What is the attraction of paying by direct debit? Customers sometimes automatically ask for it, but that is because there is often a supplier or TPI whispering something in the ear about risk, set monthly costs, stability etc, etc.
One reason people use DD's is that they aren't given an alternative such as floating prices combined with smart metering. Utility metering has yet to reach most parts of the twentieth century let alone this one and most people seem to think no monthly billing is as British as driving on the left. Which is bizarre considering that every piece of information most of us ever wanted, and quite a few pieces we wish we could lose, is now digitised and stored somewhere for ever. Apart from your gas bill. Nanotubes? Battlefield robots? Interstellar travel? Time Travel? Computers that think? Some is science fiction, but the pretty sad science fact for most of us is that a monthly gas bill is as unattainable as a vacation to Alpha Centauri.
This is a sad story, from the paper that is so unrelentingly dismal in it's usual outlook that its a wonder most of the readership hasn't topped themselves, is even sadder from being true. We speak of the Daily Mail of course:
Shaun and Julie Lock, who run a post office and village store in Mawgan, Cornwall, signed up with E4B because the company claimed to offer cheap electricity. Four months into their contract, the couple discovered they were being overcharged on their direct debit to the tune of £200 a month.
When they complained, they were assured that it would ‘all work out OK at the end of the year’. Weeks later, E4B went into administration, owing the Locks £2,500 they can ill afford to lose.
Mrs Lock, 43, said: ‘It’s a huge burden for a small business like ours. In future we will pay each gas bill as it comes. Direct debit? Never again.’
Four months of the year, a DD pays for the utilities actually used. Business people have to decide if they want to spend four of the other months giving an international energy company an interest free loan, or whether the business is so hard up that it needs to borrow at an exorbitant rate simply to keep the lights on.
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