EON - an uninvited increase in my direct debit!!

trixie1969

I've had a letter from EON today saying that they will have to increase my DD from £55 to £98, and that's after paying a £95 one-off payment last quarter to ensure that I could keep my DD to a relatively affordable £55, which was an increase on the previous DD of £36 (between April and November).

I understand that my consumption has gone up during the winter months, and of course I want to pay what I owe, but as my consumption - particularly on the gas front - is virtually non-existent during the summer (I didn't have the heating on at all for about 5 months last year!) I would prefer to stick to the £55 DD now, and continue to pay that throughout the summer, hopefully evening out whatever I owe with the overpayments.

Am I within my rights to ask that my DD stays at £55 and that any outstanding amounts are carried over to the next quarter? I'm managing ok with the £55 DD, but going up to £98 is definitely going to be more idifficult to manage on my budget!

Any advice or similar experiences with EON very welcome!!

Magentasue

trixie1969 wrote: »

Am I within my rights to ask that my DD stays at £55 and that any outstanding amounts are carried over to the next quarter?!

No, that isn't the idea. The idea is that the credit you build up over the summer pays for winter use so in spring you're at zero. Obviously, you haven't paid enough to do this and you'll be 'overdrawn' again in April. Now, you realise this and want to continue to build debt and pay it at the end of the quarter - almost paying quarterly with interim payments which is fair enough but not what you get your DD for. You could opt for quarterly billing and lose the DD discount.

It's not so bad, though. After this next quarter, you can work out your annual usage, cost it and calculate a twelfth which may be less than what you're being asked to pay now. You will be paying for more than what you use, but will have that credit balance at the beginning of winter.

Fire_Fox

Why is your heating on for more months than it is off? Is your insulation poor? Do you wear sufficient clothes? Cutting back on usage is the easiest way to cut bills!

space_rider

trixie1969 wrote: »

I've had a letter from EON today saying that they will have to increase my DD from £55 to £98, and that's after paying a £95 one-off payment last quarter to ensure that I could keep my DD to a relatively affordable £55, which was an increase on the previous DD of £36 (between April and November).

I understand that my consumption has gone up during the winter months, and of course I want to pay what I owe, but as my consumption - particularly on the gas front - is virtually non-existent during the summer (I didn't have the heating on at all for about 5 months last year!) I would prefer to stick to the £55 DD now, and continue to pay that throughout the summer, hopefully evening out whatever I owe with the overpayments.

Am I within my rights to ask that my DD stays at £55 and that any outstanding amounts are carried over to the next quarter? I'm managing ok with the £55 DD, but going up to £98 is definitely going to be more idifficult to manage on my budget!

Any advice or similar experiences with EON very welcome!!

What you need to do is to see how much money you have been charged for your gas and electricity and then divide it by 12. That will give you a better idea of how much you should be paying each month. If you don`t want the underpayment to be calculated in with it then you just need to pay off the outstanding balance.