E-on's increased my DD - confused

GhostHunter_3

Hi

A man came to read our gas and electric meters on 16th July. We are on a combined bill with e-on.

A week later I received a statement from e-on to show we were in debit by £303.36. It then goes on to explain:

Your account ballance is £303.36 in debit
What this means: As you pay by Direct Debit, we will carry your ballance forward to your next statement. We regualrly review how much you are paying to make sure it is the right amount and will let you know if it needs to change.

I was paying £50 per month Direct Debit for combined fuel.

The next day I received a letter from e-on telling me we need to change your Direct Debit to £133. a month

We regularly review your payments to make sure that you're not paying too little for your electricity and gas.

This time, we've worked out that we need to increase your fixed monthly Direct Debit to £133.00 We'll start taking this new amount in August.

Why is my payment going up?

We need to change your DD to cover the amount of electricity and gas we estimate you're going to use before your next annual review.

I am on a low income of Incapacity Benefit (£300) a month and so called e-on to ask them if we could come to some arrangement. They told me they couldnt offer anything to contact my benefits office for a 3rd party deduction. I called the benefit people and they told me to call e-on and ask them to call the benefit people direct (e-on should already know that).

Im struggling enough as it is to pay £50 a month, obviously I cant ditch and switch to get a better deal unless I pay the £303.36 in 1 lump sum, which I simply dont have!!!!

Im happy to stay with e-on as I cant afford to ditch and switch but are they just being unfair and unhelpful or is there another way I can pay off my account?

Also do e-on have a special section for people like me who cant cope? When I used to be with Powergen they had a priority / vulnerable scheme, I know powergen are now eon but since they changed names I havent heared any mention of it.

Any helpful advice please? I fear I am not going to cope this winter.

kjsmith7

Okay - that's a tough one. I know if you'd have phoned me at BG I'd have attempted to stick you on Essentials to help you.

I'm not sure if it's the same for Eon, but I'm sure it's similar. At BG, if you cancel a Direct Debit with a debit/debt balance, it is expected that you pay it in full immediately or very soon. You then go down the debt path, in the sense that the company can realise you're struggling much sooner than when you're on Direct Debit.

One suggestion - if you're struggling to pay £50, and you really really cannot pay the £330, have you thought about going on to "pay as you go" meters, or pre-payment meters. I know that BG will transfer any debt you have onto the meter and you agree to pay a certain amount back each week, eg £5. Do remember that when you go and buy credit, say you buy £20 a week, £5 of that goes to pay the debt off, so you'll only have £15 left for credit. I know that BG is now doing these meter exchanges (from credit to prepayment) for free, so it may be an option that Eon offers? Or at least something similar?

Also remember, that most fixed priced tariffs do not cover prepayment meters, and the price you pay per unit is generally a bit higher (eg 1p per unit) than standard tariffs on a credit meter.

Give them another call and explain your situation again, and perhaps enquire about prepayment meters?

I figured I'd reply, as you hadn't been replied to -- sorry it's not more specific to Eon, but I sincerely hope it helps you!

Little_Mama

Hi Ghosthunter,

Do give them another call to discuss your situation and use this number 0800 052 0351, from the saynoto0870 website, so at least they can't sting you for a phone call too. I had a long wait for a chat to them this morning so the freephone number helped.

Good luck.
LM