Bullied by EDF energy - advice please!

lovefromcharlie

Hey guys,

So I owe a balance of just over £800 on my electricity account (which is extortionate considering it is a 1bed flat, however despite investigating with EDF they claim that this is just how much electricity my flat uses). Regardless of the ridiculous size of this bill I am offering to pay it off at a monthly rate of £80. I can't afford to pay any more than this and EDF keep hounding me to pay more.

I am trapped as EDF keep saying that they won't set me up a DD for this amount as the monthly usage amounts to around £120 a month and the £80 won't cover this amount. I've said that I am happy to continue to pay off the balance after I move out of the property and no longer have an account registered at that address. I just cannot afford more than £80 a month - this is a stretch as I have credit card bills etc. to pay off.

I feel like they are bullying me saying that I have to pay more and refusing to accept my offer to pay at £80 a month. I'm in an awful situation where I'm getting red letters every month, despite calling up in person every month and paying £80 with a debit card as they won't let me set up the DD. I've tried to explain to them that when I move out at the end of March and supply my final meter reading I will pay the balance of what I've actually used, not what they are estimating my total usage will be for march. I am 500% happy to pay everything, but I can't afford more than £80 without going without food/rent mone (!!) even after explaining this to them they just say well £80 isn't good enough.

I'm fed up of arguing with them on the phone every month about this and frustrated that they won't just accept my offers to pay this off with a regular DD (showing my commitment to paying off the balance surely?).

What can I do?

Thanks

lovefromcharlie

The original contract I signed up to with EDF was £27 a month DD to pay for my electricity so I hope you appreciate that even paying £80 a month is a lot more than what I had bargained for!

molerat

If £80 is less than you are using then of course any less will not do, £27 is a stupidly low amount but did you check what you were using. The supplier has only to read the meter every 2 years and it is down to you to supply readings or check estimates in between.

How many kWh are you using per day / week / month ? You say you are in a flat, is the meter being billed actually yours ? If a converted building are you sure the meter is supplying just you ? Have you checked the meter is reading accurately by doing a load test? Did you give an accurate reading when you moved in ?

If the billing and metering is accurate then a pre-payment meter is probably your best bet, you cannot use more than you are paying for then and the debt will be put on the meter and paid off at quite a small amount each week.

macman

You are confusing usage with arrears. It appears that you are actually using £40pm, so with your arrears of £800, they are giving you a year to clear the debt at £80 pm. Total £120pm
At present you are only in effect paying £40 a month off the arrears, plus £40 for your ongoing consumption, so it would take you 2 years to clear it. So it's not surprising that they are demanding more than £80pm.
£27pm is absurdly low for an all electric flat, even £40 is still very low. You must have been paying on estimated readings for a very long time, as a shortfall of around £13 would take 5 years to build arrears of £800. When did they last read the meter, or when did you supply readings?
How are you going to be able to clear the debt in March in one hit given your financial problems?

lovefromcharlie

Thanks for your replies and advice. I appreciate what you are saying but I haven't used a lot of electricity didn't have the heating on till mid November. Will have to readdress money situ and see if I can afford more, but I don't understand why they won't just let me pay off the balance when I've left the property as I did with SSE.

Ultrasonic

I suspect if someone owed you £800 you'd be asking for it sooner rather than later...

Do though investigate your electricity useage to check that what you are being charged for is sensible. £80 pcm sounds very high for a 1 bedroom flat to me. (I've lived on my own in a one bedroom flat with electric heating. I can't remember exactly what the bills were but from memory think it was more like £40 pcm. Obviously useage and insulation come into play though.)

Homeagain

Quite frankly I would just continue paying the arrears promptly and in the amount you can afford. EDF did the same to me - bills all wrong, credited then debited leaving us with an 800.00 or so bill when we left the house. It has now almost been paid off but I told them the amount I was prepared to pay and just carried on paying it.
I really don't think they can do much else despite their threats - if they take you to Court you can only make an offer to the Court which would probably be accepted anyway. In any event, Courts do not take kindly to litigation when a customer is attempting to make regular payments.
By the way I sure would be unhappy if someone owed me 800.00 but have to say that I think EDF can carry this bill a little longer than the OP!

forgotmyname

Only put the heating on in November. But how many hours a day do you have it on?

Example. 2KW heater for 4 hours would be over £1. Add lighting and cooking, hotwater to that and as mentioned several times £27 is nowhere near enough.

Our combined gas/electric is close to £100 per month.

Ultrasonic

Homeagain wrote: »

By the way I sure would be unhappy if someone owed me 800.00 but have to say that I think EDF can carry this bill a little longer than the OP!

Well yes, but neither is it reasonable to expect EDF to ignore it idefinitely until the OP eventually moves house...

Ultrasonic

forgotmyname wrote: »

Our combined gas/electric is close to £100 per month.

Mine by contrast is £35 FWIW; it can vary wildly with circumstances.