I’ve seen this round Robin thing but wonder how much truth there is in it:
Instead of refusing to pay your energy bill in October, you can make a stand and hurt your energy supplier without getting into debt or damaging your credit rating:
1. Cancel your Direct Debit and either set up a standing order for what you can afford, or simply pay for what you use each month.
2. Write a letter of complaint about the bill to your energy supplier. Once that complaint has been raised, your energy supplier can't take any debt collection action on your account, so they can't pass your details to the credit reference agencies, etc. That bill gets put on hold while they try to resolve your complaint. The energy company might offer you a small reduction - don't accept it. Keep the complaint open & keep your nerve.
3. Eventually, they will send you a letter of 'Deadlock', saying they've gone as far as they can with your complaint & can't go any further, so your only option now is to take it up with the energy Ombudsman.
For every complaint the Ombudsman has to investigate, they charge your energy supplier £500.
4. The energy companies have limitations on how many complaints they're allowed to have open, and there's a limit also on turnaround time - how quickly they must respond to a complaint & get it closed. If they don't respond quickly enough, don't resolve a complaint, or if they have too many complaints open, the energy firm will be fined by the Ombudsman.
This will also put them in breach of their licensing conditions and put their ability to trade at risk.
So if you want to fight these extortionate price hikes
1. Raise complaints
2. Do NOT close them
3. Take them to the Ombudsman
Should you want to cause them even more grief, you can submit a “subject access request” at the same time as the above. The energy company has a legal obligation to provide you with every piece of information they have on you, including telephone conversation transcripts, past bills, everything. This is time-consuming and is a huge hassle for them, however they are legally bound to comply within one month.