Switching with existing debts

Mark_Hewitt

e.on in their wisdom have decided to put up our gas tarrif from £30 a month to £146 per month! :eek:. Since we get our gas and electricity from different companies now anyway, e.on and npower. We figure it's time to switch.

uSwitch reckons we should be paying about £950/year with our current usage.

The only slight issue is that e.on have been under billing us for some time and we currently have an approx £300 debit with them. How does this get sorted out during switch time. Do you have to just pay it off, or will the new company take it on etc?

Would it just be easier to just pay it and switch without any existing debits to clear?

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi Mark,

The Direct Debit has been increased to cover the debit balance that has built up on your account, this is because the payments of £30 were too low. As you know your usage is around £950 per year, so the payments should have reflected this.

You will need to clear the balance before you change supplier, otherwise this might be objected to.

The new supplier won't take an outstanding balance on.

Helena

Mark_Hewitt

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena wrote: »

The Direct Debit has been increased to cover the debit balance that has built up on your account, this is because the payments of £30 were too low. As you know your usage is around £950 per year, so the payments should have reflected this.

Yep, I appreciate that. And I have no issue with paying what I owe. However I've been providing e.on with readings all along and only now, 10 months down the line do they more than quadruple the payments, and this without any option or warning, just "We're putting it up".

This is not acceptable behaviour IMO and that is why I'm taking my custom elsewhere.

The new supplier won't take an outstanding balance on.

That's all I needed to know, thanks

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

I see, so was the account estimated for the 10 months, then it was billed up to the readings you gave, giving you a catch up bill. So in effect E.ON have ignored your reads that you have provided each quarter.

If this is the case, they should allow you a payment arrangement to clear the balance, if this is something that you would like to do.

Helena

Mark_Hewitt

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena wrote: »

I see, so was the account estimated for the 10 months, then it was billed up to the readings you gave, giving you a catch up bill. So in effect E.ON have ignored your reads that you have provided each quarter.

If this is the case, they should allow you a payment arrangement to clear the balance, if this is something that you would like to do.

Helena[/QUOTE]

Hi, thanks for your reply, it is appreciated

I started as a customer, moved into a new house on 17th January.

Since that time I've been paying £30 per month. There were readings taken on 17th January, 20th May (by a proper meter reader person), 7th August and 11th October.

So they knew how much was being used. We are currently about £300 in debit and using approx, £50/60 worth of gas in a month. Therefore it looks like they are attempting to claw back the entire £300 in the space of 3 months.

I know these things are done by computer but how could any system thing that is acceptable?!

Payment arrangement is something we could look at if necessary. However since we need to move to a single supplier anyway, e.on is currently last on my list of preferred suppliers!

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi Mark,

Your right, the debt is usually collected over about 3 months, but like I say it does appear E.ON have failed here as they continued to estimate your bills when you had provided readings.

This means that you could spread the debt over a longer period of time, making the monthly payments less, however, as you want to change supplier it may not help.

I completely understand why this has frustrated you.

Helena