Gas & Electric direct debit increase

deputy2092

Hello all...this is my first post and I am after some advice please.

We currently get our gas and electric from Eon and were paying a monthly amount that they suggested by direct debit. Then suddenly, they contacted us to say that we hadn't been paying enough and wanted £2k or to put our DD up by an extra £200 per month to clear it.

Obviously, from my point of view, we were paying what they asked for, so this seems grossly unfair and unreasonable.

My question is: can they do this? Do we have to pay their new requested monthly direct debit or can we tell them how much will will pay (obviously with an increase to start clearing the debt)?

Why do they wait until the debt is so large before telling us? I can't believe that they are allowed to do this in this day and age!

Any comments / advice appreciated. Thanks.:mad:

matelodave

Don't you look at your bills?. Don't you check the estimates against the meter. Two grand is a lot of estimated bills. If they can't get in to read the meters then you should do it otherwise you end up either under or overpaying.

It's really hard to understand how you've been happily paying the bills without checking that they are correct. You should at the very least check the estimates with your own meter readings and make sure that they get corrected - all suppliers have a process whereby you can give them an up to date reading, either on-line or over the phone.

You do have to take some responsibility but hopefully they'll give you some time to pay it back BUT you'll also have to pay a realistic DD for what you are currently using as well To pay back £2k over a year will cost £166 plus another £100 or so for your current usage

Soleil_lune

Flippin nora! And I thought we were in the poop when we owed £260 a coupla years ago!

Andy_WSM

deputy2092 wrote: »

Any comments / advice appreciated. Thanks.:mad:

Start taking responsibility for your own bills and read your meter regularly (preferably monthly), submit to EON, request new bill, adjust Direct Debit.

I do this online monthly, it takes me less than 2 minutes to do. I am in credit ready for the Winter, no big surprises here...

EON are only obliged to read the meter every 2 years. It's up to YOU to read it regularly, after all, it's on YOUR property. You must walk past it most, if not every, day!

Happy to help.

cootuk

I would have thought your bill just after winter would have been the highest, so how come the DD only just increasing?
You really need to give some history as to your annual usage (if possible), type of property, and what you have been paying them.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi deputy2092

That's certainly a hefty increase. Were previous bills to actual meter readings or estimated?

If estimated, I suspect you've had a catch up bill now we've received accurate meter readings. This will have resulted in the payment arrangement being reviewed.

Has a balance been building up on your account? You'll be able to see this on previous bills.

If we've been under estimating for a period and now given you a catch up bill, we'll be happy to spread the new balance over a similar period. This can be included with your ongoing usage.

Alternatively, you can pay part of the new balance and we'll spread the rest over a similar period and include with the usage.

Payments need to cover the ongoing usage and, as others have said, you can keep a check on this by keeping an eye on the meter readings. There are also facilities on our website, like the Direct Debit Manager and Real Time Billing, to help you make sure payments are covering usage.

Hope this is of interest. Let me know if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc