EDF took an extra DD payment

dave76

My normal DD from EDF went out on 3rd Jan for £80.

There was then a bill generated on 6th Jan and an email notification sent to me - it had in a big section that "Your monthly payment is £80. As you pay by direct debit you don't need to do anything" and I tagged the email but didn't get around to reading the actual bill.

Turns out the bill calculated I owed £101 and they would take that out of my account on 22nd January which they duly did and sent that account overdrawn. It also put the EDF account nearly 60 quid in credit??

Now, I take some responsibility for not reading the bill, but it doesn't seem right they can take a second payment in the same month. I am in the process of switching suppliers but EDF told me they are still waiting for the final readings so this isn't a final bill settlement. Is this a reasonable thing for them to do?

matelodave

If your agreement is for a monthly DD payment, then they shouldn't really take another one without notifying you - which apparently they did, but you chose not to check your bill properly. You have to accept some responsibility for not noticing it and doing something about it.


You also say that you are in the process of swapping, in which case you won't be allowed to swap with any arrears so one could assume that they were ensuring a smooth transition where you could swap and they would pay you back any accrued credit. That's why its important to keep on top of your bills and consumption and to make sure bills are corrected. Have you been sending them regular meter readings or are you allowing them to estimate your consumption in which case they can dream up any figure they like

dave76

matelodave wrote: »

You have to accept some responsibility for not noticing it and doing something about it.

Absolutely, that's why I said I have to take some of the responsibility. However when they plaster the email with "you do not need to do anything" it makes you think everything is hunky dory - if they put "we are going to charge you £100 extra this month" or "your direct debit is changing" then I would have logged in to their website immediately.

I gave them meter readings when they requested them. Unfortunately I found in the past when giving meter readings very regularly they immediately adjust the direct debit (up or down depending on the time of year) when I am quite happy the current payment will cover the bill over the whole year (or be happy to settle the different at the end of the year), leading to more calls and wasting time to get the DD reset.