Can an Energy Supplier Increase My Direct Debit?

When a supplier may change your payment

Changes usually follow an account review, a new meter reading, a tariff or price change, the end of a fixed term, or a change you have requested. They can also follow a refund, which removes a buffer the previous forecast assumed.

The amount should be based on reasonable estimates

A direct debit is a forecast, not a charge in its own right. It should follow from your expected consumption and the rates on your tariff, adjusted for any credit or debit on the account. Where the supplier's consumption estimate is clearly wrong — an empty property, a previous occupant's usage, a heating system you do not have — the resulting payment is wrong too.

What you should receive

Under the Direct Debit Guarantee you are entitled to advance notice of the amount and the collection date. In practice you should also be able to obtain, on request, the consumption assumption, the rates used and how any balance has been treated.

• Advance notice of the new amount and date
• A statement showing recent charges and payments
• On request, the annual consumption figure used in the forecast
• On request, how a credit or debit balance has been factored in

How to challenge an unexplained or unreasonable increase

Challenge with evidence, not with the number alone. Submit a current meter reading, work out your own annual cost from your rates, and ask the supplier in writing to recalculate and to explain the assumptions if it declines.

• Submit actual readings for both fuels.
• Calculate your estimated annual cost and average monthly cost.
• Put the discrepancy in writing and ask for a recalculation.
• Ask for the request and outcome to be recorded as a complaint if it is refused without explanation.

Where complaints can be escalated

Use the supplier's complaints procedure first. If it is unresolved after eight weeks, or you receive a deadlock letter, the Energy Ombudsman can take the case free of charge. Citizens Advice runs the consumer helpline for energy and can advise while the complaint runs.

Changing the direct debit is not the same as changing the tariff

Adjusting the payment changes when you pay, not what energy costs. Changing tariff changes the unit rates and standing charges themselves. If your real problem is price rather than cash flow, a payment review will not fix it.