Why you shouldn’t pay by Direct Debit

When I visited Cardiff recently one of the things I did was read the electricity and gas meters (and take photographs of both as proof of the accuracy of the readings. It was only when logged onto the SSE website to enter the numbers that I realised a bill had already been issued (on 1st September) for the amount above.

I know gas has got more expensive, but really…

The bill above is based on an ESTIMATED reading for three months in the summer for an empty house. The energy company know that the house is unoccupied but nevertheless chose to produce an estimate of the amount of gas used that is orders of magnitude higher than any amount I have ever used there, even when the house was occupied in the depths of winter. The reading I took shows that the amount of gas used since the last reading was minimal. I uploaded the reading as soon as I could but am yet to receive a corrected bill.

Why they have come up with such a ridiculous figure is beyond me, but it did make me glad that I don’t pay this bill by direct debit. If I did so I would have been charged automatically which would have emptied my bank account (and more) and caused all kinds of problem with payments for other services.

7 Responses to “Why you shouldn’t pay by Direct Debit”

  1. I pay my electricity bill by direct debit but its a fixed (agreed) amount each month – and its then changed (up or down) depending on how much we use and/or cost per unit. And I’m informed about upcoming changes.

    • That would reduce it to a mere 7000 per month…

      • But if it were £85K for 3 months that would be £28K per month?

      • I never was any good at Maths.

      • You’re a lot better at it than I am. At the end of my second year at university, I had to decide between doing a maths or physics degree, and was leaning towards the former as I liked it more. Until one of my maths lecturers said I wasn’t good enough to continue doing maths….

  2. It says you are -85k in debit. That means 85k in credit, surely? Maybe you should have held off with the meter reading?

  3. […] readers of this blog (Sid and Doris Bonkers) will recall that a couple of weeks ago I complained about a ridiculous gas bill. Well, a fortnight (and a lot of hassle) later, SSE have at last decided to use the real meter […]

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