E-on extortionate monthly payment

mrcow

KimYeovil wrote: »

What was remotely nasty about the comment?

Well i thought it was quite amusing lol

It never ceases to amaze me how utility meters seem to be completely alien to some people.

I seriously hope that this thread serves as some sort of lesson to at least one person out there.

Read you meters!
Monitor your useage!
Check your bills!
Take control! - don't be a sheep.

If you don't - you are burying your head in the sand. And you are only either ripping yourself off or setting yourself up for a massive bill in a few months time!

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

mummy_duck wrote: »

I have a similar problem. I moved in to a brand new property just over a year ago. I got my first bill from eon which I paid, but when the next bill came in it was over 400. I phoned up and found out that the first bill had been estimated on builders usage. I made arrangements to start a payment plan and all was well. They contacted me a couple of months ago and wanted to increase my direct debit to 190, after contacting them we managed to get it down to 130 by changing to online tariff. I had a letter today to tell me it's going up to 213. I contacted them to be told I am now 700 in arrears. I can't afford this amount as I am a single parent with 3 kids and although I work I only earn 600 a month. It seems my only option is to borrow 700 from somewhere or have a PP meter which will end up costing nearly the same anyway which means I will probably get cut off quite a bit.

Hi mummy duck

I am really sorry to read about the difficulties you are currently going through. I am sure there are ways we can help and would strongly urge you to contact us.

Make sure the starting reading is accurate. I do understand you may not have a record of this when you moved in as I am sure you were dealing with far more pressing matters. Therefore, ask the agent to check the readings the builders account was closed to. Make sure they match the starting readings on your account.

Is the account now billed up to date to actual readings? If not, take readings and ask for an accurate bill. This will make sure you have been charged for energy actually used.

Also ask for the account to be re-billed using all the actual readings on record. This will make sure you are charged at the prices relevant when the energy was actually used.

Sounds like you are on the right tariff now as you have signed up online. The Direct Debit, though, was probably set too low and was not covering your usage. This is why a debt has built up.

Ask for an extended payment arrangement so the debt can be spread over a longer time span. This will reduce your monthly payments.

A Prepayment Meter is always an option as the debt can be spread over an even longer period. This may be of help depending on your circumstances.

Going forward, keep an eye on your usage and see if there are any ways you can reduce it. We have an Energy Efficiency team who will be happy to advise of ways you can cut back.

Also, check out the interactive house on our website. This contains some really useful tips on saving energy. :cool:

As I say, give us a call and see what can be done.

Hope this helps.

Malc

delaninho

E-on are quite good at over charging people i got a bill of £111 but when i told them this was my last bill as i was moving prop and gave them the meter readings to my suprise a new bill came at 230 they cannot justify it for 2 months (i didnt use heating as the weather was very nice) and i didnt do much cooking when coming to the end of my lease as i didnt want a big cleaning project before i moved. i questioned this and was told there is nothing that can be done and to pay it.

so i move prop im with Npower i get my 1st bill (dont forget e-on bill was for 2 months at 230 quid) and my Npower bil lfor 3 months is £107

i hear alot about eon over charging people and its rediculous i no the house we were in had debts from the tenant before us but to punish us for it? pfft

KimYeovil

delaninho wrote: »

E-on are quite good at over charging people[...]

Do you have any (even anecdotal) evidence of this? What you posted was not an illustration of being over-charged.

viktory

King_Sentinel wrote: »

From £70 per month they now want £191, almost triple what Ive been paying. I'm £700 in debit so I was expecting it to change to maybe £100 per month, but £191 is far too much. I seriously cannot afford this new amount, its just not possible. I have phoned them and got the response of, well there is nothing we can do about it. Seriously considering just cancelling direct debit and see what happens.

Any ideas???

Similar thing happened to me - they wanted to increase my electric payments alone to roughly £150. I called them and they offered to lower the payments slightly. It meant that I was paying for what I used, plus what I owed over 12 months. If you cannot afford this, you will need to look again at your outgoings and make some cut backs.

I actually found E-On to be quite helpful.

