www.iva.co.uk

I am sooooooooooooo mad and angry and upset this morning!!!!

I have had problems with EDF for the last couple of months with my electricity direct debit, last month they set my DD at £78 which is what I thought they would take from my account, but the day before I was paid at the end of March they tried to take over £250, this was rejected by the bank as there wasn't enough in our account, which left us with a £10 returned DD charge to pay. I called EDF about this but they said they had send a letter to my online account detailing they would be taking this (they hadn't as it wasn't there) but I let it slide. So we sorted out the new DD to be £84 a month from this month.

Then last week I received an email to say there was a new bill on my account, when I logged on and read it, it stated that my account was now in arrears of £395 which would be taken on 27th April. Obviously I can't afford to pay this in one go so called them last week and arranged to pay this over the next 12 months. The chap I spoke to worked out that to pay the arrears on top of the £84 a month would work out at £116 a month and they would start this from 30th April, fine. I specifically asked him to reassure me that they still wouldnt take the £395 on top of this and he said no as the new payment included that debt. I received confirmation of this new DD in my online account, great.

Today, I have been paid, checked my online banking and EDF have taken 2 direct debits this morning totalling over £500, this is half my salary!!!!, It now looks like I am going to have to cancel my IVA payment tomorrow otherwise we cannot afford to pay our mortgage this month. I am in tears and at the end of my tether, my EDF account now shows a credit of £116 and I am worried they won't refund it.

Help!!!

If you pay by direct debit, you are covered by the direct debit indemnity scheme. This basically means that if a company take a direct debit which they shouldn't have done, you can claim it back and it should be back into your account within 24 hours. Just call your bank and ask them to reclaim the direct debit under the direct debit guarantee indemnity scheme. This should sort things out for you.

Oh Lem how incompetent of them and do ring your bank re the DD guarantee as Clare suggests. That is awful. I'm sure Mel won't mind her payment being a couple of days late while this is sorted but would suggest an email to her to keep her in the loop. I would suggest changing companies for your electric too.

Thanks Clare and Lesley, I have a headache!, I fortunately took the advisers name at EDF when this was arranged last week so I called them and managed to speak to him again, he has looked into it for me and apologised profusely as it shouldn't have happened, they told me the quickest way to get the refund was to call the bank and do the indemnity otherwise they could action a refund which would take 2-3 days, I called the bank and they have refunded it immediately, so I'm very impressed with the bank (Lloyds), I had an issue with a DD a few years ago when we were with HSBC and they were a nightmare trying to get them to refund it.

So all's well that ends well, Lesley I would love to change my supplier but as we have a debt of £400 with them we wont be able to until it's paid off, grrr!

At least we dont have to miss our IVA payment now, esp as we are at our annual review time.

I had loads of trouble with EDF, taking money at wrong times like you experienced. I was paying £75 a month with them and they said it was enough then within a month they sent me a letter telling me my direct debit would be going upto £134 to cover the arrears! Errears what arrears?? When i contacted them they said my bills were estimated, god knows why as i sent them meter reads each month. They are the worst company to deal with.PS You will get a refund