With Airtricity but owe ESB money

pitchnputtking

Hi, Im just wondering if anyone knows if the ESB can disconnect my supply even do im with Airticity.

I dont owe Airtricity anything i just paid bill.

I owe the ESB approx 150euro from close of account with them.

The reason i ask is because i just got a call from a person at ESB and they said in what i percieved to be a threatining mannor that i should bear in mind that they are the main provider.

Maybe im being paranoid but i took this to mean they still had the power to disconnect me.

Any info appreciated

slave1

Why is this an issue, pay the ESB the money you owe, be done with it.
I assume you agree to the debt.

pitchnputtking

I am goin too but cant all in 1 go.
What about the interim.

The question i asked was do the ESB still have the power to disconnect me?

Cabaal

ESB Electric Ireland is who you owe the money to, ESB Networks is who operates the lines etc and Airtricity deal with them (ESB Networks).

In short ESB Electric Ireland shouldn't be able to do a thing to your current supply of power.

I also don't see the issue here, just pay the debt

If you can't pay it in one go then don't ignore the debt explained this to the ESB and explain you can pay it in part,

pitchnputtking

Thanks,

I am but once you change providers they lose patience very fast

slimjimmc

pitchnputtking wrote: »

I am goin too but cant all in 1 go.
What about the interim.

The question i asked was do the ESB still have the power to disconnect me?

So what's stopping you paying it off in bits and pieces? Every payment you make decreases the debt and makes any possibility of any action less likely.

Le Graduate

pitchnputtking wrote: »

Hi, Im just wondering if anyone knows if the ESB can disconnect my supply even do im with Airticity.

I dont owe Airtricity anything i just paid bill.

I owe the ESB approx 150euro from close of account with them.

The reason i ask is because i just got a call from a person at ESB and they said in what i percieved to be a threatining mannor that i should bear in mind that they are the main provider.

Maybe im being paranoid but i took this to mean they still had the power to disconnect me.

Any info appreciated

From reading what you wrote it sounds like you 'debt hopped' to Airtricity.As
Cabaal said they do not have the remit to disconnect you but they can pursue you legally for this debt.

I can understand them coming across quite aggressive as you effectively left your debt with them and moved to Airtricity.I would suggest you admit you owe them the money and agree to pay it off in the one go or through installments if cash flow in your home is low.

sendit

How did you even manage to change to Airtricity if you owe the ESB money? I taught you had to pay them before you changed

Shelflife

Bring your bill into your local post office and knock a few euro off it every few days, ring them and tell them that you will pay it off as soon as you can.
Even if you pay off a €10 a week, they will be happy in the long run.
make a payment soon and this will help to avoid goung down the legal route.

discostu1

Hi Pitch, as a number of the other posters say start paying the final ESB bill evin if its small amounts straight away. A lot of companies issue reminder letters so my suggestion is start paying and maybe drop an email to http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1349
ESBs own part of boards in fairness they seem to be fairly helpful. I would imagine what the ESB want is a payment schedule where by you both agree say €10 per week, as long as you pay that every week they are happy, they dont want the hassle or expense of letters. This is the same with most utilities and services we are after all talking about a relatively small amount of money € 150. That would be my advice anyway

Hal Emmerich

sendit wrote: »

How did you even manage to change to Airtricity if you owe the ESB money? I taught you had to pay them before you changed

here

WITH MONEY getting tighter and people across all social classes struggling to make ends meet, more and more people are falling into arrears on their utility bills. Before they reach the disconnection stage, thousands are simply switching from one provider to another and leaving their debt behind.


It is a peculiar anomaly of the Irish gas and electricity market that suppliers have no legal authority to check the history of someone switching provider, so it’s quite easy to debt hop. Although the companies have the right to pursue these debts in the courts, and can employ debt-collection agencies to recover the money, once the relationship is fractured to such an extent that a customer walks away the ultimate sanction of disconnection loses all power and recovering the debt becomes largely impossible.


A customer could quite easily move from the ESB to Bord Gáis Energy to Airtricty and then back to the ESB – and the latter has to take them back under its universal-service obligations. The customer would then have to enter a payment plan for the outstanding debt, but they could not be denied power because they were a bad risk.


“Unrestricted debt hopping affects all suppliers in the market,” says Larry Donald of Bord Gáis Energy. “A mechanism for ensuring that customers can not walk away from debt is critical.”


