Hi people,I've been looking through the threads but not been able to find anything to answer my question fully so sorry if i've missed something.I had a loan with london scottish back in 2003 which I paid on a regular basis. I was then made redundant in 2006 and because I was with the company for less than a year I didnt get any kind of pay out from them. I had payment protection from LS but they told me I wasnt covered for redundancy, only death. I argued with them and they did nothing to help so I refused to pay them the final £358.I recently checked my credit file with experian and it shows that the London Scottish section was last updated on 09/07/2006 with 5 missed payments. It never defaulted or got to 8 missed payments and it's just sitting there in limbo with a balance of £358.My concern is that because the account was never settled, never defaulted and hasnt been updated since July 2006, it will stay on my report and affect my credit rating for more than 6 years?LS went into administration in 2008 so I cant contact them and to be honest I dont know if I want to contact them in case they update my account with a default.The other thing I noticed is that I have an entry from a company called EVERYTHINGEVERYWHERE which I believe to be the company that owns t-mobile and orange. The account was opened in 2002 has a balance of £104 and shows every payment for the last 10 years being up to date. It says the account is satisfactory and I know that when I left them everything was paid. I dont understand why they're still updating my credit file when i left them about 8 years ago.Really hope you guys can give me some advice on this!Thanks in advance

I suppose you have 2 options and neither are very nice to be honest. 1, you can pay off the balance and keep pestering them once you have the collections people off your back or 2, you can continue on this track. Court is just to get a warrent to get access to your property to change your meter from a credit meter to a prepayment meter. Although they call it a pre disconnection visit, You WONT be cut off. The only problem with that is they will add the money they think you owe to the meter so when you top it up it takes say £5 for the debt and what ever is left goes towards your usage. The only bonus is you wouldnt have to worry about debt any more. If there was a problem with your meter. didnt they backdate your bill to the day/reading when you first moved in?

If a bill isn’t due to be sent within 2 weeks (last time I heard), by law they have to refund you the credit on the account and cant refuse and to be honest wouldn’t refuse unless the account is billed to an estimate in which case all you have to do is update the readings and once its through the system (24 hours) the account will be up to date and a refund can then be issued. The way they calculate the direct debit is they use the previous year’s readings to calculate the usage for this year at the present rate and then break it down into 12 equal payments. The only reasons why people complain about the direct debit being put up is either due to a large price increase or the customers usage going up and then they complain that it's powergens fault for them getting into debit when they get a monthly bill showing the debit on the account and the customer lets it build up and up until the account gets reviewed by Powergen (every 6 months but used to be a year) who then put the DD up to cover the usage and debt. As long as prices stay reasonably the same and the usage doesn’t change too much, you shouldn’t really have a problem and end the year with a small credit or small debit

Unfortunately not the fault of Powergen. Like with any company, if you send them a cheque, they will cash it and allocate it to the account (provided the correct account details are provided). This is the fault of the postal service, no one else. Best thing I can suggest is contact the bank to find out if it’s been cashed or not. Then send them another if it hasn’t been cashed or better still, pay them over the phone with your debit card. Your best option would be to set up a monthly direct debit so you will get a higher discount and you pay the same each month. If it has been cashed, call Powergen and they can look in the suspense accounts to see if it’s been put on hold due to incorrect customer details. If Powergen get the first cheque, they will cash it. If it puts the account into credit then they will refund you the credit. If the account is still in debit they wont refund you as they will basically see it as money being owed to them by you and again I know it's not your fault because of the terrible postal service but it's not their fault you sent them 2 cheques either

Now the problem has been found, energywatch will dismiss the complaint and say to contact them in a few weeks if the account still hasn’t been resolved. Powergen will rebill the account back to when the problem started, they can’t tell if readings are transposed unless the customer is able to take readings and hour apart, this is something even an engineer can miss out on. The chances are you will get a bill that has been substantially reduced

