EDF Increasing payment by 50%

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So I've recently moved from BG to EDF
I signed up to the BIue+Heating Protect Jan20 tariff and gave them my annual usage figures approx Gas 18000 kwh and electric 4000kwh. This generated a monthly combined bill of £110.

This is pretty much what the online price checker sites also came to.

Last week EDF requested a meter reading, I supplied this and they have bumped my monthly payment to £170.

Do I have to accept this ? Their faqs seem to indicate that further down the road the price will be adjusted back down.

My annual usage figures haven't changed. tbh I'm temped to dump them and switch to SSE, the SSE - Collective 1 Year Fixed v5 tariff is estimated to be around £95 pm for the same usage.

Thoughts and comments please.

Comments

  • matelodave
    matelodave Posts: 8,609 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic First Post
    edited 14 December 2017 at 12:12AM
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    Your direct debit is based on 1/12 of your annual consumption/costs but as we all know (except some energy companies for some reason ) most of us use the vast majority of our energy in the winter.

    If you start a fix late in the year you'll end up running an arrears until about the next summer whereas if you start in spring you'll have a healthy credit just as winter starts (unless the energy co decide to reduce your DD)

    Ideally you need to give them a profile of your consumption to show how your energy consumption varies over the year to show them that your account will balance out at the end of the year.

    This is how OVO calculate it (the figures in () show my average profile)

    Originally Posted by jack_pott View Post
    This is the average monthly distribution:

    Jan 13.8% (17%)
    Feb 13.6% (14%)
    Mar 12.2% (12%)
    Apr 9.8% (7%)
    May 7.1% (4%)
    Jun 4.2% (4%)
    Jul 2.4% (4%)
    Aug 2.4% (4%)
    Sep 4.2% (4%)
    Oct 7.3% (6%)
    Nov 10.3% (11%)
    Dec 12.7% (14%)

    (Ref: Ovo Energy)

    So just get onto them and tell them why they are wrong to increase your DD at this time.

    Then it's up to you to give them monthly readings and make sure that your consumption does roughly track the profile so you can make sure that you will break even at the end of 12 months.

    It's not difficult but if you monitor your consumption yourself you wont end up having problems like others.
    Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers
  • House_Martin
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    Check it out yourself. You have the data , you have your readings, get the calculator out and tap a few numbers
    Multiply the readings by your tariff, add 5% VAT and the daily standing charge and see the exact price
    I was caught out myself last month with a large catch up bill. Supplier was correct
    .A quick look at your average usage suggests you are underpaying at £110 a month.
    Prices have risen,18000 gas kwh and 4000 electric is well above average use
  • footyguy
    footyguy Posts: 4,157 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post
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    So I've recently moved from BG to EDF
    I signed up to the BIue+Heating Protect Jan20 tariff and gave them my annual usage figures approx Gas 18000 kwh and electric 4000kwh. This generated a monthly combined bill of £110.

    This is pretty much what the online price checker sites also came to.

    Last week EDF requested a meter reading, I supplied this and they have bumped my monthly payment to £170.

    Do I have to accept this ? Their faqs seem to indicate that further down the road the price will be adjusted back down.

    My annual usage figures haven't changed. tbh I'm temped to dump them and switch to SSE, the SSE - Collective 1 Year Fixed v5 tariff is estimated to be around £95 pm for the same usage.

    Thoughts and comments please.

    https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits

    My experience of EDF (which is from quite a few years back now) was that about every 3 months they would review, and alter, the monthly direct debit to be paid.

    However, a quick call to them after each review was all that was needed to maintain the monthly payment as before (providing it made sense to do so).
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