Don’t get ripped off by utilities!

Electricity and gas providers with their ‘deals’ when you pay by DD have always got my goat…

I don’t pay as much attention as I should to our home energy bills. With everything else going on the direct debit goes out each month and the paperless billing via the Web set up because it’s the cheapest deal means I don’t get around to looking at the actual charges vs what we pay by DD each month. 

My own fault and I should be more attentive. But sometimes I have a general ‘tidy up’ moment, generally when a car or property insurance is due for renewal. I tend to deal with those and at the same time take a look at other things like utilities. 

And this week I’d dug out the original gas and electricity contract from 12 months ago because I had the ‘bonus’ £100 voucher arrive which was the loyalty credit for sticking with one of the very best known providers around for a year.

It also made me wonder where we were balance wise and whether the 250 quid we pay each month is right. I couldn’t find the password for the online account and so ended up calling the contact centre. Very quick to answer and very polite and helpful.

Not surprising because the upshot was we were a shade under a thousand plus the voucher in credit. And that’s where the ‘fun’ starts and the title of this post comes from.

When I asked to reduce or temporarily cease the monthly payment the operator politely informed me that they have set dates for reviews and that anyway with the winter coming up it’s best to leave things as they are.

Not so said I and protested that holding my money in credit and then adding to it each month was wrong. She was pretty clear as to the procedures and assured me their calculations were right and ‘it would stop me from worrying about big bills’.

I thanked her but suggested she shouldn’t be concerned and instead should tell me what the last year’s bills came to. Just over two thousand came the reply, meaning my credit balance would keep rising. I did point that out but she was unmoved and certain it was in my interest to leave things as they are.

Enough was enough and I told her that if she wasn’t prepared to drastically cut or suspend the direct debits she should do whatever necessary for me to move my business elsewhere and send me a refund. Suddenly all the ‘lights’ came on and we got down to business.

Two months of no payments and a reduced direct debit of £180 monthly. Result… even though it was somewhat tedious. And whilst winning I thought I’d ask the question of whether the tariff we were on is the best one available.

Turns out it wasn’t and worse still the company had decided to scrap the particular scheme we were on meaning a 20% rise in my prices was around the corner. Were they going to tell me that I wonder?

So she ‘kindly’ changed me to a brand new, just launched, tariff which would see my annual gas and electricity costs reduce by £540 on what they were about to be. It felt like pulling teeth and although I got there in the end I fought the temptation to seek a further monthly payment reduction.

The lesson is, don’t take no for an answer, assume their main aim in life is to keep as much of your money in their bank as possible and, above all, never ever assume they really do have your best interests at heart.

Bring back basic quarterly bills, paid in full a couple of weeks after receipt. Currently you get charged more for that!

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