Annoyed with E-ON

Unhban

I was already with E-ON when the move to capping rush started some time ago so it was easy to move from their Age Relief to duel fuel capped tarrif.

I got the latest bill the other day and saw that I was £98.48 in credit. This is after supplying my own reading of the two meters. So I rang them up to get it refunded. It was like talking to the gestapo.

The customer service lady forcefully wanted me to forget it as it was a cushion for the winter. I said that I'd rather have the money in my bank account now rather than theirs and anyway I'm away for the winter. She said her parents did that and what with fridges being on and security lights, etc etc, they got an enormous bill. I gave up arguing, said I wanted it refunded and thank you very much. I guess if they can have an average of £100 in their account for every customer it'll give them a nice bit of interest....

That wasn't the only thing that annoyed me. She also said that my Direct Debit would automatically go up because of this. It's £63/month at the moment and this seems too much if I'm getting into credit to me. To annoy a third time she then, in front of me, proceeded to write it all on the computer, putting that I'd had it explained, I'd refused to leave it as it is, and my DD would go up. Well, we'll see about that!....

As I only get a duel fuel Direct Debit discount of £1.52 a quarter I'm thinking of stopping that and paying in arrears. Better in my bank than theirs.

What do you think of doing that? Might there be a penalty of withdrawing a DD?

Stinkster

If you are truly only saving £1.52 a quarter for DD then why not go ahead and cancel if you don't like the idea of spreading your total payments over 12 months.

To be honest I completely understand the assistants point of view, she could have been more professional about how she advised you though. Alot of people think that when their payment plan goes into credit this means they are ahead of the game and want the credit immediately returning. However if you use 3-4 times more gas over the winter-sping period your bills will take a spike hit and consume any credit that currently sits on your account.

If you are going away for the Nov to May period then I can understand your thinking. The only issue quarterly bill payers experience is uneven bills, i.e £60-100 summer bills and £250-350 winter bills as an example.

£1.52 does seem abit low for your DD discount. I think the average amount is £10-12.00 a quarter for paying this way with most suppliers.

Rikki

I prefer quarterly bill.
It may cost a little more but I don't end up going overdrawn or being in credit or debt with my energy supplier.

I save money monthly. The amount is determind by the amount I paid over the last year. I save this in my account earning interest till the bills come in.

quietheart

When I rang them they refunded the credit immediately, I was off the phone in less than 2 minutes. Think you got a mardy one there. Unless they've changed their training.....

kjsmith7

Rofl @ use of 'mardy'.

Sadly, what the Eon lady told you is correct. It's the same at BG. Your monthly payment is calculated by looking at what we expect you to use over twelve months, VAT is added and then any credit/debit on the account is factored in. Finally this amount is divided by however many payments are in the scheme, which is usually 11 (don't ask me why it's not 12, I have no idea, but it's generally 10 or 11).

If you set up the Direct Debit with a large amount of debit/debt on the account, your repayments will be higher, and the it works both ways - if you set up with a large amount of credit, it'll be cheaper.

You pay every month. You pay more than you need to in the Summer months so as to have a 'cushion' of credit to help you over the Winter months. If your consumption stays the same, the aim of the game is to have you on or around a zero balance after the year has passed.

If you use more than is expected (easily done when people buy new TVs, games consoles, or their old appliances begin to lose energy efficiency due to age, or even having a baby or a lodger), then you may have a debit balance at the end. At BG we reassess every 6 months to check the customer is on track (every 3 at the moment what with the price rises), and I presume it's the same for all the suppliers.

If you're unhappy, I definitely suggest switching to cash/cheque payment every quarter/3 months, and make sure you submit a meter reading every quarter too, so as to genuinely only pay for you use (estimations = bad).

space_rider

The agent was quite right though she should have put it differently. At the end of the day its your money but when you are in debit they don`t tend to ask you to pay what you owe over the winter months. Instead they spread that over I think around 6 months.

Unhban

Thanks for all the comments, they were all useful. I do understand about the summer/winter thing, but as I will be away most of the winter surely mine is a different case?

Yes, I was a bit taken aback at the small amount of discount I was getting for DD. I did check my E-ON bill on-line while I was typing the post and sure enough, it's £1.52. Mind you, even if it was £10 a quarter I'd still would be thinking of ditching the DD.... :rolleyes:

stewie_griffin

Unhban wrote: »

Thanks for all the comments, they were all useful. I do understand about the summer/winter thing, but as I will be away most of the winter surely mine is a different case?

Yes, I was a bit taken aback at the small amount of discount I was getting for DD. I did check my E-ON bill on-line while I was typing the post and sure enough, it's £1.52. Mind you, even if it was £10 a quarter I'd still would be thinking of ditching the DD.... :rolleyes:

You should be getting 9% discount for dual fuel Direct Debit. If the statement you're looking at online replaces the previous due to estimates then most of the discount will show on the previous bill. You only get discount on the difference between the old and new charges on an amended statement.