Have we been billed TWICE for energy we used in 2013?

IN SEPTEMBER 2013, my wife and I switched from M&S Energy to EDF. We thought we’d paid our final bills, so were greatly shocked when we received two dated March 2, 2015 from M&S Energy.

Covering June to November 2013, the electricity bill was £53.31 and gas was £180.40.

We had already paid bills covering June 13 to September 6, 2013, and assumed we had been charged by EDF from then.

We wrote to M&S Energy on March 7, but did not receive a reply. I then received a phone call asking me to call back. I was told the bill had to be paid and a debt agency was mentioned.

My wife and I became extremely worried and, under duress, I paid £233.71 over the phone on my debit card. We are in our 70s and can ill afford to pay double for our fuel bills.

M. R., Nuneaton, Warks. I WAS extremely annoyed when I read your letter because M&S energy appears to be flouting back-billing rules. These can be found on the energy UK website and are explicit. essentially, if they have not sent a bill for more than a year, they can only charge for energy used in the previous 12 months.

There are provisos such as the customer being reasonable and allowing access, but you pass the tests. For a call centre operator to put pressure on you is well out of bounds.

M&S energy billing and customer service is provided by SSe, which says the delay in sending out the bill was down to a ‘technical issue’.

This money would have been due had the bill been sent on time because your switch did not take place until November. however, under these circumstances, the bill should not have been sent. And when you called to query it the operator should have applied the 12-month back-billing rule rather than bullying you into paying.

SSe will be refunding the £233.71 and has apologised to you for the upset caused. I am not sure how M&S will feel at having their customers treated in this way, but I will leave that for them to sort out with SSe. WE HAVE had a mortgage with Barclays for 15 years.

Four years ago my husband, who is self-employed, had to have a back operation, resulting in nearly six months off work.

I was working part-time and was not in a position to cover the mortgage and pay all the bills.

Our insurance policy would not pay out until he had been off work for 24 weeks. I asked if the mortgage could be frozen for a few months and was told if they did this they would freeze all our accounts, credit and debit cards.

The adviser suggested we use our Mortgage Current Account.

I didn’t realise we could do this, so was happy that this would allow me to pay the bills. I am now faced with a £40,000 debt on this account. I pay £200 per month and have done for the past two and half years. This only covers the interest, which is £188 per month.

Barclays never responds on time to my contacts and then sends me a ‘gesture of goodwill’ cheque to apologise for the length of time taken to answer my complaint.

When our mortgage finishes in 18 months they fully expect the £40,000 debt to be cleared.

I have never said I’m not going to pay this money back. All I have ever asked is that they look at the interest rate to at least give me a chance of paying back the money.

L. P., Bucks. WheN I received your letter, I was shocked that Barclays appeared to have ignored guidelines on helping customers in financial distress — and that the bank had allowed you to build up these debts at such a difficult time. But your letter does not tell the full story. One reason I insist on readers providing permission for firms to discuss a case in full is so the firms can tell their side, too.

You told me you did not know you could use the Mortgage Current Account. This is an account attached to your mortgage, which allows you to borrow more up to a certain limit.

In fact, this account had been used for some years before your husband’s operation, though you may not personally have been aware of it. Total withdrawals were around £22,000.

You also had mortgage arrears transferred to the account, boosting what was owed to £25,000.

This was all before the operation and you asking for the repayment holiday in February 2010.

There were no transactions during the time of your husband’s back problems, but Barclays says there have been a further £15,000 of withdrawals since then.

The total debt is £40,000 on top of your mortgage, which comes to an end in 2017.

You have queried the interest rate. In fact, the Mortgage Current Account interest is 4.99 pc, which is lower than the 5.28 pc rate on your main mortgage.

I am concerned that perhaps you are not being honest with yourselves. Something is awry with your household finances.

I apologise for being so blunt but, while you obviously need financial help, it must start with you. Barclays will make contact with you in order to try to work out the best solution.

I suggest that you also contact the debt advice charity StepChange at stepchange.org or on 0800 138 1111.