EDF Energy Letter this morning!!!

MimiF

Please help, I received a letter from EDF Energy this morning informing me that my Direct Debit would be increased to £110 per month!!! :eek: This is "to ensure your account balances at the time of your annual Direct Debit Review".

We live in a 2 bedroom mid terrace, the house is tiny and double glazed and pretty well insulated, we were already paying £50 per month which I felt was extortionate anyway so an increase of over 100% seems ridiculous to me.

According to my bill I am £155.25 "in debit", how can this be when I pay by DD each month. I know bills were going up but this is just taking the ****!!

Any advice? I know I should change supplier but everytime i have done that in the past I get slapped with a huge bill.

Thanks

MimiF

espresso

MimiF wrote:

According to my bill I am £155.25 "in debit", how can this be when I pay by DD each month. I know bills were going up but this is just taking the ****!!

Is this bill based on an actual reading or an estimated reading? If it is an estimated reading, read your meters and provide them with the actual readings and they should send out an amended bill.

HTH

arealhighlander

You are paying a fixed amount each month, this does not necessarily mean you are paying enough to cover the electricity you are using.

The idea of these schemes are, you use less electricity over summer and more over winter. So, if you are paying enough each month, you shoudl go in credit in summer and then that credit gets used up over winter.

At present I pay Npower £35 a month, each time I get the bill in, I notice that the amount I owe is getting more and more, telling me that my £35 is not enough to cover what I am using. Therefore you have to monitor your bills and increase your DD amount so you dont get so far behind that suddenlt you have to double what you are paying at present.

this is what has happened to you.

Also, as mentioned, if you have been getting estimated meter readings they have been underestimating the amount you have been using, when they get a proper meter reading, the amount can suddenly jump up.

Do an experiment. take a note of your meter reading one morning and then the following morning, see how many units you have used. Multiply that by 12 pence (just for a rough figure). thats how much you use a day in electricity. Multiply that by 30 to see how much you spend a month - and thats closer to what you should be paying each month. Any less and you will be going into debt on your electricity account.

mjmal51

Phone them and give your meter reading. They have a serious computer glitch on their system which is giving high DD renewal figures. As I posted elsewhere mine went from £40 to £138 even though I was in credit. I phoned them and it was sorted to remain unchanged. Others are having the same problem.

Cardew

MimiF wrote:

Please help, I received a letter from EDF Energy this morning informing me that my Direct Debit would be increased to £110 per month!!! :eek: This is "to ensure your account balances at the time of your annual Direct Debit Review".

We live in a 2 bedroom mid terrace, the house is tiny and double glazed and pretty well insulated, we were already paying £50 per month which I felt was extortionate anyway so an increase of over 100% seems ridiculous to me.

According to my bill I am £155.25 "in debit", how can this be when I pay by DD each month. I know bills were going up but this is just taking the ****!!

Any advice? I know I should change supplier but everytime i have done that in the past I get slapped with a huge bill.

Thanks

MimiF

I would not be so sure this is a mistake as some other posts imply.

Firstly you ask how you can be in debit if you pay by DD?

The answer is simply because your Direct Debit was not high enough to cover the Gas/Electricity you have used. This could be because the DD does not take into account increased prices or you have used more gas/electricty than expected; or a combination of both.

What EDF are doing is raising your DD exactly as they say i.e."to ensure your account balances at the time of your annual Direct Debit Review"This means you are paying off the £155 debt.

Provided your bill is correct(not estimated) they will re-assess the situation at the time of the annual review and give you another DD - which should be a lot lower.

MimiF

Thanks for your responses guys.

Spoke to EDF and they eplained it pretty much as you guys have. I have increased my DD but certainly not to anywhere near as they sugested!! They wanted £110 for six months, that would have given me some serious credit on my bill surely. We have made a lot of changes over the summer which should reduce our gas bills so I will keep a close eye on usage and will review at the end of the next quarter.

Many thanks

MimiF