EDF - so not happy again!

SusieWinwood

After switching from Scottish Power due to them vastly underestimating how much I needed to pay for gas and electric, and ending up with 2 massive bills I thought I'd give EDF a go. Another mistake! In Dec 2007 I was presented with a £400 gas bill. I rang and said why was it so much when I'd been assured several times that the x amount I was paying was adequate to cover the following years usage. Apparently, the x amouint was never going to be enough as each quarter I was getting more and more behind. Yes I know the responsibility is mine to check but surely that's what account managers do? check then notify you if things are looking as thought they could become a debit balance.

I ended up with a stupid prepayment meter fitted totally against my wishes but I had no alternative.

Fast forward to Jan 2010 when finally I had paid off the outstanding amount. :T I made arrangements to have the meter taken out and a normal credit meter fitted. I set up the direct debit and gave strict instuctions that a) I don't want to owe them a forture but neither b) do I want them to owe me. The DD was set at £40 - I was assured that this would be sufficient.

I received a bill yesterday and already, after 2 months I owe them £140! :mad: I rang up and said this is not on, you've done it again and totally underestimated my usage and set me on too low a DD. She worked out that I use £59 worth of gas per month. I said well, how come I was set at £40 in February then? Not sure was the answer! :mad: We came to the agreement that from April I would pay £50.

She said that in Summer (if we get one) if I continue to pay £50 then I should be in credit. Summer is along way off and I don't want them pecking my head about debit balances till then.

We live in a 3 bed semi, heating on 2 hours in a morning and 2 1/2 at night.

I have a feeling the houses in the avenue are plumbed into my gas! :mad: with the amount I am paying!!!!

So annoyed that the same has heppened again!

Susie

KimYeovil

The meters are in your home. Why do you not tell them to set the debits to the required amounts if you do not trust their estimates or are unhappy with varying debits?

It is up to you to compare how much you are paying with how much you are actually using and to proactively make adjustments where necessary.

Poppycat

The solution is simple one, read your own meters and then submit them to the utility company. With better weather coming you should build up a credit however if you owe money now and only pay £50 you might sometime in Winter get slightly back into debt if you dont pay slightly more or consume less

Also look into getting better insulation f you dont have good insulation now

spiro

After the two coldest months in the last 30 years. Who was going to estimate or predict based on that? Estimating is just that an estimare, it is not a science.

Suggest if you dont want to be in debt and dont want to owe them money that you go on a monthly 'pay on bill' tariff, that way you can submit your reading every month and get a 100% accurate bill every month.

northernsoul

Susie. I am with EON. I was paying £123 a month for gas and electricity when i joined them in Nov 08. On March 09 they reduced it to £110 and in June to £87. In September my summary said i was £324 in credit and they reduced it to £54. Lost my latest summary but think it was about £150 in credit. In the last year to date i have averaged £58 per month on Gas (42 imperial units per month=118 cubic metres) and £53 a month on electricity (5296 Kwh or 440 per month). My heating is on weekdays 9 hours, weekends 17 hours. Going to EDF now because back in September i went on fixed rate that looked good at the time but now not. 3 bedroom terraced house , 3 adults. I wonder where the gas and electricity go especially since Dec08 when i had a new condensing boiler fitted and expected a reduction in gas use on my old 20 year back boiler, but i have yet to see any (but may be because of the cold winter). All ultilitys i have been with have never got it exactly right over the whole year and i have always been owed money when i change.

kjsmith7

You can phone up your supplier at any time and request a bill. Just provide a meter reading. Have your debit card to hand and do it monthly. Jobs a good one. You'll never owe them, they'll never owe you. If you average £59 per month on gas, that must be worked out over the whole year (as to be £140 in debit after paying £80 in means you used £120 per month over those two months, not that high). If you are only paying £50pm in, when you have been told you use £59pm, AND You are £140 in debit, then you may go slightly into credit over Summer and Autumn, and you'll likely see those payments increase this time next year.

mattcanary

At least EDF removed your prepayment meter when you had paid the debt off, Susie. It is very unusual for that to happen - most suppliers would not put you back on a credit meter if you had a prepayment meter fitted for debt reasons by them.

