Re: Do you pay gas and electric by direct debit?

You clearly don't understand your contracts.

When you take out a DD and sign that agreement there are clauses in there about terminating the contract/DD.

Yes sure you can always instruct your bank to stop paying a DD but if you fail to inform the energy company via the pre-agreed process (phone/email etc) then YOU are breaching the contract and are then liable

Re: Do you pay gas and electric by direct debit?

It is true that, if you stop your bank from paying the d/d and money is still owing, it does not release you from paying what you owe... it just means that the bank no longer pays it via d/d.
However I am sure that Cee Cee would not be cancelling the payment to avoid paying what she owes.... maybe she had just found a more convenient way to pay, or even cancelled her contract with the supplier, because she would still have to cancel the d/d with her bank if she had!
The contract is between Cee Cee and her gas/electrical supplier who don't care how she pays, as long as she does. As an ex banker I am aware that, if the bank pays a d/d from your account, after cancellation, they are obliged to refund her the amount paid...... so, without all the info on why the d/d has been cancelled I don't agree with your post.
Cee Cee has a contract with the bank to pay d/d's and another contract with the power company, to pay for the power she uses.... so it she cancels one contract, yet pays for fuel by a different means then she breaks no law, just makes it less convenient for the bank and the power company

Re: Do you pay gas and electric by direct debit?

Thank you Twink. I always keep my energy account in credit anyway, but of course I would naturally inform Scottish Power that I would be terminating my contract with them at the same time as I stopped the DD. I might add, that I owe no-one a penny. Having been married to someone who lived his life with huge debts, I swore on my divorce that bills would be paid before I get to eat. Even when on Benefit, I remained debt free.

Re: Do you pay gas and electric by direct debit?

If it's possible I pay by direct debit for everything. I think it's a good easy way to pay.

Re: Do you pay gas and electric by direct debit?

It certainly is and you sometimes get a small discount for paying that way.

I just thought Realists post was a bit OTT and wanted to reassure Cee Cee that she was doing nothing wrong ( seeing as I worked in banking for many years and understand how the payments are made). Certainly sounds like she knows what she is doing!

Re: Do you pay gas and electric by direct debit?

Twink, my daughter worked for Barclays for years until she was head hunted two years ago. Coincidentally, my dil also works for Barclays - but I dont bank with them.

Re: Do you pay gas and electric by direct debit?

Nice . . . but this is not what you said earlier. Another poster expressed how much hassle he'd had trying to contact the company to cancel his DD and you replied saying all you do is just tell your bank.

That was patently not right which is why I made the post I did.

When you take out a DD with an energy company you are effectively creating a second contract with them regarding how you will pay your bills. There are likely terms and conditions surrounding that separate agreement. An obvious one is that you might be getting a Direct Debit Discount. If you cancel your DD straight with the bank then you are effectively breaching that contract (a contract between you and the energy company not the bank). Your DD discount will be removed and you will likely be charged on a higher tariff. You may even have to pay back some of that former discount.

So yes, absolutely it is NOT as simple as just cancelling the DD with your bank. In many, if not most, cases you are also required to contact your energy supplier, either emailing, or calling.

A further downside of these DD agreements is that it can give the energy company additional powers to take money from you. If say you had 2 properties both using British Gas, both on DD and you failed to pay the bill for one of those properties, then BG can and will take the money from the bank account of the other property and may also levy additional admin charges for doing so.

Bottom line is simply that cancelling a DD is usually NOT as simple as just instructing your bank. You have a duty to tell the energy company and they can thereby establish a new payment method (contract) with you.

Paying anything by DD is simply loaning your money to other people for little or no interest. When people whinge about how little interest a bank account pays, it's mind-numbing to see the same people giving away their money in advance to energy companies for NO INTEREST at all save for a paltry token offering from them in the form of a payment discount.

Beggars belief TBH.

Re: Do you pay gas and electric by direct debit?

At the time of cancelling my DD, I would also email SP to cancel my supplies. As I will do, when I leave this rented property. Simple, no hanging on the telephone two minutes to send an email.

The reason I run my power account in credit is so that I do not have to worry, (given my health problems), that I can have the heating on in the day. With COPD and RA, I cant risk being cold. Nothing whatsoever to do with interest or discount.

Re: Do you pay gas and electric by direct debit?

Maybe to you Realist, but surely you respect other people's right to choose what is best for them!
I prefer to pay the same amount every month, because it stops higher bills in the winter.
Paying a bill at the bank may not be so easy as bank branches are reducing.
Some don't like to do banking online, for fear of security risks... so don't use that method.
Posting a cheque to the power supplier costs a stamp and there is no guarantee the post will reach the destination!

Your ideas may be the best for you, but millions of people have found that the D/D system works very well for them, so I don't think most need your advice.
The point of this thread was to make sure that their power suppliers were not expecting them to pay a higher D/D than they needed to!

Re: Do you pay gas and electric by direct debit?

You could just as easily put that money into a piggy bank so it's there for those winter periods. It's no different. You're just giving your money to others to gamble and speculate with, which is just foolish.

DD's are just pure laziness.

When people can't be @rsed to manage money properly then they thoroughly deserve to be ripped off.