Vent: Eon Energy Raise Monthly Payment

Aginoth

I usually check my Energy Account Monthly, but mangaged due to several family events to forget to do this in June.

Sod's law therefor came into play and as a result I missed Eon putting up my Monthly Direct Debit for my Energy....

From £81 pcm to £129 pcm !!! an increase of 59.3%

This is despite the fact my energy usage at home year on year has fallen 7% in cash terms.

Perhaps they thought I was going to run all the street lights on my road for the rest of the year?

or that I had decided to allow the council to run teh Xmas lights in town from my house?

or maybe they are about to hike their fuel and energy prices by 59.3%?

No, surprisingly it was none of the above...

what it turned out to be was that a meter reader had reported my house as unoccupied...strange as there is always a car on the drive or my mobility scooter parked at the side of the house, net curtains up, furniture in the rooms, kids running around, and someone actually in 99% of the time out of me my wife and 4 children.

Because of this they had done an arbitrary reassessment of the energy use of the house based on their own average data for teh area and property type, and ignoring the fact that a) we hadn't moved out b) the bill was still being paid from the same account as it has been for 8 years c) their records of the previous usage at the property.

I've contacted them today and to their credit they have reduced the payments back to their original amount, but this shouldn't have happened in the first place on the say so of one contracted meter reader who couldn't be bothered to get his facts straight.

wdw2003

I'm fairly happy with Eon because their online set-up is so simple and their prices were usually the best, but today they kindly informed me that my current deal runs out next month and that my 17.4% discount will become a 2% discount. They didn't mention the impending price rises, so I'm expecting to soon be paying an extra 30%+ when that kicks in.

Aginoth

wdw2003 wrote: »

I'm fairly happy with Eon because their online set-up is so simple and their prices were usually the best, but today they kindly informed me that my current deal runs out next month and that my 17.4% discount will become a 2% discount. They didn't mention the impending price rises, so I'm expecting to soon be paying an extra 30%+ when that kicks in.

Other than this I have been happy with them, and they have never been bettered on the comparison sites for me, I agree their online system is generally very good.

We're on Eon SaveOnline2 which gives 6% direct debit discount plus a 2% dual fuel discount and an additional 17% online discount, but it has no end date. Not sure if it is still available to switch too though.

VT82

Aginoth wrote: »

I've contacted them today and to their credit they have reduced the payments back to their original amount, but this shouldn't have happened in the first place on the say so of one contracted meter reader who couldn't be bothered to get his facts straight.

Based on what you have said, it sounds more likely there was an administrative mistake, from Eon or the meter reader, than the meter reader deliberately set out to misinterpret the facts.

And it was sorted with one phone call.

Not really worth getting so worked up about with all the hyperbole about Xmas lights et al...

carolineb23

We've had a few issues with them sticking the DD up a ridiculous amount, and every time we call them they try to say it's due to the usage. I think last time we ended up £50 in debit over the winter, so they wanted us to put up the payment by £17 a month or something stupid. We just told them we'd pay the £50 and said that surely if we were £50 in debit over the past 12 months they should only be putting the DD up by £4.17 a month. They didn't have an answer for that. To be fair to them though, whenever we call up and say we don't agree with the new DD they change it back down again. We had a nightmare with British gas when we first moved in here as they wanted us to pay £90 a month based on the previous owner's usage, and told us their software would only allow them to reduce it by 10% when we complained (£90 a month in 2007 for a couple who work full time in a 3 bed semi was crazy - considering we now pay £58!).

wdw2003

Aginoth, I'm on the same deal as you, so you'll have an end date at some point. Their letter suggested the EnergyOnline tariff which has the same rates but a much smaller discount, but when I went on to Uswitch it said Eon's SaveOnline 8 would be cheaper. It has lower rates and only the basic 8% discount, but the lower rates more than offset the extra 2% of the other tariff. You need to have your wits about you in this game.

System

British gas have just introduced a new variable direct debt scheme. Basically they take your average usage over the year and work out how much a year you owe e.g. £500 you then decide how much you pay each month. You can set them to whatever you like (even 0) as long as the 12 payments add up to the money

SandC

Sounds like a recipe for disaster Goater.

Can't think what circumstances someone would want to have variable payments unless they have a similar income to the energy companies, ie. low in summer, high in winter.

The_mangler

Eon put up my DD from £53 to £88 three months ago. I rang and told them no way could we manage that so they reduced it to £64. Now theyve contacted me again to say its going back to £99!!

System

SandC wrote: »

Sounds like a recipe for disaster Goater.

Can't think what circumstances someone would want to have variable payments unless they have a similar income to the energy companies, ie. low in summer, high in winter.

I think its aimed for people who like payment holidays so for instance instead of paying £50 a month you could not pay anything in December and January and then spend £60 a month for the other 10 months

peter_the_piper

They keep reducing mine. I know that I pay 100 a month and that gives me security against a sudden freeze so why do they reduce it to 85?