Swalec Arrears

[Wooks001]

Hi Folks,

 

Sorry for the long post, questions are at the end.

 

Just had my latest bills and I am in arrears which I wasn't expecting.

Gas £440

Electric £160

 

When I moved here approx a year ago I had no idea what the payments should be so I asked Swalec, and they set gas at £35 and electic at £25.

 

They want to increase my DD to £99 and £40 respectively, I don't have this sort of money.

After speaking to umpteen people, according to them my average usage is £60 and £30pm.

 

I had free cavity wall insulation installed a couple of months ago, via Tesco of all people so next years bills should be lower (25%?)and I can just about afford them.

 

Problem is what to do about the arrears, Swalecs latest proposal is to install pre-payment meters preloaded to collect £8pw. That is no different to paying the £99 for gas, and comes with its own problems.

 

I've been able to find some info on B Gas relating to a trust fund which might help with the arrears, does anyone know of anything similar for Swalec as it appears you have to be a customer.

 

As a last resort,

 

If I can't come to some aggreement can I change suppliers with arrears, so that they have no choice but to accept what I can afford towards the debt.

 

After paying Rent, C Tax and water I've got £70pw left for everything else.

 

Cheers

 

Wooks

[nottslad]

Hi Wooks

You won't be able to change suppliers while you have an outstanding balance.

 

Most water authorities have a trust fund set up which you can apply to to help clear the arrears, I presume for you this would be Welsh Water?

 

Also if you are in receipt of benefits, Swalec should be able to offer a reduced repayment through a prepayment meter compared to the £8 per week they have suggested; in your circumstance EON would negotiate down to £3 per week per fuel towards the debt.

 

Hope this helps

[nottslad]

Hi Wooks

You won't be able to change suppliers while you have an outstanding balance.

 

Most water authorities have a trust fund set up which you can apply to to help clear the arrears, I presume for you this would be Welsh Water?

 

Also if you are in receipt of benefits, Swalec should be able to offer a reduced repayment through a prepayment meter compared to the £8 per week they have suggested; in your circumstance EON would negotiate down to £3 per week per fuel towards the debt.

 

Hope this helps

[Wooks001]

Hi,

 

Thanks very much for your reply, if I can't change suppliers then I may have a problem, but hopefully not.

 

You are correct that my water supplier is Welsh Water, I'm actually in credit by £8 with them over the year. I'm also on benefits, and paying back a loan from the Social Fund.

 

With the cavity wall insulation my usage should be lower, so do you have any ideas about negotiating the new DD. Is there a formula etc, sort of before and after.

 

I'll defintely give WW a ring tommorow:), seems strange to me that a water company can potentially help when the gas supplier can't but I'll take help where I can find it at the moment.

In the long term I'll pay my way as usual.

 

Obviously I'm going to have to monitor my usage more carefully, and not rely on Swalec's readings/estimates.

 

Cheers

 

Wooks

[nottslad]

there's no formula that I know of, and generally Direct Debit's are based on previous consumption, so until meter readings show the usage has come down it may be difficult to negotiate a lower amount

[Wooks001]

Hi,

 

Problem was that Swalec weren't the previous supplier and I trusted their estimated consumption. It would help if suppliers shared this information.

 

Obviously different people use different amounts, but even having one of those triangular keys foc would allow you to read the meter regularly.

 

I've had a look at WW site and the only info for arrears relates to water arrears not gas etc, so I have emailed one of the Swalec managers asking for any Trusts that they are associated with, along with the best proposal they can offer.

 

Once I've had a reply then I guess its ring the CAB etc, I don't want to agree to payments I can't afford and end up in even more trouble.

 

Cheers

 

Wooks

[pelham9]

Changing supplers can be a problem.

 

To get the new business many utilities quote a monthly direct debit rate well below actual consumption and after the customer has congratulated himself on getting his fuel cheap they put the direct debit amount up to collect the actual usage - 'sorry about that, we undersestimated your usage'

 

These sales tactics are dishonest and in my view should be outlawed. It could be stopped very easily by the regulator not allowing any arrears to be collected for the first DD year - what they quote is what they get!!

 

Never accept that the direct debit amount quoted when changing suppliers bears any relation to your actual costs. Accept the low quote as a temporary loan but expect to pay it back with a considerably higher payment laterr. Watch that they do not carry on the new higher payment amount into the next DD year - it will be higher than it should be.

 

Recognise that the DD system is there for their convenience and profit. All DD payments are in advance and usually too high so the customer is lending money to them throughout the DD year. Often the cost to the customer of lending this money is more than any DD discount.

[nottslad]

Pelham.... Is there anything you agree the energy companies do correctly or are you Victor Meldrew in disguise?

 

I no longer work for my previous employer, an energy company, so no longer give the the full support i used to, but in my experience direct debits were set based on consumption history available, or a reasonable estimate based on information given at the point of sale.

 

If as you suggest DD's were set too high so to loan the energy supplier money to aid cash flow, this would mean direct debits would be lowered after the firat year, not increased... whilst working for E.on 85% of DD's were inceased at the annual review, so I don't understand where you get your information from Pelham..