I now make sure I manually give them a reading every month to avoid under/over payments.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

delaninho wrote: »

E-on are quite good at over charging people i got a bill of £111 but when i told them this was my last bill as i was moving prop and gave them the meter readings to my suprise a new bill came at 230 they cannot justify it for 2 months (i didnt use heating as the weather was very nice) and i didnt do much cooking when coming to the end of my lease as i didnt want a big cleaning project before i moved. i questioned this and was told there is nothing that can be done and to pay it.

so i move prop im with Npower i get my 1st bill (dont forget e-on bill was for 2 months at 230 quid) and my Npower bil lfor 3 months is £107

i hear alot about eon over charging people and its rediculous i no the house we were in had debts from the tenant before us but to punish us for it? pfft

Hi delaninho

Sorry to hear you think we have overcharged you.

Did you contact us when you took over responsibility for the property from the previous tenant? Did you give us readings at the time?

If you did, the old account would have been closed using the information provided and a new one opened for you. The closing readings for the old tenant should be your opening readings. Check this is the case.

If the start and final readings are accurate then we will have only charged for energy actually used.

Were any previous bills estimated? If they were then the final bill may have been a catch up as you would have been under charged in the past.

Hope this helps but give us a call if you still believe we have over charged you.

Malc

Traygar_2

What about the other way then, increasing direct debits when in credit in the summer months when usage is low, ours went up from £70.00 a month to £130.00 a month after calculating this we would still be in credit at the end of the winter months, this would mean extra money in e-on's bank rather than mine, I dont mind paying for my usage but dont take the michael, I rang them and guess what it got reduced, this happens every year, what about the people who do not challenge them, my advice is challenge any increases if you are in credit..

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Traygar wrote: »

What about the other way then, increasing direct debits when in credit in the summer months when usage is low, ours went up from £70.00 a month to £130.00 a month after calculating this we would still be in credit at the end of the winter months, this would mean extra money in e-on's bank rather than mine, I dont mind paying for my usage but dont take the michael, I rang them and guess what it got reduced, this happens every year, what about the people who do not challenge them, my advice is challenge any increases if you are in credit..

Hi Traygar

Thought it might help if I posted some details about our Direct Debit policy.

Direct Debits are reviewed after each quarterly bill. The amount will be based on the most accurate info we have about energy usage over the past year.

We prefer to use actual meter readings. Where these are not available we will use estimates or other factors, like the type of property, to estimate future usage.

This info, together with any outstanding balance (credit or debit), is used to work out how much you need to pay until your annual review in the spring. This amount is then divided into equal monthly payments.

Generally, credit builds up during the summer to cover higher winter bills.

At the spring review we look to see if the payments will cover usage for the next year. Our aim is for a zero balance by the time the next review comes round.

If we owe you more than a fiver at the spring review and we have an actual reading within the last 6 months we will automatically refund this credit.

Should you owe us money, future payments will be set to include the outstanding amount within the Direct Debit.

Accounts may show credit balances at certain periods of the year. You can ask for these back at any time. However, if you do this, you may not have enough credit for the winter months. This will probably lead to a request to increase the monthly payments.

Sometimes credit balances may not be enough to cover your projected usage until the spring review. This could come about for reasons such as a period of estimated bills giving a false impression of usage; price changes; or increased usage at the property. In these cases we will also probably ask for increased payments.

Hope this helps clarify our approach to setting Direct Debits.

Malc

cranford

Question for the EON rep please. I have just joined EON because over the last few years my previous supplier move my annual review date from August to April and created an a debit in the process. So I have started my year in July at EON which normally results in a credit/debit situation that is on an equal footing for both customer and company. So has my move been pointless as the tariffs are not very different. Will EON change my annual review from July to the spring so that I will always be in credit and never in debit?

KimYeovil

cranford wrote: »

Question for the EON rep please. I have just joined EON because over the last few years my previous supplier move my annual review date from August to April and created an a debit in the process. So I have started my year in July at EON which normally results in a credit/debit situation that is on an equal footing for both customer and company. So has my move been pointless as the tariffs are not very different. Will EON change my annual review from July to the spring so that I will always be in credit and never in debit?

It doesn't matter when you start your account - the zero point is Mar/Apr (or Apr/May, whichever it is). The whole point of the fixed monthly direct debit is that you are ALWAYS in credit - you should never be in debt. That's why you are offered a cheaper price than those who are given four months credit with their quarterly credit meters.