50% rise in monthly d/d???

peed_off_3

Hi,
just wondering if other Moneysavers have come across this recently.
I have my gas & electricity with Eon, I normally pay £91 per month d/d which seems to keep my account just say in credit. This month they have decided to increase my monthly d/d to £129, nearly a 50% rise. Their reason for this........ price increases & they want me to build up credit!
Looking back over my last 4 quarterly bills then dividing this by 12 puts my average monthly spend at £87 per month, so where on earth are they coming from?
Im waiting till the new year to shop around for hopefully a better deal but was wondering how many other people this is happening to?

WhistleBlower

peed_off wrote: »

[snip] was wondering how many other people this is happening to?

A lot, across several companies. NPower are notorious for it. I think we need new systems to be honest.

Pssst

Why are you paying it?

Premier_2

Most suppliers have increased their unit prices twice over the past 12 months. You'll probably find the combined affect of those price increases comes to about 40% with E-on.

Look at your actual consumption in kWh over the year, work out your annual cost based on todays unit prices and divide that by 12 and see what you get.

hr9hr9

I was in credit with my Gas when the bill came through last month however they increased my Gas direct debit from £50 to £71 per month.

No reason to complain too much with winter drawing in..

However, this morning I receive a letter from them stating that my electricity direct debit is going up ... from £99 per month (already classed as a high user) to £260 per month.

I could have fell through the floor!!!!

I phoned them up straight away to be told oh you used to be a prepayment customer. When they took your prepayment meter out in march they forgot to update your account with the new tariff.

So I have been paying the higher prepayment rate since march.
It cost me £50 for the priveledge to get the meter removed in the 1st place to hopefully SAVE money. To press I have saved nothing.

I have to call them back tomorrow once the system has been updated.

Not a happy customer

kurjam

i think i read on here in another forum you can challenge them and they may agree a\ lower dd.

rennysnell

Im also an E.ON customer and, when my online bill for 1st December arrived, it advised my monthly direct debit would need to increase from £130 to £176, an increase of 35%. I was surpised, as I had a credit of £577 at the end of November (and for 10 months out of the last 12 I've been in credit), but I know that doesn't necessarily mean my monthly payment shouldn't rise, so I priced out my exact last year's consumption (I'm a bit of a nerd, so have all the figures) at the current price rates, primary and secondary. Not even counting the credit I had left following payment of the 1st December bill, £260, my average monthly payment should be £146. I called E.ON as asked how come they wanted £176? They agreed my £146 calculation, but said the high figure was necessary because they 'will no longer accept any DD customer going into debit at any time'. Huh? This means you can't smooth your payments over a year, now? No, you can't. High payments in winter, low(er) in summer (E.ON said they would achieve this by keeping the DD level 'under review' as we moved into summer). I find this very hard to believe, but that's what they said. "All suppliers are doing this, now".

Well, I said if you charge me more than £145/month, I'm going to look hard to see if I can do better elsewhere. Eventually they agreed to £145, but only after a lot of haggling (and a call-back from them), based on the fact I have a residual credit at the beginning of December. They sternly warned me, though, that if my account goes negative, they will up the DD.

So, we have a tense agreement to £145/month, but I've written to E.ON to find out if in fact this 'no debit total' is in fact their policy.

[Deleted User]

They can't force you to increase your DD, give them a call and say no thanks.

Magentasue

Van1971 wrote: »

They can't force you to increase your DD, give them a call and say no thanks.

I think the whole point of DD is that they can force an increase.

You don't have to pay by DD. You can pay by standing order or on receipt of bill if you don't agree with their calculation. You have every right to negotiate and they have every right to insist.

katiejones

Magentasue wrote: »

I think the whole point of DD is that they can force an increase.

You don't have to pay by DD. You can pay by standing order or on receipt of bill if you don't agree with their calculation. You have every right to negotiate and they have every right to insist.

does this mean that i can pay online a single payment each month rather than them having control over my dd?

Magentasue

katiejones wrote: »

does this mean that i can pay online a single payment each month rather than them having control over my dd?

Probably! Ask them. Most tariffs offer different ways to pay. You'd almost certainly lose your discount though. A compromise would be to pay by standing order every month - you are in control of the amount set. I think some suppliers still give a discount for paying by standing order and others only for direct debit.