Sam

samanthat80_2

I was paying £151 a month for electiric and gas with Atlantic, however they owed me over £700 which they could not pay until I left. So I left and went to eon. They took the same amount but after a year they owed us nearly £1000 which they paid us. They then reduced our monthly bill to £73 about 3 months ago. Now I have just had a letter saying they are raising our Direct Debit to £171 a month. This just sounds insane to me. I have called them but their systems are down. Any ideas why and what can I do?

Thanks

macman

What is your actual level of consumption annually?

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Sam

Sorry for the confusion caused by changes to your Direct Debit. There are a number of possible reasons for this.

The £151 you were previously paying was clearly too much at the time as a large credit had built up on your account.

This credit balance will have been automatically refunded at the annual review. At this time, your monthly payments will have been reviewed and re-set based on the usage of the previous 12 months.

It looks as though we incorrectly lowered these payments by too much three months ago. Was this done automatically or as a result of a request from yourself?

Sometimes, where payment arrangements are changed independently of the normal review process, an imbalance can come about leading to a further adjustment after the next bill.

Has a bill recently been issued showing a debit balance or fairly small credit balance?

At this time of year, I would expect accounts to have a reasonable amount of credit on them to cover higher winter bills.

I have also known of cases where a payment arrangement has been changed, either automatically or manually, but too late to collect the required number of payments before the next bill.

Consequently, when the bill is issued there is not enough money in the pot at that specific time and our system will increase the monthly amount to compensate.

The aim is to achieve as near to a zero balance as possible by the time of the annual review.

If a shortfall was identified after your last bill, we will calculate how much we expect you to use before the review but spread this over 9 months rather than 12 as you will already be three months into your new arrangement.

Another possibility is an increase in usage. As this changed recently?

I agree with other posters. See what your annual usage is. Give us a call and ask for your arrangement to be reviewed again based on this level of usage.

I'm not suggesting any of the above is the direct cause of your increase; they are just a few possibilities. Give me a shout if I can help further or drop an email to the address in my Profile if you prefer. Will be happy to help.

Malc

shammyjack

£151 x 12 months = £1812
minus repaid £1000

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Actual usage £ 812
divide by 12 gives £67.66p a month providing usage is still the same


Not rocket science no matter what the computer says .