Jalexa, sorry to disagree but Feb bill was calculated before Feb DD went in - as a result they wanted to up my DD for the rest of the year by £31 !!!

I objected by email - got no reply but they took the right amount next DD date!

BREWERDAVE1:

am I paranoid?

OK, I just made that quote up. You are right, the apparent balance will look worse before/better after the DD collection, however AIUI monthly payment recalculations are only done once a year. Perhaps other suppliers online billing has moved on also but the SP online billing system is the best I have come across.

I am confident that as long as the monthly payment is right for the year a meter reading submission won't result in an adverse DD recalculation. Actually if it was well out I think it would not be unreasonable for the supplier to amend it. The only issue would be whether it was a reasonable and accurate recalculation.

I provided an unsolicited meter reading a few days ago, just after DD time of course. I noticed this resulted in the next scheduled bill date moving from the previous scheduled date to 3 months hence. I know my payments are right for the year but over the winter I have been behind but reducing at each meter reading. So far no attempt to up my DD.

I am happy to recommend SP online. In most areas they also happen to the cheapest supplier with no sneaky "gotchas" such as Npower's discount deferred for 12 months or E.on's no discount on final bill.

Oh I see! Fair enough then I guess.

The 1 year fixed price deal was on the basis of paying by DD - I suspect very strongly that if I cancel the DD they will put me on to their "standard" unit prices which are a hell of a lot more than I agreed to last August!!!

Why don't you cancel the DD and revert to paying online (via the internet banking) so you pay ONLY for what you use, instead of this juggling with dodgy direct debits?

Had an email from SP today asking for my latest meter readings; Looked back at previous emails and noticed 1. they are asking several days earlier in the month & 2. they are giving only 7 days to enter readings before they default to estimation ( previously 10 days). If I enter readings now it will create a bill before this month's DD has been collected, so potentially a bigger deficit.

Seems to me that they are hoping to catch out more people with estd bills so that they can jack up DD payments!!!

I won't enter figures now until the last possible moment so that this month's DD has been collected..