Brian Montayne of the ESB agrees. He says the company is losing between 5,000 and 6,000 customers a week, many of whom are leaving debt behind. It has a rolling debt of about €14 million. He says the debt write-off last year was €20 million, with €15 million of that accounted for by domestic users. “Our margins are 1.3 per cent, so if you write off €20 million you have effectively written off your entire margin.”


The issue of changing the rules to allow energy companies see the credit history of customers who are looking to switch providers is exercising the minds of the utility firms, but a resolution is not expected in the short term.


Last year about 150,000 customers of the ESB entered into payment plans, while a similar percentage of customers with Bord Gáis Energy and Airtricity did likewise. Even payment plans that are agreed by people struggling to meet their financial commitments are frequently broken – Bord Gáis Energy say 75 per cent of its payment plans are breached.
About 2,500 people were cut off from one of the most basic of services each month in 2010 by all three providers, and about 10 per cent of all households are currently in arrears.


We have been here before. During the bleakest period of the 1980s, fuel poverty, arrears and disconnections were widespread but there is one major difference this time. Back then, arrears and disconnections affected only the poorest people in society.


“In the 1980s it was a major issue, but it was not the same kind of problem,” says Donald. “Now utility debt crosses all social divides, and middle-class households are just as likely to be affected as those living in social housing. One of the problems we have is that sometimes we can’t get through the electric gates to make disconnections.”

Considering how much this is costing the Power Companies I can't understand the delay in closing this "anomaly".

sendit

Hal Emmerich wrote: »

here



Considering how much this is costing the Power Companies I can't understand the delay in closing this "anomaly".

When i was working with Airtricity we always told people once you paid off your last bill with the ESB thats when you got the first one from Airtricity. Surprising they haven't done something to stop people doing this

charlemont

pitchnputtking wrote: »

Hi, Im just wondering if anyone knows if the ESB can disconnect my supply even do im with Airticity.

I dont owe Airtricity anything i just paid bill.

I owe the ESB approx 150euro from close of account with them.

The reason i ask is because i just got a call from a person at ESB and they said in what i percieved to be a threatining mannor that i should bear in mind that they are the main provider.

Maybe im being paranoid but i took this to mean they still had the power to disconnect me.

Any info appreciated

No, They cannot cut you off, So don't sweat about it, I'm sure the bankers don't lose sleep at night so you shouldn't. Sure FF privatised ESB in the first place and they been ripping us off ever since so you have nothing to feel guilty about by not paying, Just hang up if they ring you and put your bill where it belongs, Then they will try to frighten you by sending Debt Collectors letters which here are as useless as the paper they are printed on, This isnt the UK so if you ignore them there is really nothing they can do, Anyhow even these letters soon dry up..

slimjimmc

charlemont wrote: »

Sure FF privatised ESB in the first place and they been ripping us off ever since

When did that happen ?

charlemont

slimjimmc wrote: »

When did that happen ?

That, Of course is my mistaken choice of words, But considering we had the cheapest electricity in the EU to then end up as the most expensive says a lot.

Well I do recall the prices rising due to the government at the time opening the market up to competition quiet possibly an EU directive but put into practice by FF.

slimjimmc

charlemont wrote: »

That, Of course is my mistaken choice of words, But considering we had the cheapest electricity in the EU to then end up as the most expensive says a lot.

Well I do recall the prices rising due to the government at the time opening the market up to competition quiet possibly an EU directive but put into practice by FF.

Prices only rose in order to make the market more attractive to competition. Once sufficient competition arrived the market was fully deregulated and prices have already fallen. Our high prices are as much to do with our +80% dependency on fossil fuels as anything else (Cer). About 60% of our electricity came from imported gas & oil compared to 24% EU average. link

Matt Bauer

You should pay your money owed to ESB. End of.

That being said, they can't disconnect you, as has been stated already. You should still pay your bill though.

booboo88

pitchnputtking wrote: »

Hi, Im just wondering if anyone knows if the ESB can disconnect my supply even do im with Airticity.

I dont owe Airtricity anything i just paid bill.

I owe the ESB approx 150euro from close of account with them.

The reason i ask is because i just got a call from a person at ESB and they said in what i percieved to be a threatining mannor that i should bear in mind that they are the main provider.

Maybe im being paranoid but i took this to mean they still had the power to disconnect me.

