E.on not collecting!

Crisp_£_note

Hi

Basically E.on have still not collected a payment even though they set up a Direct Debit.

My combined gas and electricity bill has rocketed since January as E.on have not been collecting their Direct Debit payments :mad: This has obviously not just put us severely in arrears but shoved up our monthly Direct Debit charge.

I have spoken to E.on at least 3 times since January and as we are on benefits they have tried to keep monthly payments as low as possible. We currently owe around £1,500 in total for gas & electricity and in May I rang E.on up yet again to get this sorted out and the lowest they could arrange was £140 a month for combined bill which really put a dent in our income (and has pushed me to seek help from CCCS and offer £1 token ayments to creditors as we now just £10 left after all priority bills are paid!) :eek:

So spoke to E.on in late May who set the arrangement of a Direct Debit at £140 whilst I was on the phone, so I know correct bank account etc. Whilst we were talking they agreed to send me my first ever payment card to make 'top-up payments' towards my arrears should I have any loose change every now and again.

They confirmed the Direct Debit and told me the first collection would be taken from my account a month later on 29th June for £140. So budgeting carefully I purposefully put aside £35 each week especialy for the bill and put it in my bank account the day before it was due for collection.

Well the Direct Debit collection date has yet again passed and nothing has been taken, despite there being the correct money in my bank account :mad:

This now has obviously added another 2 months of arrears onto my E.on bill and the money I had put aside for the June bill has gone to pay other bills via Direct Debit.

I have still heared nothing from E.on and dont know what to do now as I feel it is their fault for not collecting all these months when they said they would that has caused me to owe so much.

I know if I call them up again they will push the monthly amount up even higher to compensate for their oversight and what we owe (even though we have obviously been using less and are for the first year ever in arrears for this time of year for energy). I really dont have any more I can pay and dont know what to do or who to turn to.

Please can anyone help advise?

Thanks

Magentasue

I think you are going to have to have prepayment meters. Although eon should have set up the DD correctly. you have spent the money that would have gone out of your account if they'd been paid.

£1500 for just over a year is a lot of arrears - have you paid anything at all? If you are using £1200 energy a year, that's £100 a month and even if you're given a year to clear what you already owe, that's more than doubling the monthly amount.

Well done for getting advice - I think you need to go back and go through this again. If you don't have enough money to pay for the energy you are using, you need to find out what your options are:

- there are hardship funds and special tariffs from suppliers
- you need to cut right back on usage - lots of advice out there on how to do this
- you need to put money aside somewhere when it's not taken by DD, or even better send a cheque

This will catch up with you so best to come up with a plan now.

Silaqui

Are you not able to phone up and pay them, then hassle them whilst on the phone to get the DD set up?

Also it's a little bit worrying that you say that the £140 (and you said you set it aside specially) that wasn't taken by Eon has been used for other bills - how would you have paid these other bills if Eon had taken the money?

I'd agree with taking magentasues advice as soon as possible before you get left with no choice.

Hope you manage to sort things out soon
xx

Crisp_£_note

A family member (our landlord) has just agreed to lend me £150 to pay towards what should have been collected in June as they don't want the meters switched over as will be selling the property next year when she retires.

So should I just pay that via the payment card at Post Office or should I call E.on first to find out what they are playing at?

Is there any way I can make a complaint to eon as I do beleive it is their oversights that has caused all this trouble which is now pushing me into debts elsewhere.

I realise gas and electric are classed as priority debts so I need to gain control asap but E.on dont seem to be helping me to help myself much.

Thanks

Crisp_£_note

Silaqui wrote: »

Are you not able to phone up and pay them, then hassle them whilst on the phone to get the DD set up?

Also it's a little bit worrying that you say that the £140 (and you said you set it aside specially) that wasn't taken by Eon has been used for other bills - how would you have paid these other bills if Eon had taken the money?

I'd agree with taking magentasues advice as soon as possible before you get left with no choice.

Hope you manage to sort things out soon
xx

The money would have come out of my tight budget so wouldnt have been frittered away as such its just gone out in several payments to several companies rather than 1 lump sum to 1 company. If that makes sense?

I am still putting aside £35 a week at the moment for July bill.

Thanks

Magentasue

Do you have something in writing from eon confirming that they will accept £140 a month? If so, I would pay what you owe using your payment card. Have you contacted your bank and asked if there is a DD set up on your account?

I can't see what you expect from eon. They may be at fault for not setting up the DD (could be a bank problem, I suppose) but you are getting an interest free loan on the missed payments. It's not them pushing you into debt - it's you spending the money they should be getting! I'm not unsympathetic - I know what it's like when you don't have enough to cover your bills and living expenses - but you can't really blame the supplier.

Whatever you do, don't spend what you've kept back - keep to the agreement and pay what you promised or keep it somewhere safe.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi Crisp £ note,

I would contact E.ON asap to find out what has gone wrong with the Direct Debit.

Did you receive a confirmation letter with the Direct Debit details on?

I agree with Magentasue, keep this money aside, this will enable you to make payments and keep the Direct Debit at the same amount.

If you start to miss payments the monthly amount will have to increase.

Helena

Crisp_£_note

Magentasue wrote: »

Do you have something in writing from eon confirming that they will accept £140 a month? If so, I would pay what you owe using your payment card. Have you contacted your bank and asked if there is a DD set up on your account?

I can't see what you expect from eon. They may be at fault for not setting up the DD (could be a bank problem, I suppose) but you are getting an interest free loan on the missed payments. It's not them pushing you into debt - it's you spending the money they should be getting! I'm not unsympathetic - I know what it's like when you don't have enough to cover your bills and living expenses - but you can't really blame the supplier.

Whatever you do, don't spend what you've kept back - keep to the agreement and pay what you promised or keep it somewhere safe.

I am not disputing the fact I am in debt and owe the money to E.on but raising the issue that had the Direct Debits been in place as promised and not been mucked around so much I probably wouldn't have been in this mess as payments would have stayed on track and not risen so much so for this time of year I should have again been in credit with my E.on account. Espcially when I have been contacting E.on within days of missed Direct Debit collections over the months gone by.

I am now keeping aside what I promised to pay. It wasnt possible up until June as I had non priority creditors to pay but as I am now only paying them £1 I have more money to put aside even if I am digging a hole with other non priority creditors!

Thanks

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena wrote: »

Hi Crisp £ note,

I would contact E.ON asap to find out what has gone wrong with the Direct Debit.

Did you receive a confirmation letter with the Direct Debit details on?

I agree with Magentasue, keep this money aside, this will enable you to make payments and keep the Direct Debit at the same amount.

If you start to miss payments the monthly amount will have to increase.

Helena

Yes I do have a letter confirming DD, no the bank doesnt appear to have set one up. I am wondering maybe the issuing of a payment card (which arrived later than the confirmation f DD letter) has cancelled the instructions for a Direct Debit?

Thanks

mouseymousey99

Hello - Just wondering if you could pay electronically every month? Also maybe worth considering a social loan?

Crisp_£_note

mouseymousey99 wrote: »

Hello - Just wondering if you could pay electronically every month? Also maybe worth considering a social loan?

Hi thanks for suggestions, I dont know anything about either, could you explain a bit more please?

Many thanks