EOn DD Hike

brysiewysie

Yes Incisor the system works on assuming your payment up to the month before the actual spring review - so if your review was April it works on payments up to and including March.

The date of bills is always a little flexible, they alter bill dates based on when/if meter readings are received 14 days either side of the bill date (many reads come in a couple of days after they should) and they also flex the bill print date if it means tens of thousands of bills more would otherwise go on 1 day rather than another.

In reality your next payment may be through by the time the spring review is completed putting you a bit ahead of where you 'should' be and the DD will be adjusted accordingly.

rb621

The problem I have with Eon and direct debit levels is not the amount they want each month, but they seem to keep on estimating my consumption and ignore my submitted meter readings.

I understand that these systems accept up to 3 readings per quarter, so I like to submit a reading each month around the same date. This means that should any price increases occur, they should be able to apply a more accurate charge on my account - the cynic in me doesn't quite believe this though - I think these companies should only apply price increases and decreases on your billing date so it is easier for the customer to work out what they are being charged. It also means that they cannot estimate that most of your usage occurred at a higher price.

Anway, I keep on submitting my readings each month but still they are not recorded and my bills are estimated.

Anyone else have this problem?

brysiewysie

rb621, it could be a number a reasons. Do you submit your accurate reading after the estimate has been generated by Eon? If your real reading is lower than the estimate it gets rejected until someone can look at it and then if it's very close they won't rebill the account anyway.

Are you a newish customer where they may be estimating your usage innaccurately because they don't yet have a consumption history for you in that property?

Does a meter reader ever take the meter reading, do you always miss the mtr reader or does it never seem to get used? If any of these are the case it's worthwhile checking your meter serial number on the meter itself matches the same detail shown on your bill.

I can only speak for Eon but their system does have a pretty good attempt at accuarately estimating what the reading was at the price change date. The only cases I've seen recently where customers have called with different reads suggest it's usually no more than a very few units out either way, however there will always be some exceptions.

Incisor

brysiewysie wrote: »

Yes Incisor the system works on assuming your payment up to the month before the actual spring review - so if your review was April it works on payments up to and including March.

The date of bills is always a little flexible, they alter bill dates based on when/if meter readings are received 14 days either side of the bill date (many reads come in a couple of days after they should) and they also flex the bill print date if it means tens of thousands of bills more would otherwise go on 1 day rather than another.

In reality your next payment may be through by the time the spring review is completed putting you a bit ahead of where you 'should' be and the DD will be adjusted accordingly.

Then the system is wrong. They are being [deliberately or unintentionally deceitful when they say that the DD is set to give a zero balance at the review date. It is actually set to give a credit balance of one month's DD payment on the spring bill and build up a credit over the summer. This is not so much about DD payments helping the customer by spreading the cost, otherwise the review date would be either mid winter or mid summer so that customers would be equally in debit and in credit at different times in the year. I have no doubt that eon [and the others of course] are padding out their bank balances at their customers expense.

brysiewysie

Incisor wrote: »

Then the system is wrong. They are being [deliberately or unintentionally deceitful when they say that the DD is set to give a zero balance at the review date. It is actually set to give a credit balance of one month's DD payment on the spring bill and build up a credit over the summer. This is not so much about DD payments helping the customer by spreading the cost, otherwise the review date would be either mid winter or mid summer so that customers would be equally in debit and in credit at different times in the year. I have no doubt that eon [and the others of course] are padding out their bank balances at their customers expense.

I don't agree, I know the variations (as I mentioned earlier) that can happen with the date the actual bills are produced and it could be spot on or create a debit or credit depending on when the payment is actually made and when the review is actually happening (just after the bill date). Their system will also refund any credit (as long as the credit is over £10) at the spring review so you (and others) won't be penalised if what you think might happen does happen.

Cardew

Incisor wrote: »

Then the system is wrong. They are being [deliberately or unintentionally deceitful when they say that the DD is set to give a zero balance at the review date. It is actually set to give a credit balance of one month's DD payment on the spring bill and build up a credit over the summer. This is not so much about DD payments helping the customer by spreading the cost, otherwise the review date would be either mid winter or mid summer so that customers would be equally in debit and in credit at different times in the year. I have no doubt that eon [and the others of course] are padding out their bank balances at their customers expense.

Incisor,
Interesting point you raise.

The same subject(for BG) has just been raised in this thread.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1290375

I know I have read somewhere that the Utility companies must not act as you suggest i.e. profit from the interest from accounts. - but don't know if that is an accurate statement.

Certainly if the review date is in Spring, even with the DD set to exactly cover the annual consumption, customers will always be in credit.

I have also read that some companies are now reviewing accounts quarterly, or 6 monthly and recalculating DD payments at each review.

brysiewysie

Although Eon have a yearly (spring) review the DD is normally assessed for accuracy and adjusted at each bill (aiming for zero bal by spring). It's also assessed in a couple of other situations but the 1/4ly bill is the most common occasion.

lilac789

rb621 wrote: »

Anway, I keep on submitting my readings each month but still they are not recorded and my bills are estimated.

Anyone else have this problem?

We are having exactly the same problem!! Been with Eon for over 18 months and our new direct debit has increased from £40 to £93 per month on a capped tarriff whilst our consumption hasn't really changed when compared to last year!

Our bills are always over estimated, unless a meter reader man has been round and checked them, despite me checking adn submitting a meter reading every month!

Colin_London

We had this problem recently. We were on £69 per month previously.

We changed from Energy Online to PP17 just before it was withdrawn. We were expecting a rise in the DD, but considering we were £100 in credit in October didn't think it would be too big a hike.

But Eon stated they wanted to raise the DD to £84 per month. I did the calcs on the new tariff and decided this was well over the odds. Phoned them up on the number given and they then recalculated it at £72: they were £12 a month out! The reason was something to do with missing the fact I had moved to Price Protection, so they were estimating the DD based on increases that would not apply to me.

I would strongly suggest that everyone does their own calculation based on their annual consumption and their current tariff, and challenges the DD figure guesstimated by Eon if in any doubt.

tashlovestosave

Oh my god.....i thought we were alone in this!!!

We had a letter saying that EON were going to hike up our DD from 74 a month to 122 a month!

I called them to say that it was a ridiculous amount to hike it up to.......we live in a three bed semi (modern ish) two adults and a four year old. We sleep for 9 hours a day, work/outta the house for 11 hours a day and actually in and physically using the house for 4 hours a day......AND we only have gas central heating......no gas cooker or anything else for that matter. They reduced it to 100 a month saying that because we are in debit we need to pay more!!! Why cant i pay what we are owing in debit to start over again??? I am so annoyed......they 'consumption advisor' told me that on average we are using 16903kwh annually....gas only....elec is 3559kwh.

I am so confused on what we should do now......if we move, will the saving match what we gain in clubcard points (obviously paying 100 per month we will get quite a few clubcard points ha ha ha) or will we benefit more just paying on reciept of a bill?????

Help us.....