Electricity bill jumped £19pm to £140pm

finisterre75

Hi all
Just to ask your advice
I joined EDF in July 2010 on a £19 a month charge. I live in a 2 room apartment. The bills stayed at this price up until Decemeber when EDF told me due to consumption my dierct debit would increase to £75pm - what i expected with the cold weather!
Yesterday I got a letter saying that my new estimate bill would increase to £140 a month and that I owe them £204!!!
I have had an overseas friend staying with me for 3 months who was not working whilst here, so i can account for the electricity being used more than normal. However, they have now left; and as I work full time and the milder weather is here i don't think I will be using that much electricity per month.
Do you guys have any ideas on how to approach EDF to try and get my monthly payments down as it seems very steep!
Thanks:T

DUTR

You have to pay for the energy used, some of that cost in your new monthly will be to clear arrears and an assumption of increased usage. Perhaps paying a lump sum to remove the arrears is an option?

finisterre75

Yes I was thinking of offering to pay 1/2 of the £204 this month and the other half next month and see if this gets the price down???:beer:

Flearoy

Do you submit regular meter readings? There is no point arguing about your payments until you know how much energy you are actually using.

spiro

Check your bills, have they been based on estimated readings and the latest bill is based on an actual? If so this is a catch up bill because you have failed to check previous bills.

Is your flat all elec? If so the coldest winter in over 100 years may account for your increased consumption.

finisterre75

The electric meter is locked in a communal building that only the caretaker has access to so she provides the radings when asked by the tenants.
Was thinking to suggest to EDF if I could contact them on a monthly basis with the readings...:eek:

spiro

finisterre75 wrote: »

The electric meter is locked in a communal building that only the caretaker has access to so she provides the radings when asked by the tenants.
Was thinking to suggest to EDF if I could contact them on a monthly basis with the readings...:eek:

That does not answer the questions I raised. If you answer these it may help us all give you more informed advise.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

finisterre75 wrote: »

Was thinking to suggest to EDF if I could contact them on a monthly basis with the readings...:eek:

most companies will allow you to set up an on line account, in fact it may work out cheaper.

You can then input readings monthly, and keep your eye on things.

It sounds as though you have been getting estimated accounts, and this is catch up time.

With the cold winter and your friend staying, your usage has been higher than normal, companies tend to estimate on same period last year, so they have underestimated.

They now think that what you have now used will be the norm, and have adjusted your monthly payments accordingly.

If you can pay off what you owe, then have a word with them to see if you can get a reduction in your DD.

Oh, and take monthly readings anyway and do a wee check yourself.

macman

If the flat has electric heating, then £19p was absurdly low. You cannot heat, light and power a property for £228pa.

moonrakerz

finisterre75 wrote: »

I joined EDF in July 2010 on a £19 a month charge.............. my dierct debit would increase to £75pm............ would increase to £140 a month and that I owe them £204!!!

I am afraid that you have been sucked in by a favourite "trick" of the energy companies.
Start someone on unrealistically low monthly payments then come back after some months and jack up the payments to a very high level - if the customer is not happy with this and wants to move elsewhere, this is now very difficult as they owe money to the first company.

I have just moved supplier - despite my giving the new company accurate readings for my usage, they set my DD at less than a third of my payments to my previous supplier. It took me 3 attempts to get a realistic figure set !

deshepherd

moonrakerz wrote: »

I am afraid that you have been sucked in by a favourite "trick" of the energy companies.
Start someone on unrealistically low monthly payments then come back after some months and jack up the payments to a very high level - if the customer is not happy with this and wants to move elsewhere, this is now very difficult as they owe money to the first company.

This is compounded by the new practice (possibly due to pressure from Ofgem) to ensure that you don't build up a big debt which they seem to handle by wanting accounts to be in balance at the end of winter.

From your comments your £200 behind in payements so EDF (or more likely EDF's computerized billing system) has decided that to get you to a 0 balance by next 3-monthly bill you'll need to pay and extra £70-ish per month. I would assume that in 3-months time DD will reduce to around the correct value as by then they should know what your annual usage is.

N.b. make sure that on the last bill has correct readings and also includes all the DD's that should have been paid by then ... I had a big increase from Eon because they auto-issue bills when you submit a reading during the 2-week billing window and I was "too efficient" so the bill got issued with only 2 of the 3 DDs having arrived for that "quarter" (DD was paid on same day bill was issued!) - I got in contact with Eon and asked them to recalculate and the big increase changed to a small increase!