumb question?!?

How do I work out our annual usage? We've only been living in the maisonette since November, and before that we lived in a flat that was electricity only so we've got nothing to compare.

[chris.g]

Hillsy, could your new bank not have transfered the D/D's over?

[stressedtothemax]

Hi again
it goes on your meter readings really obviously if you use gas for heating this will be lower in the summer i take it you have already recieved 2 quarterly bills already look at what these are per quarter and divide by 3 your first bill would have been a winter quarter and second should have been slighty lower. also when your husband calls the company he can ask them to work this out for you using your meter readings. If your bills have been estimated make sure you have an up to date read to give them.
Same goes for electric although electric does not decrease as much as gas during the summer months.
hope that helps
sharon

[stressedtothemax]

Just re read your first post is your balance 400 odd all together or just the 226
sharon

[Skippy]

I think we'll have to take our chances - we've changed supplier, and had a dodgy thermostat in the winter so the heating was permanently full on and we had an huge heating bill! Fingers crossed we'll be ok and won't get another nasty surprise...

[hillsy]

Hi, thanks for your advice it is 226.00 total. No the bank did not transfer d/ds just sent letters to everyone saying I had cancelled their d/d making everyone think we were not going to pay them, when I had sent everyone letters before cancelling.

[hillsy]

I have been on the phone to scottish power again tonight. I have got absolutley nowhere with them. They are still saying I need to clear Bill of £226.00 before starting direct debit again, then they want a payment of £81.00 per month. That is £56.00 per month more than I have been paying ontop of the bill I am suppose to find the money for. I am so annoyed that they set our payments low in the first place then suddenly up them so high. I know prices have gone up, but this puts a strain even more on our IVA. I have decided to change supploer, but I do not know how I am gooing to pay bill so I have e-mailed IVA company. It is ok saying spread it over so many months but that is impossible when we already have an increase of £56.00 plus an additional instalment to cover bill. Things like this really do not help our financial situations, just when you think things are going ok along comes another large expense, when is it going to end.

[Soulgrowth]

That's why I don't do direct debits! I put an amount of money by each month on my online savings account (and earn interest on it) and pay by quarterly bill with my meter being read regularly.

Debbie