E.ON help???

Maybeanotherday

Hi just wondering if anyone can help?
I've just recieved a bill through the post from E.ON stating that my £64 per month direct debit is being increased to £116!!!

My partner has just been made redundant and I definatly cannot afford for this on top of everything...

Ive called E.ON up and they have said it's luck of the draw we price capped in sept 08 and he said the debit of £347 will have been gained through the winter months?

He told me he checked four of there tarriffs while I was on the phone and we wouldn't be better off on any of these? He said by rights E.ON should be charging us £124 per month due to the debit on the account.

I think I recall there being an article on these unfair increases can anyone remember it?

Also I checked to see what the cancellation fee was and they said they would charge me £60 on top of what I owe, my husband says to cancel and just pay minimum payments back...can we do this?

Any help would be gratefully recieved!:o

dawn1974

Hi,

I'm in a similar positon as you, last week they told me they were reducing my direct debit to £34 per month but this week they are telling me that they are increasing it to £90 per month.

I normally pay £57 per month.

I am really gutted, I am out of work at the moment too.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi skellett,

It sounds like your Direct Debit was not enough to cover the amount of energy you have been using, this is the reason that you now have a debit on the account.

You may be on a good tariff if you capped some time ago, this may be the reason why none of the other tariffs are any cheaper.

You will need to pay off this debit and cover your future consumption, I'd ask if you can spread the debt over a slightly longer period of time and ask to speak to the consumption department to help you reduce the amount of energy that you are using.

This should then help to bring the monthly figure down.

Helena.

Magentasue

skellett wrote: »

Hi just wondering if anyone can help?
I've just recieved a bill through the post from E.ON stating that my £64 per month direct debit is being increased to £116!!!

My partner has just been made redundant and I definatly cannot afford for this on top of everything...

Ive called E.ON up and they have said it's luck of the draw we price capped in sept 08 and he said the debit of £347 will have been gained through the winter months?

I think I recall there being an article on these unfair increases can anyone remember it?

Also I checked to see what the cancellation fee was and they said they would charge me £60 on top of what I owe, my husband says to cancel and just pay minimum payments back...can we do this?

No. You have to enter into an acceptable agreement or have a prepayment meter. The £60 cancellation is to switch tariffs - you need to find a tariff where you would save more than £60 to make this worthwhile.

Although you see the problem as Eon increasing your DD unfairly, the real problem is that you have used more energy than you can afford to pay for. You've used it without checking your meters and cutting back to what you can afford - too late now, but that's what you need to do in future. Meanwhile, you need to work out how much you can afford. This amount needs to be a twelfth of your annual bill (bit of maths here) plus enough to pay back what you owe. Make an offer to eon - if they don't accept it, you may have to have prepayment meters.

Can you cutback elsewhere for a few months? Ditch Sky, mobiles etc?

Maybeanotherday

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena wrote: »

Hi skellett,

It sounds like your Direct Debit was not enough to cover the amount of energy you have been using, this is the reason that you now have a debit on the account.

You may be on a good tariff if you capped some time ago, this may be the reason why none of the other tariffs are any cheaper.

You will need to pay off this debit and cover your future consumption, I'd ask if you can spread the debt over a slightly longer period of time and ask to speak to the consumption department to help you reduce the amount of energy that you are using.

This should then help to bring the monthly figure down.

Helena.

The thing I don't understand is that we've never been in debit with any other gas and electricity bills so why now?

Seems like a massive jump I have asked for them to spead the cost further and his response was that he should be charging £124 per month but they could let me have it for £116 as agreed on the letter?

He agreed that, that wasn't helping me at all but said if I could pay the £347 now my direct debit would be £87 per month.
Again my partner has been made redudant and Im on maternity leave we hardly have a spare £347!

Sorry if I sound like Im shouting but Im cross!

Maybeanotherday

Magentasue wrote: »

No. You have to enter into an acceptable agreement or have a prepayment meter. The £60 cancellation is to switch tariffs - you need to find a tariff where you would save more than £60 to make this worthwhile.

Although you see the problem as Eon increasing your DD unfairly, the real problem is that you have used more energy than you can afford to pay for. You've used it without checking your meters and cutting back to what you can afford - too late now, but that's what you need to do in future. Meanwhile, you need to work out how much you can afford. This amount needs to be a twelfth of your annual bill (bit of maths here) plus enough to pay back what you owe. Make an offer to eon - if they don't accept it, you may have to have prepayment meters.

Can you cutback elsewhere for a few months? Ditch Sky, mobiles etc?

Unfortunatly we don't have anything "extra" as we where close to living past our means on "normal" items lol
I take what you are saying about the energy used but before I went on maternity leave (4weeks ago) the two of us where working full time there was nobody in the house untill 5pm I ALWAYS switch lights off as I come out of a room and dont have the heating running through the day...the only thing I can think has set us back is a freezing house even then we where switching heating off and putting an extra layer on!

Magentasue

I think your debt has come about because we have had a very cold winter and energy prices are high. Personally, I would avoid prepayment meters if at all possible, but if your budget is really tight, they may be the only way because you will get longer to repay the debt.

jimexbox

skellett wrote: »

The thing I don't understand is that we've never been in debit with any other gas and electricity bills so why now?

We had massive price rises last year, and a cold winter.

pixelchick10

yes we've just had a big bill too - and we are very careful with consumption -- luckily I'm in work -- we've been aware of energy costs and cutting back yet still we got a big bill ...

[Deleted User]

skellett wrote: »

Hi just wondering if anyone can help?
I've just recieved a bill through the post from E.ON stating that my £64 per month direct debit is being increased to £116!!!

My partner has just been made redundant and I definatly cannot afford for this on top of everything...

Ive called E.ON up and they have said it's luck of the draw we price capped in sept 08 and he said the debit of £347 will have been gained through the winter months?

He told me he checked four of there tarriffs while I was on the phone and we wouldn't be better off on any of these? He said by rights E.ON should be charging us £124 per month due to the debit on the account.

I think I recall there being an article on these unfair increases can anyone remember it?

Also I checked to see what the cancellation fee was and they said they would charge me £60 on top of what I owe, my husband says to cancel and just pay minimum payments back...can we do this?

Any help would be gratefully recieved!:o

E-on tried this with me too, and I used the template letter off this site to tell them to get stuffed. And they did back down.

I think a lot of the companies are like this. Try and get the DDs inflated a bit so your ahead of payments and the money is in their bank not yours.

Only thing is I'm not sure if you've got such a leg to stand on if your account is in debit. After all, I guess your at their mercy when they decide how soon they want it cleared. With me, account was up to date, and I calculated my estimated usage for the next year.

Magentasue

[quote=[Deleted User];20479683]
Only thing is I'm not sure if you've got such a leg to stand on if your account is in debit. [/QUOTE]

Exactly. Completely different situation. This is the difficulty of paying too little and/or using too much. Unless you can afford a lump sum, your DD has to jump up to clear the debt. Also, if there is a debt, the DD needs to increase unless consumption is reduced so people in the OP's situation find the DD has to increase by a lot to clear the debt while paying for current use, otherwise, the debt increases instead of reducing.