EDF fixed tariff quadrupled after 6 mths. Advice please

e60london

Hi people,

I moved into a 1 bed flat 6 mths ago. Everything is electric, no gas at all in the apartment, so EDF set up a fixed tariff for £38. It has now shot to £159. Is this possible? Please advise as i am so overwhelmed i don't know what to do next.

faineant

A fixed tariff means that the cost of a unit of energy is fixed as is the daily standing charge. The amount you actually pay is based on your consumption of energy, i.e. the amount is the number of units times the fixed price per unit plus of course the number of days times the daily standing charge. The variation in what you pay should only increase if you use more energy. On the basis of what you say it appears you are being billed for more energy consumption than was thought would be the case when you agreed the fixed tariff. Hope this helps you understand the situation.

JJ_Egan

Question is what tariff and do you check your meter readings .
But as above reads as you signed up to a fixed tariff and prices remain the same but you are using more .
Presume initial figure was based upon an estimate as you had no usage history .

ic

£38 per month sounds unrealistic for all electric. Bare in mind your new monthly price is covering what you need to pay going forward, and an amount to catch-up on what you underpaid from the first six months. It will drop once you've repaid what you owe. Make sure you keep giving regular readings.

[Deleted User]

Wow £38 is very unrealistic for an all electric place. Only £456 a year including standing charges. They may set the direct debit but it's only a guesstimate. Its your responsibility to read your meter and send in those readings. You can also up your direct debit and also pay additional further payments throughout the year. Ive scrimped and saved on electric this year because ive had to and for 8months its been around £307 and its been damn hard. Only using one storage heater and not everyday throughout the winter. Only showers. No emmersion heater use for baths and kettles for washing up. Less use of oven and more microwave. Thankfully I won't have to now. Read your meter readings from the start day and from the bill date and work out for yourself how much you owe... Seems more than reasonable. The DD increase is for previous usage and probably to make sure you don't get into any arrears again. Ive now increased mine to what I want it to be so come winter this year I will be in credit. I'm with EDF.

2013yearofthehouse

Since you moved in 6 months ago, these presumably will have included the months that your usage will be at its highest of the whole year. So your payments going up could be in part due to you using more than they estimated, but also in part due to you yet to have any summer payments which usually go towards winter usage as opposed to being entirely used during the summer. This means your payments should go back down a little after a while.

I was paying £30 per month for all electric (non-E7, no storage heaters, just panel heaters and would be £40 now that charges have changed - depends how big your flat is, how well insulated, how efficient the system is, how much you pay per unit etc., but it is do-able), but I was using £60 worth in the coldest months and only £15-20 in the other months. I started paying in the summer though, so had built up enough credit to pay for the winter months, meaning my supplier didn't put my payments up. However, if I had started at the beginning of winter then after 6 moths I would have been in the same situation as you and my payments would have been increased due to the debt I would have had.

Did the supplier provide a breakdown of actual usage, projected usage and therefore estimated overall future cost, to give them the amount they needed to raise your payment by?

This should help you see how much you are using and if they are over estimating, you may recoup more cost over summer than they project. You won't know your true monthly cost until you have lived there a full 12 months. In the meantime take regular meter readings and see if you can reduce how much electricity you are using and help you compare what is costing you the most to run. Also, check whether there are any cheaper tariffs you could switch to.

Yorkie1

OP, which EDF tariff are you on? Chances are there will be a cheaper one available.

Have you / they taken meter readings since you moved in - or is the latest bill an estimated one?

You've just gone through the most expensive months of the year so your usage is unlikely to remain the same for the next 6 months. The trick will be to convince EDF that a monthly cost somewhere in between will suffice to pay off the annual cost by the end of your first year in the place.

spiro

That works out at £1182 for the year which could be about right. This means next year your DD would be £100 per month.

Cardew

Both the £38 and £159 are unrepresentative amounts.


£38 a month starting in Nov is a stupidly low amount - many properties will use that amount of electricity without heating and hot water.


Almost certainly you built up a large debit balance over the winter and the £159 is a figure to pay back the debit balance and cover your usage. When the debt is paid off, the DD should reduce to cover just your usage.