 

Money saving expert's martin lewis recommends paying for utilities by DD to take advantage of the discounts available... prompt payment only offers a small discount compared to DD... those who owe significant balances to credit cards generally wouldn't be able to pay in full a quarterly bill on receipt

[hightail]

Nottslad, it's hard for many of us to see much they do right when we've had such trouble with them. They appear to allow half their customers to build up huge debts while robbing the other half to make up the shortfall. When I cancelled my DD I went through two quarters in winter without having to pay them a penny. I did it because they refused to give me back over £800 I didn't owe them and they had taken from my bank a/c. I don't know anyone who hasn't had to fight to get their own money back in this situation.

[mattlamb]

Wooks, personally I wouldn't want to have a prepayment meter fitted. I would contact Swalec by letter offering to pay them your current usage plus what you can realistically afford on a regular basis towards the arrears. I would also produce an income and expenses form, showing them all details of your income and expenditure, sending this to them with the letter.

 

Then make sure you pay this amount religiously on time until the arrears has been cleared.

 

Is your meter inside or outside the house? If it is inside, all well and good. If it is outside, you may find Swalec fit a prepayment meter anyway because they can get access to it without your being at home.

 

If they threaten you with disconnection or the fitting of a prepayment meter under a warrant, let them do this. They should send you a letter in advance informing you of when the court date will be. You must make sure you attend this court case and then SWALEC will withdraw the application for a warrant as no time is set aside to argue their caes before the judge. They will then in all ikelihood, be far more amenable to negotiation.

 

Good luck!

[pelham9]

Is there anything you agree the energy companies do correctly or are you Victor Meldrew in disguise?

 

Have you left EON?

 

I would think that they do about 95% of their job satisfactorily - but that part involves the nittty gritty of supplying and charging for a service. That is the easy part of their job largely done by a routine computer system. It is when there are problems that they and their computers do not cope satisfactorily.

 

Money saving expert's martin lewis recommends paying for utilities by DD to take advantage of the discounts available

 

Matin Lewis has not donr th sums!

 

I do not intend to debate the demerits of the DD sytem on this post. The OP has been hooked by Swalec by a ruse using a low DD payment and he cannot get out of it because of unexpected arrears. I do not suppose that EON who are the best of the bunch (in my veiw) would stoop to this strategy.

[pelham9]

I must apologise for the debate between myself and nottslad which does not really help you though it may help when you consider a direct debit plan with another supplier.

 

My own view is that you have been conned by Swalec and that you have a very good case to go to the Energy Ombudsnan immediately. If you do so it is very likely to change their attitude.

 

You do not say in your first post how long it has taken to reach the arrears you state so I am taking it that it was one year. Have they read the meter regularly during that year? Are there any estimates?

 

They will have a very good idea of the previous usage in your property if supplied by them or from the previous supplier if you changed supplier on occupation. You now know that the correct DD payments should have been around 70/40 (gas /electricity) but they set it at 35/25. This was bound to lead to arrears.

 

They should be monitoring your consumption as a new customer with guestimate DD payments to increase the payments as quickly as possible to match your actual consumption. Clearly they have not done this. There will be many 'reasons' they could not do this. Some of them are

 

a) they could not get in to read the meter. (is the meter outside?!)

 

b) its your fault because you did not send them meter readings when they estimated as they ask you to do on the bills.

 

c) it is your fault because you did not look at bills they sent and question that you were paying too little.

 

The actual reasons are likely that they are inefficient or that they do not worry that they put you in an arrears situation because the arrears keeps you as a customer.

 

The net result is that you have arrears which immediately stops you from changing suppiler and allows them to threaten a prepayment meter etc.

 

If this situation was not purposeful and was due to inefficiency the result is the same and you should certainly get rid and they should not benefit from your predicament by keeping you as a customer particularly on a prepay meter.

 

You will have to pay Swalec what you owe but you should ask the Ombudsman to push for

 

a) an immdiate change of supplier

 

b) a sensible and affordable payment schedule for the arrears.

 

The grounds should be that Swalec have set the DD payments too low inevitably leading to the arrears. That you do not wish to stay with a company is not efficiently monitoring their DD plan and it would not be fair for them to retain you as a customer because any arrears are their fault whether caused by inefficiency or a deliberate ploy.

 

Incidentally Swalec show up badly on my search of the price comparison sites. You should be able to get 60/30 as suggested by others.

[Wooks001]

Hi Folks,

 

Thanks for your replies.

 

Swalec have come back to me and provisionally offered to reduce payments to actual usage plus approx £3 towards arrears.

 

This seems to be in-line with what Nottslad suggested so I have accepted the offer, and am now waiting for someone to contact me. It avoids the prepayment meter option which was a big concern for me.

I've got cruciate ligament problems and can't always get to the shop.

 

Assuming all goes well I'm then going to contact CAB about the arrears to see if they know of a Trust Fund etc. They will need to know the true position if they are to help, and I've got a couple of weeks before the next payment is due.

 

I'll never know why my payments were set too low but its been very stressful getting it sorted out. I'm on a social tarrif so they know I don't have any money, and yet they still went ahead and practically trebled my gas bill.

 

Cheers

 

Wooks

[mattlamb]

How will you be paying now Wooks?

[Wooks001]

Don't have any details yet but I assume DD, same tarriff, no changes until arrears cleared.