Will I get penalised for cancelling EDF Direct Debit?

blue_monkey_2 · 16 August 2011 at 12:15PM

I've tried calling - no answer, email has not yet been answered but they have put our DD up to £200 a month. We will not use that amount - certainly not at the moment - so we want to switch to quarterly and pay when the bill comes in.

How can we do this? Do we have to tell them or can we cancel the DD and wait for them to call us? Will we be penalised by EDF for doing this tough? I have had a look around and they are the cheapest but we are going to start saving the money in a seperate account and pay when the payment is due rather than them accumulate our money.

I have checked the T&C and cannot find anything, I have looked through the FAQ and still nothing - there is a choice of switching 'plans' for £99 a month but then we are tied in til 2012 which I do not want to do. If someone could tell me I would be grateful.

jalexa · 16 August 2011 at 12:24PM

blue_monkey wrote: »

In answer to your question, if you are on a Direct Debit tariff you will lose your Direct Debit discount. And that's assuming what you want to do is possible on your tariff.

This morning I got through on the phone after 16 minutes so it may be worth persevering with a morning call.

eurmalian · 16 August 2011 at 12:38PM

The other question is whether there are any arrears on the account. The direct debit isn't just for what you use, but paying off anything owed. At this time of year you should be at least breaking even, possibly a little in credit, to prepare for moving into the colder winter months.

System · 16 August 2011 at 12:40PM

EDF give a 6% discount when you pay by Direct Debit.

So, if you cancel the D/D it will cost more for your energy.

You should not just cancel the Direct Debit, you should telephone EDF and arrange to change the payment method if you want to spend the extra 6% (Bad idea in my opinion)

EDF may have a penalty charge if you cancelled the Direct Debit without informing them (charge for missed payment) - check your Terms & Conditions

blue_monkey_2 · 16 August 2011 at 12:46PM

Thanks for the replies, a morning call is not possible as it is in my husbands name and he cannot call during work time.

We are on the one that everyone switched too in December - V7 Online Saver I think it is called.

I looked through the T&C and cannot find anything about missed payments - will have another look.

no, there are not any arrears - hence the reason for our annoyance, it has been put up over 3 times what we pay now (and have been paying since starting in December which includes the winter when our heating was on all day and night as we had a new puppy sleeping downstairs) we never even used that much when we was with SP.
I think this 'discount' is just a way of being able to charge you whatever they want, when they want, in the guise of DD. I'd rather pay the 6%. Or switch.

deshepherd · 16 August 2011 at 3:13PM

blue_monkey wrote: »

T
We are on the one that everyone switched too in December - V7 Online Saver I think it is called.

My take on what happened is that when you switched they quoted a DD that was related to your estimated annual usage divided by 12. However, as the first quarter was winter you would have used much more energy than you'd paid for in that quarter so technically your account would be in debit (even if in due course reduced energy usage over the summer would cancel that out). Also, you comment that heating was higher then previous over the winter due to puppy so the account might be even further in debit.

The problem is that current guidance to suppliers is that they should endeavour to ensure that customer accounts are never in debit (since regulator was concerned that this could be being used as a means to prevent customers from switching) which normally means suppliers attempt to ensure that accounts are in balance in spring time and adjust DD's to keep this on track.

So as a resullt due to the timing of your switch I suspect the DD's are set up now to ensure that the account is in balance by next spring which will require paying for next winters costs + the amount still outstanding from last winter and, in addition, since last winters costs sound as if they were unusually high they will probably have assumed that they will be the same again this winter which won't help.

Final thing to check ... on the latest bill where the DD has been increase again are there the expected number (i.e. 3) of direct debit credits? Bill generation and DD calculation are automated processes which seem to be devoid of common sense - I had a big DD increase from Eon earlier in the year when after I sent in a meter reading a bill and hence a new DD calculation was triggered a day before the 3rd DD of that quarter was paid and hence the computer determined that I needed to increase payments by 50% to get back on track - after pointing this out to CS they reissued the bill with the 3rd DD included!

Will I get penalised for cancelling EDF Direct Debit?

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