Any info appreciated

they cant disconnect you, although it may have gone to external agency, at which point you have to contact said agency

pitchnputtking wrote: »

Thanks,

I am but once you change providers they lose patience very fast

credit terms, unfortunately tis legal, if irritating.

ocrafter

from what i can tell they have no right to interfere with ur power supply but legal action could commence, given that u say you only owe 150 i would say just pay it,

if for some reason u cant pay it and u find urself in court dont fret too much, a judge would sentance u to 1 day per hundred euro's owed, in the irish legal system u automatically get 1 quarter off your given sentance regardless of what it was for or how long it was for thats just how it works so u could could in theory get 36hrs - 1/4 ......... 27hrs, due to overcrowding they wont keep non violant offenders in for the full 3/4's of the time given so realistically by the time ur day in court ends and u arrive in prison it will be 4 o clock, expect to be goin home around 7 the same evenin...... or definatley first thing the followin morning, terrible if some guy is scum and he gets out early but it works well for the likes of ppl with money issues who really dont belong in there, a little off topic i know but if u cant pay then esb have nothin on u, the day in court will cost more than the 150

charlemont

ESB and their solicitors got completely sick of sending me notices and warnings as I just put them all where they belong, The bin. I haven't heard anything off either of them in well over a year.

booboo88

charlemont wrote: »

That, Of course is my mistaken choice of words, But considering we had the cheapest electricity in the EU to then end up as the most expensive says a lot.

Well I do recall the prices rising due to the government at the time opening the market up to competition quiet possibly an EU directive but put into practice by FF.

Price rise was decided by cer, to let the new suppliers get a foot on the ladder. you may want to research things in future,

mikemac

You are a debt hopper OP but you certainly aren't alone.
The newspapers have had a number of articles on people who run up debts and then skip to another provider

Your power won't be cut off.
And if you make an effort, any effort at all then ESB will be happy
Can you manage even a tenner a week?

edit, I'm replying to a five month old thread

Dudess

charlemont wrote: »

ESB and their solicitors got completely sick of sending me notices and warnings as I just put them all where they belong, The bin.

So you admit you owe money for a service that you used (and fuel isn't a god-given right by the way - food is even more important for survival and you'd pay for that) yet you feel it's your "right" not to pay and the letters requesting that you pay what you owe belong in the bin? Does not add up. Explain please how you're being hard done by? Oh wait... you're not. You're just shirking a responsibility while other people actually fulfill theirs (hardly fair - why them and not you?) simply because you... don't like it.

charlemont

Dudess wrote: »

So you admit you owe money for a service that you used (and fuel isn't a god-given right by the way - food is even more important for survival and you'd pay for that) yet you feel it's your "right" not to pay and the letters requesting that you pay what you owe belong in the bin? Does not add up. Explain please how you're being hard done by? Oh wait... you're not. You're just shirking a responsibility while other people actually fulfill theirs (hardly fair - why them and not you?) simply because you... don't like it.

Yes indeed I do, I'm not ashamed to admit it either.;)

charlemont

booboo88 wrote: »

Price rise was decided by cer, to let the new suppliers get a foot on the ladder. you may want to research things in future,

That's an extra reason not to pay them, Thanks.

booboo88

charlemont wrote: »

That's an extra reason not to pay them, Thanks.

Just don't ring up esb whinging about the debt collector ringing you:rolleyes:

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

charlemont wrote: »

ESB and their solicitors got completely sick of sending me notices and warnings as I just put them all where they belong, The bin. I haven't heard anything off either of them in well over a year.

Did you owe them money?

charlemont

booboo88 wrote: »

Just don't ring up esb whinging about the debt collector ringing you:rolleyes:

WOW Am I supposed to be scared ?? Yea I'm ****ting it, This is Ireland not UK so I'v nothing to worry about, If its good enough for Seanie Fitz.......:p

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

charlemont wrote: »

Yes indeed I do, I'm not ashamed to admit it either.;)

Then you are a scrounger that the rest of us have to pay for. You probably think you got one over on somebody but hardly something to be proud of. :mad:

Words fail me and I despair for this country at times with people having this kind of attitude.

Dudess

Abdication of personal responsibility, grossly inflated and illogical sense of entitlement - all too commonplace.

charlemont wrote: »

That's an extra reason not to pay them, Thanks.

Nope it isn't. Perhaps it needs to be spelled out again - it wasn't decided by them.

charlemont wrote: »

WOW Am I supposed to be scared ??

No. But you do seem to think you're so special that you don't have to pay for a service that you used - others are just noting that. Probably best not to be advising people on this thread that they "don't have to pay it" too.

charlemont

Dudess wrote: »

Nope it isn't. Perhaps it needs to be spelled out again - it wasn't decided by them.

No. But you do seem to think you're so special that you don't have to pay for a service that you used - others are just noting that.

Ha, I don't care what any of ye think about me.. :pac: