Re: Do you pay gas and electric by direct debit?
Originally Posted by
CeeCee
->
. . 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.
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.