can this be right?

suzy35

hi.i switched afew months back,to edf,,i was charged £83,amonth for both fair enough,,just checked my bank debit they have put my bills up to £160 for gas and £170 for electric.cant be right can it?any one had any probs...happy new year edf on my expense!!!!!!!!!!!:eek:

Cardew

You sign a variable Direct Debit mandate - which gives EDF to take what they feel appropriate.

The only stipulation is that they must notify you in advance of any change - it was probably on your last bill?

If they didn't notify you, under the Direct Debit Guarantee you can claim the extra back from your bank.(but it really is unlikely that you were not notified)

Most firms initially set the DD low to lure you back!!! It is almost certain that you have build up a debit balance on both accounts and this is a 'catch up' increase in your DD to cover what you are using and reduce your debit balance to zero by Spring.

suzy35

thanx cardew..but this is like a small mortgage to me.£330 pm

dogshome

Hi suzy 35 - The £996 a year, (£83 a month), you were paying is at the low end of the national average but that all depends on the type of property you live in, insulation and family habits.

However the £3960 a year that EDF are now demanding is what would be expected for a big family living a luxury lifestyle in a very large house complete with a hot tub running 24/7

The only way to fight this is to do your homework on at least one years bills to get an accurate figure of your annual consumption, apply this to your present EDF tariff and quote your totals to EDF in a letter headed Complaint if your figure is lower than £3960 a year

Obviously you need the bills from your previous supplier to do this, but if you have not kept them contact that supplier and and ask for copies The rules are that your current supplier has to supply copies if asked, but I'm unsure as to wether or not this also applies to past suppliers - but there is no harm in asking
Good Luck

Cardew

dogshome wrote: »

Hi suzy 35 - The £996 a year, (£83 a month), you were paying is at the low end of the national average but that all depends on the type of property you live in, insulation and family habits.

However the £3960 a year that EDF are now demanding is what would be expected for a big family living a luxury lifestyle in a very large house complete with a hot tub running 24/7

The only way to fight this is to do your homework on at least one years bills to get an accurate figure of your annual consumption, apply this to your present EDF tariff and quote your totals to EDF in a letter headed Complaint if your figure is lower than £3960 a year

Obviously you need the bills from your previous supplier to do this, but if you have not kept them contact that supplier and and ask for copies The rules are that your current supplier has to supply copies if asked, but I'm unsure as to wether or not this also applies to past suppliers - but there is no harm in asking
Good Luck

You read the term "£83 for both" as 'a total of £83' not as '£83 for each' - could be either I suppose.

The combined total of £3960 a year is clearly not what she is using in gas and electricity. The £330 a month will be to cover existing consumption and paying back debit balances that have built up. The normal aim is to have a zero balance by Spring.

The first thing the OP needs to do is establish exactly what debt she has with EDF.

suzy35

i have only been with edf since april a was in credit,,,i cant believe this,,they are pretty hard to contact

dogshome

Hi again suzy35 - This gets stranger & stranger.
If you only joined EDF in April '09, they don't have sufficient billing history on which to calculate monthly D/D amounts that will add up to the value of your annual costs - in fact the only person who has this information is you, because you have your past consumption history on the bills from your previous supplier go on

It is just possible, but unlikely, that EDF took on a debt owed to your previous supplier and have slammed up your D/D's to recover the debt as soon as possible - was there anything owing on your final bill from the previous supplier, and if so was it paid?

It must be borne in mind that all the main distributors have literally millions of customers and the billing and changes to D/D payments, is all done by computers.
The staff on the phone service desks will usually only react to what the computer is telling them, and it is not until they recieve a written communicationfrom a customer that any "Outside the box" intervention by human hand takes place, and if that letter is headed Complaint, it arrives in the hands of a specialist team.

Just check that EDF had a clean start so far as any inherited debt is concerned, then do your homework on your previous bills as listed in Post No.4.

Just one last thought, look at your gas meter. On the front it will be marked M3 to denote that it is a Metric meter, or Ft3 if it is an Imperial meter.
Then look at EDF's bill and divide the meter units used into the number of Kw charged - if the answer is appx. 11.2 you are being charged for a Metric meter, if it's appx. 31.5 you are being charged for an Imperial meter If the meter type and the charging basis don't concur, inform EDF immediately
All the best

Cardew

The M3/Ft3 discussion does not affect electricity, the DD for which has risen more than gas.

To raise the combined DD to £330 in Dec, and assuming that it will stay that way for at least 5 months(April 2010) will mean a spend of £1,650 in those 5 months. Add the 7 months @ £83 = £581 so an annual spend of over £2,200!!!

Something seems very wrong here!! Could it be the OP gave the incorrect meter readings to EDF

How much did the OP spend prior to April?

Woody's_Girl

Why don't you just contact them and tell them it's too much?

This happened to me with Atlantic, I contacted them told them it was too much and we agreed on something we both thought reasonable. Like others have said, £83 for both gas and electric, if that's what you're saying, sounds cheap. Unless there is a reason why they've hoiked it up so high then i'm sure you can meet somewhere in the middle. They've now got a fair bit of money off you for Jan which should cover you for a while so i'd probably go for £50 for each a month ie. £100 for both, and see where that gets you when the next bill arrives.