Eon monthly price increase

Duvaljones

Hi

My girlfriend currently pays £40 per month for her electricity with Eon. They've now sent her a letter advising that they're increasing her payments to £79 per month.

She lives in a 2nd floor one bed flat. Her heating hasn't been on since around march as she gets all the heat she needs from the flats around her and she's out for up to 14 hours of the day during the week.

So, she's never going to get anywhere near using £79 of electricity every month. What can she do about this new payment amount? She called them and they just said 'it's to prepare for your estimated usage over the winter months', which I find ridiculous-how can they predict that and then bill you for it?

Any helpful advice would be gratefully received!

I've told her to give them a meter reading to gve them some idea of what she uses. Any help would be gratefully received.

KimYeovil

It is entirely standard practice these-a-days to build up credit for winter. You receive a substantial discount of up to 30% for choosing this option. If your girlfriend would like to pay a third more to receive quarterly bills based on actual useage then she is free to pay extra.

Everybody's (more or less) heating hasn't been on since March - nothing special about that. £40 is quite low if she is planning to put the heating on over winter. Does she know how much she uses when the heating is on? There have been a few chilly days recently - how much does her heating use during such a session?

What is ridiculous about estimating future useage? How much has she been spending (actual useage) over summer?

It is possible that £79 is a little high. It is almost definite that £40 is far too low.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Duvaljones

Thought it might help if I briefly explain how we calculate payment arrangements.

The amount we ask for is based on the most accurate info we have about the usage at the property over the previous 12 months. Ideally, this will be based on actual meter readings.

Has your girlfriend's account been billed to actual meter readings? If not, please ask her to provide these. We will re-bill the account accurately and review her Direct Debit again.

Once we know her usage, we will use this info to calculate the amount she will need to pay until the next annual review. This total is then divided into equal monthly payments.

We would normally expect her to build up a credit during the summer months. This credit will be used to pay for the increased energy we expect her to use during the winter.

The aim is for the balance on the account to be as near to zero as possible by the time of the annual review.

Is there currently any credit on her account? If not, I suspect she has not been paying enough to cover her usage.

Should this be the case, it's likely the payments we are now asking for are to cover the ongoing usage and make up the shortfall due to under payments.

I hope this gives a bit of an insight into how we have calculated her monthly amount. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help. Drop an email to the address in my Profile if you prefer.

Malc

Andy_WSM

KimYeovil wrote: »

It is possible that £79 is a little high. It is almost definite that £40 is far too low.

Absolutely agree with this. In fact, even as much as £100 a month is not at all unusual for an all electric property.