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£4,500 Electricity Bill

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  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,129 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    But what is the pont of panel heaters on an E7 tariff, unless you work strange hours? You can only run them between midnight and 7am on the cheap rate.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • wakeupalarm
    wakeupalarm Posts: 1,153 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Some energy suppliers allow you retain E7 meters whilst being billed at a single rate, this works by adding the day and night time usage together. It appears that the OP bill is only based on one reading.

    The first thing to do is take a reading today, and then take a reading the same time tomorrow and see if both readings (rate 1 and 4) have increased or not. If you have a fridge freezer or use the kettle during the night time period the meter should increase enough to detect.

    Come back and post your readings and we can established whether both rates are being used and can work out if the energy company has been billing you incorrectly or if the readings are wrong.
  • neopolotain
    neopolotain Posts: 1 Newbie
    edited 22 March 2013 at 2:35PM
    I have just had a pre-payment meter removed because it was costing the earth. And now I know why as I have been informed by EON that they have been charging me on a single rate meter not E7. I have £287 credit on my account which they say they are now going to charge me for the electric on E7 which I didn't have . I do not and cant use the storage heaters because of illness chest problems I live in a one bedroomed flat . But they maintain all the payments I have made are since I joined EON over a year ago . And the single tariff is their fault I didn't know or agree to that. They now say I am entitled to £27.00 rebate . Answers please .....HELP!!!!!!
  • I have just had a pre-payment meter removed because it was costing the earth. And now I know why as I have been informed by EON that they have been charging me on a single rate meter not E7. I have £287 credit on my account which they say they are now going to charge me for the electric on E7 which I didn't have . I do not and cant use the storage heaters because of illness chest problems I live in a one bedroomed flat . But they maintain all the payments I have made are since I joined EON over a year ago . And the single tariff is their fault I didn't know or agree to that. They now say I am entitled to £27.00 rebate . Answers please .....HELP!!!!!!

    neopolotain,

    Your supplier does not know what you use for heating space or water. It has no idea if you use wood, old dried out tea bags, gas or multitudes of tea candles .. .. and cares even less. Its just a supplier, you agree a tariff it supplies a tariff.

    Going back all the way to when you moved into the property you would have been put on to a 'deemed [most expensive standard] contract' by the existing supplier, unless you contact them and change it you will stay on that expensive contract forever.
    Disclaimer : Everything I write on this forum is my opinion. I try to be an even-handed poster and accept that you at times may not agree with these opinions or how I choose to express them, this is not my problem. The Disabled : If years cannot be added to their lives, at least life can be added to their years - Alf Morris - ℜ
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,129 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    And PPM's cost the same as Standard tariff.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • reeac
    reeac Posts: 1,430 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Vin2300 wrote: »
    Have just received a £4,500 electricity bill - and worried it might actually be right! Hoping someone can shed some light.

    we appear to have jumped from an average usage of 247 units per month in the first period to an average usage of 2133 units per month in the second period. Our direct debits have presumably been based on the lower usage - our bills did seem quite low.

    Does this usage sound right? We live in a modern 2-bed flat with electric heaters and no gas.

    I have had a look at the meter and it appears that there are two rates, Rate 1 and Rate 4. It appears to me that my initial Customer reading and the next four subsequent Actual readings were all the Rate 4 reading, but this time they have used the Rate 1 reading. Why is there two different readings and what are they for?

    We are retired so at home a lot in a modern 3 brm. bungalow and our energy useage for heating + hot water is ca. 21,000kWh p.a. That's 17,000 from oil [boiler eff. 85% ] plus 4000 from electricity. I would expect your useage to be less than ours especially if you are out during the day.
  • Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc
    Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc Posts: 6,558 Organisation Representative
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I have just had a pre-payment meter removed because it was costing the earth. And now I know why as I have been informed by EON that they have been charging me on a single rate meter not E7. I have £287 credit on my account which they say they are now going to charge me for the electric on E7 which I didn't have . I do not and cant use the storage heaters because of illness chest problems I live in a one bedroomed flat . But they maintain all the payments I have made are since I joined EON over a year ago . And the single tariff is their fault I didn't know or agree to that. They now say I am entitled to £27.00 rebate . Answers please .....HELP!!!!!!

    Hi neopolotain

    Am I right in assuming you had a two rate Economy 7 meter but were being charged on a single rate tariff?

    Usually, customers are better off on Economy 7 when they're using storage heaters. However, if you haven't been using the storage heaters, it may be you were benefiting from the lower daytime prices on a single rate tariff.

    Depending on the area, to benefit from Economy 7, customers need to use approx between 50 and 55 per cent of electricity during the cheaper off peak period.

    With our Economy 7 meters, though, we're able to charge them as either one or two rate depending on what customers ask for.

    As I say, it depends on how much electricity is used at night as to which version is better.

    When we remove a prepayment meter, we'll issue a statement covering usage from the last statement through to the removal date. This isn't an extra charge but a record of how much electricity you've used and the payments you've made.

    What type of tariff did you ask for when you opened the account? Was it Economy 7 or single rate?

    If we've put you on a different arrangement from the one asked for, we'll re-issue the statement on the tariff requested. There'll be notes on your account about this.

    Sorry for all the questions neopolotain and also if I've the wrong end of the stick. Not sure from your post exactly what's happened here.

    Malc
    Official Company Representative
    I am an official company representative of E.ON. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • Glum
    Glum Posts: 57 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    Vin2300 said:
    Our Rate 1 is at about 50000 and the Rate 4 is at about 13000. Does the 50000 represent the total number of units, or have 63000 billable units been used?

    Your readings are the reverse of typical readings for Economy 7 ie Night Rate (4) would normally be high using storage heaters and Day Rate (1) would be lower for appliances used during the day (eg today mine are 51000 (rate 4) and 13500 (1). Some dipstick read our E7 meter wrong two years before we moved in so our night storage heaters were clocking up on the peak tariff for about 18 months. They took a lot of convincing but eventually we got a massive refund. It does sound like you are being billed for the total of the two readings rather than a split tariff.

    By the way, on our digital E7 meter the display flashes to show which tariff is active. The on-off times vary depending on which region you are in. Good luck.
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