Check, or cancel, your Direct Debits!

Well, this just gets better - I am now firmly locked in a battle with Shell Energy!

This morning, I got a notification from the 'Credit Karma' app (if you don't have it, it is free and can even be used on a Windows PC only - get it!) to warn me that my credit score had gone down. I logged in and checked to find that my score had plummeted by 117 points and due to Shell Energy posting that I had "missed" a payment this month.

I paid Shell £200 by direct debit on 28th April, with the next payment due on 28th May (tomorrow) and as mentioned earlier in the thread I cancelled the DD as they were threatening to put it up to £290 per month; I told them I would pay monthly, bill upon receipt and they agreed.
At that point, I was carrying a debt of around £400 from winter, but this was still to be finalised as they usually ask for meter readings around this time and then post the bill - they have been somewhat ambiguous with the amount of actual debt since they took over from my prior supplier (Pure Planet) as they were showing circa £450 but then taking £200 off on direct debit immediately after, suggesting that it was £250-ish.

Anyway, I have not had an accurate bill from them, but their website states £450 owed currently. I will pay that this afternoon and then fight them onwards - this will almost certainly result in a lower bill next month.

The crux of things here though is not only did my credit score drop - - it took an absolute bloody hammering... and a hammering on a bill that is still not finalised, and less than 1 month since they last had a payment.

I contacted Shell Energy this morning, who were initially saying they would take the complaint on, but then I asked them to provide me with a signed credit agreement regulated under the consumer credit act of 1974.... they responded by asking what one of those was; I replied again stating that as they were posting data that had a detrimental impact on someone's credit file they should be regulated by the financial services authority and as they were posting it as a debt/credit, that they should be regulated by the consumer credit act. Radio silence followed.

I've just contacted them by phone, raised a complaint and the lady I spoke to confirmed that she could see payments in February, March and April (they took over in February) with the last one being less than a month ago. She has said that she will raise the complaint, but added that it could take up to 8 weeks for it to be looked at and resolved. Meanwhile, my credit file is in tatters, so if I decided to try for finance on anything I would almost definitely be declined. I was just at the point where I was going to look for a loan to clear credit cards and that has been given a depth-charge. To say I am furious is an understatement.

My bill dated 6th May was on estimated meter readings:

the closing read there is 83780 - - I have just taken a meter read some 24 days later and it is 83798. So almost a month on and I've only just tipped over last month's bill by 18kWh (£4.86)!

Gas:


Closing meter read there is 8673 - I have just read the meter now reads 8681 - 8 units more than they estimated for last month (roughly £18 for 8 units).

So, about this missed payment then.... not only did it not happen but even the debt is not as much as they are making out. How can it be that they can post fraudulent information and destroy someone's credit file (and I do mean destroy it)? I WILL be emailing my MP (Kwasi Kwarteng... the Business and Energy Minister), have raised a complaint with Shell and Credit Karma individually and fully intend to take this to Ofgem and the Financial Ombudsman if I have to.

THESE PEOPLE ARE CHARLATANS OUT TO DESTROY YOUR CREDIT FILE WHILST HAVING YOU FREEZING COLD BY CANDLELIGHT AND PAYING HUNDREDS OF POUNDS EACH MONTH TO DO SO!

I am beyond hacked off with behaviour like this - barring perhaps the odd late payment here and there, I have not missed a single payment. I've not missed a rent payment in 29 years, but that doesn't count worth a bean - despite paying more than I would on a mortgage... but I can't get a mortgage because I don't have a massive deposit and because I don't have a mortgage almost all finance costs at least double what it would cost anyone else. Better still, if you are in credit with Shell, do you think they would report THAT to the credit referencing agencies?

CHECK your direct debits (or cancel them) and check your credit files, even if you are not intending on obtaining credit. Such is the damage to mine that I doubt I could even move supplier without being forced on to a pre-payment meter!

 

Oh, and I have got Shell to add to my account that every time I have to contact them until this is resolved, I will be charging them £25 - if the banks etc can get away with it, then so should we! I am sick and tired of cruddy service in this country whilst being charged a fortune for it.

 

They do sound very bad, not to be trusted. Hope you can get it resolved

 

I had a tussle with NPower some years back, not quite the same situation, and I charged them for my time because it was their fault. They ignored me when I sent them the invoice, so I took them to court. They ignored the summons so the court found in my favour. They then ignored the court decision - so I sent the bailiffs in to their H.O. They paid on the spot! It took a long time

 

I shall be writing (again) to Mr Kwarteng over the weekend.. not that I expect he will do much, but it is his remit and he and his colleagues are presiding over this.

I am not disputing for one minute that I owed them money... (I don't as of this afternoon, but that has put £500 back onto a credit card that I have just spent quite some time emptying) - I don't even dispute that there was a debt coming out of winter but my use would be so much less in summer that I estimated that debt would be wiped out in two, maybe three months. Looking at the meter readings I think my use estimate for this month of £100-£120 is pretty accurate.

The dispute that I really have is utility bills being on a credit file at all - they never have been in the past, and I know for sure that at least OVO and E-On don't as I have asked colleagues. The best of it is, Shell are the very same ones belly-aching over the additional taxation announced yesterday whilst raking in literally billions every quarter in profits. It is disgraceful.

 

Certainly agree.