mattcanary

AS previous poster mentioned, you cannot prevent either a credit or debt (however small) on your account developing, if you pay by set monthly Direct Debit payments. EDF can only make an educated guess as to how much gas and electric you use in the future

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

northernsoul wrote: »

Susie. I am with EON. I was paying £123 a month for gas and electricity when i joined them in Nov 08. On March 09 they reduced it to £110 and in June to £87. In September my summary said i was £324 in credit and they reduced it to £54. Lost my latest summary but think it was about £150 in credit. In the last year to date i have averaged £58 per month on Gas (42 imperial units per month=118 cubic metres) and £53 a month on electricity (5296 Kwh or 440 per month). My heating is on weekdays 9 hours, weekends 17 hours. Going to EDF now because back in September i went on fixed rate that looked good at the time but now not. 3 bedroom terraced house , 3 adults. I wonder where the gas and electricity go especially since Dec08 when i had a new condensing boiler fitted and expected a reduction in gas use on my old 20 year back boiler, but i have yet to see any (but may be because of the cold winter). All ultilitys i have been with have never got it exactly right over the whole year and i have always been owed money when i change.

Hi northernsoul

Our aim is for Direct Debit accounts to have as near to a zero balance as possible by the annual review in the spring.

Looking through your post, I would guess your review is coming up any time now.

The £324 credit in September 09 will have been included in the Direct Debit assessment done then. Therefore, your payments will have been lowered to £54/month to take account of this credit balance.

At these lower monthly payments, we will have assumed you will have paid a further £324 in the 6 months to the review. Added to the £324 credit, this will make a total payment figure of £648 by this time.

Using your monthly averages (£58 gas + £53 electric), this amounts to approx £666 total usage by the review. If all this falls in line, you should have a small debit balance by the time of the review.

If your usage remains as per your averages and provided you are still with us, I expect we will increase your monthly payments after the review.

I suspect the higher payments between November 08 and September 09 were either the result of over estimations on our part or the energy used has reduced significantly during this period. However, I'm guessing again.

With regard to your overall energy usage, have you had a look at the energy saving tips on our website; particularly, the interactive house? :cool:

Also, have a chat with our Energy Efficiency team. Give them a list of your appliances and they will he happy to advise of ways you may be able to cut back.

Ask them for a copy of a booklet called '100 ways to save money by saving energy.' It's free and contains lots more good energy saving tips.

Hope this sheds a bit of light on to our approach to Direct Debits, northern soul. Sorry if my attempt at estimating what might happen at the review is wide of the mark. As others have said, estimating is very far from an exact science.

Malc

Geoffo_M

KimYeovil wrote: »

The meters are in your home. Why do you not tell them to set the debits to the required amounts if you do not trust their estimates or are unhappy with varying debits?

It is up to you to compare how much you are paying with how much you are actually using and to proactively make adjustments where necessary.

This doesn't work. I have done exactly this with Eon and send actual readings every quarter. I always receive accurate bills and have asked them to set my dd at £50 and not change it until the yearly review. Yet every quarter they change it. It goes up and down ridiculously. Currently it's set at only £12, I am in debit and it is far too low. I expect it to jump up to £80/£100 next quarter. I've given up asking them now.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Geoffo_M wrote: »

This doesn't work. I have done exactly this with Eon and send actual readings every quarter. I always receive accurate bills and have asked them to set my dd at £50 and not change it until the yearly review. Yet every quarter they change it. It goes up and down ridiculously. Currently it's set at only £12, I am in debit and it is far too low. I expect it to jump up to £80/£100 next quarter. I've given up asking them now.

Hi Geoffo

Sorry you have to keep calling in.

Direct Debits are reviewed after every quarterly bill as well as annually.

Payments will be adjusted automatically if it looks as though your account will be in debt/credit by more than a few quid by the spring review.

Not sure why your Direct Debit is as low as £12 when there's a debit balance on the account. I suspect it has something to do with the date of the annual review.

Was the account in credit when the Direct Debit was first lowered to £12? If it was, could be the credit was taken into account when re-setting the payments.

Let me know if you would like me to take a look. My contact details are in my Public Profile. Will be happy to help.

Malc