Scottish Gas warning folks

[Valerie Campbell]

We just checked our bank statement and discovered that Scottish Gas had taken out an unauthorised transaction from our account. We'd set up a DD with them and had agreed a specified amount. This was fine until this month when we noticed they had taken out more than £25 extra. They hadn't told us about this change. The upshot of this thread is that anyone who deals with Scottish Gas and has a DD set up with them to keep an eye on the bank statements. This could happen to you.

[elamanya]

we set up the dd sheme with scottish gas , after a while they put our dd up to a crazy figure we phoned and asked was this right , they asked us all sorts of questions, how many in house ,how many teenagers, how many females, and so on , then said the figures quoted where ok , so we let it run after a year they owed us near 800 quid lol, we got it back so do keep a eye on them

[NLP]

scottish gas did that to us to my OH phoned them and got the amount lowered to a more realistic figure.

[paris]

Water board , Anglian , did near on the same to us. Said our water was a staggering £100 a month , then when i phoned to moan they said OK pay us £30 a month. How can they charge £100 then drop it to £30 just like that. They should of said £30 in the first place. It makes me sooooooooo mad ! Jan x

[Riffman]

That's why I have no direct debits.

I prefer a real bill. Saves them benefiting from your money that you do not owe them.

[Julia]

Bit off topic but concerning direct debits - I checked my online banking recently and discovered a DD had been set up without my knowledge or consent, it was for an animal charity I think, luckily I deleted it before they helped themselves to any cash. It pays to keep an eye on standing orders and direct debits.

[Valerie Campbell]

Just to give you an update. We've cancelled our DD with Scottish Gas so at least in future we are in charge. It's a good idea to check your accounts as often as you can, just in case...

[Munro]

We have an on going battle with our Southern Electric gas bill, they increase the DD every six months or so and I phone up and complain and they then put it back to the original figure. this has been happening for at least three years.
It seems a nationwide scam by all the utilities.

[mums angels]

they did this to us recently but they had said in the recent bill at the bottom that they felt the need to up it by £10 a month and to phone if this was a problem, however it was a good job i read all the bill properly as often i don't as we pay by DD

[telfordstar]

thank heavens i have pre payment meters for both gas and electricity that way i know what im spending and what im not spending

[Housewifie]

We cancelled our Scottish Gas DD, just pay it when the bill comes in now.