Check your bill to make sure youre on the E7 tariff. If thats all ok check your meter to make sure both day and night are going up. if one stays the same it means a time switch fault. also take 2 readings an hour apart to confirm which one is day and which is night and contact your supplier to confirm it with them to make sure your not being charged the higher rate for night and the lower rate for day

Yes it's true. If a customer calls any energy company they can sign up without having to sign an agreement and the details can be taken over the phone to make the transfer. If a property has an electric meter, there has to be a supplier even if the property was empty, someone has to be responsible for it so in this case the landlord. They would get the bills when the property was empty and when someone moved in the landlord or tenant would phone the supplier to have an account opened in the tenants name with meter readings taken from the day they moved in and the old account would automatically be closed down to the same readings. The tenant then has the choice to stay with the present supplier or they can move to an new company by calling them and making the transfer. If no meter reads were given to the supplier when the accounts were opened and closed the supplier would have no choice but to estimate the meter readings. Powergen do not have a standing charge so the date isn't that important. What is important is the correct meter readings.

Follow this link 24 Hour Immersion Heater Timer It's a company called TLC-Direct who specialise in electrical equipment and are very good value for money or you can try screwfix 7 Day Digital Timer - Screwfix Direct, Everything for the Trade, Next Day! who are also very good. Just remember to get an EXPERT to install it!

OK straight away your emersion heating is a BIG part of your problems. I'd seriuosly look into getting a timer fitted for that. I'm off for the rest of day so I'll check on things in the morning.

OK looks like it could be a few things. Can you give me a rough estimate as to how long you have the emersion on for? 2 readings also shows that you have an E7 meter. Youre still going to use power during the night, no matter how little. If you have a bedside radio alarm thing its still using power so the night or heat reading should change. If your night reading hasnt changed then it sounds like you have a time switch problem and everything you use at night is being charged at the higher day rate. When you get home can you gather these things together for me: All the readings you have and the dates they were taken and if it was estimated or actual The tariff youre on, E7 or Domestic What was the wattage of that little heater

I should be able to work something out. When you give them readings do you give them one set of readings or two? 2 readings would indicate an E7 meter. Also, how long do you have the emersion on for? Have you still got your first bill? Can you check on it to see if your opening readings are actual readings or estimated. It will have A, C, or E next to the reading wich will indicate if its Actual (from a meter reader), from a Customer or Estimated

OK it will show on your bill as either E7 or domestic general. Do you have storage heaters or emersion heating for your hot water? Can you give me the readings for when you first moved in, to when you were sent your last bill?

A few questions, 1) The first bill, was that to accurate readings and a 91 day quarter? 2) Are you on a 1 rate tariff or economy 7? 3) Is this bill for gas and electric or just elec?

Yeah I agree with you on that one in which case my suggestion would be to go to the CAB or other financial service and get them to write a letter of all the income, expenditures, mortgage/rent, other utilities, food and send it to that utility company stating "this is what I have to pay out, this is what i can afford to pay you". I cant speak for EDF but the company I work for will accept the letter and set up a payment plan accordingly. You dont need to take it all the way to a judge to get something like that set up, it's just unfortunate that this kind of information isnt widely available. Thank god for sites like this!

Sorry but I don’t know if I agree with you bookworm. I don’t work for EDF but I do work for an energy company. They aren’t banks that charge interest so the longer a customer is in debit, the more money they are loosing and before you say "what about all those on DD's that are in credit" they get the discount for having a DD and building up the credit. If you have used what they are saying then they are entitled to ask for the repayments to be made over a period of 12 months. You can’t walk into Tesco and say I'm going to take £300 worth of food but pay £50 a month, they would laugh at you. Unfortunately it’s the same with energy companies. If you use it you have to pay for it. The best thing you can do is try and be more energy efficient. A lot of companies have energy efficiency help lines who can advise you on the best way of cutting down your usage. Worst case scenario, have a prepayment meter put in and pay £5 a week off the debt and pay for what ever you’re using at the same time