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Help, Eon Quarterly bill Four times higher than average than normal

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Hi everyone. First post on MSE though i have been an regular user for 3/4 years. If anyone could help me it would be really appreciated.

I have just had a bill from Eon for £1,770 for under estimated gas and electric bills which trace back to October 2010. :mad:
Our household usually pays around £400 for the quarterly bill but because these the bills we were getting charged were under estimates, we now have to pay money on all of the bills dated back to October 2010.

Does anyone know if these bills are unavoidable or not? Also, I read something about energy providers not being ale to trace back under estimated bills from more than 12 months. Is there any truth to this?

Once again if anyone could help it much be much appreciated :)
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Comments

  • HappyMJ
    HappyMJ Posts: 21,115 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    It's true....in a way. You can't be charged more than 12 months usage. So what was the reading in Feb 2011? You may be able to guess it based on the readings you have. That's what they can charge you as you would have been paying off the bit from Oct 2010 to Feb 2011 by paying small amounts over the last year so you were never actually 12 months in arrears.

    Do you have the actual readings and dates that you would like to post on here? Which region are you in? Which tariff are you on?
    :footie:
    :p Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) :p Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. :p
  • jalexa
    jalexa Posts: 3,448 Forumite
    Kieran123 wrote: »
    Does anyone know if these bills are unavoidable or not?

    Almost certainly you will need to pay. The issue is not that the underestimate dates back more than 12 months but whether or not you have had bills in the last year. If you received an annual (or more likely) quarterly statements and you did not correct estimated readings you may have forfeited any right to application of the Billing Code.

    Decide for yourself.

    http://www.energy-retail.org.uk/industrycodes/code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills/
  • I cannot find what the meter reading was in Feb 2011. It was estimated at 61349 on the 4th Feb but was last read on the 21st October 2010 at 58823. The meter reading was then read last month on the 13th Jan at 72757. These readings are for the electricity. I cannot find dated readings for the gas.

    I am in the North-West and currently on the EON Energy Plan.

    Thank you for your reply Happy MJ and if you could give any extra help it would be much appreciated
  • dogshome
    dogshome Posts: 3,878 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Im afraid you will have to pay, but this the part fault of Eon as they did not do a meter reading for over a year - in these circumstances it's usual for the debt to be paid off over the same time that it took to build up, or even longer it there is financial hardship -BUT YOU HAVE TO ASK

    Your billing at over £2,100 for 15 months seems very high, almost twice the average. This may be justified by the size of your home and family, but if you don't think it is post the details of house & occupants
  • HappyMJ
    HappyMJ Posts: 21,115 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 11 February 2012 at 6:28PM
    That's a lot of electricity. 31kWh a day costing £4.34 every day. Over 365 days that would be 11,315kWh costing £1,584 just for electricity. They were not that far out with the estimated meter reading on the 4th Feb based on the average per day over 343 days it should have been 62124.

    Are you sure that was and is now the meter reading? Do you know that you are using so much?
    :footie:
    :p Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) :p Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. :p
  • Thanks for all the replies
    dogshome wrote: »
    Your billing at over £2,100 for 15 months seems very high, almost twice the average. This may be justified by the size of your home and family, but if you don't think it is post the details of house & occupants

    The size of the house is big. 3 floors with 8 occupants. This probably explains the costly usage.

    In relevance to HappyMJs comment, I have just this second checked the reading and it is now at 75336 so I am guessing that it was correct. Didnt realise we are using so much electricity. Most of us 8 occupants have electric heaters which I have been against them using. Anyone know how costly they are to use?
  • HappyMJ
    HappyMJ Posts: 21,115 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Kieran123 wrote: »
    Thanks for all the replies



    The size of the house is big. 3 floors with 8 occupants. This probably explains the costly usage.

    In relevance to HappyMJs comment, I have just this second checked the reading and it is now at 75336 so I am guessing that it was correct. Didnt realise we are using so much electricity. Most of us 8 occupants have electric heaters which I have been against them using. Anyone know how costly they are to use?
    Well that makes sense. Electric heating is costing you 25 pence per hour per 2kW heater. You should be using the gas central heating which costs 10 pence per 2kW (medium to large) radiator assuming a poor 70% boiler efficiency. It is therefore 2 and a half times more expensive to use multiple electric heaters than turn on the central heating throughout the house. The only difference is you have to have most or all the gas radiators on instead of just one at a time but having 5 gas radiators on full will cost the same as having 2 electric heaters on full.

    If people are cold then get the gas central heating looked at and get everyone to turn those electric heaters off. Leave the gas central heating on 24/7. 21 during the day, 15 at night. It'll be cheaper than having people turn on a electric radiator and forgetting to turn it off.
    :footie:
    :p Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) :p Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. :p
  • Thanks for the advice HappyMJ. I thought that the cost of the electric heaters is expensive in relation to the cost of using radiators. Will make sure that the radiators will be used instead of the electric heaters.
  • HappyMJ
    HappyMJ Posts: 21,115 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    By my estimates if you could move 7,000kWh (3,500 hours running a 2kw heater or to break it down each of the 8 people using an electric heater for an average of 2.5 hours each and every day for 25 weeks) from the electric bill into 10,000kWh onto the gas bill then you would save (£875-£350) £525 over the year. Your electric bill would then be a much more reasonable 4,315kWh for 12 months which for 8 people is quite reasonable at only 540kWh per person per year or 1.5kWh per person per day.
    :footie:
    :p Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) :p Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. :p
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,129 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Theses bill are easily avoidable if you provide meter readings at least every 3 months to ensure that you don't build up debt and get hit with a huge catch-up bill.
    It's not necessary to leave your heating on overnight, even in this cold weather.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
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