Electric meter not prepay

Proptyc69

My Daughter went on to a normal pay monthly electric meter some months ago, switching from a prepayment meter. She contacted Eon today to tell them she has not received a bill. They said she was still down as being on a prepay meter and as a result is going to have to pay a large bill. What are her rights? Does she have to pay this all at once and is there a different standing charge for prepay meters?
She has been told it will a week for them to prepare the bill.

Andy_WSM

Proptyc69 wrote: »

What are her rights?

Well, her rights are, if she used the energy she has to pay for it.

However, what Eon are likely to do is to allow the debt to be settled over the same period of time that it has acrued. ie. If it's been 6 months then the back payments may be spread over 6 months + she will need to pay for the ongoing monthly consumption.

Has your daughter been putting money aside every month to pay this bill? If she came off prepay she must have had an idea how much she needed to save?

The standing charges are similar for both meter types - the part that changes is the cost per kWh, but that will vary depending upon which tariff she has asked to go on.

spiro

Define "some months ago", most suppliers only bill every 3 months. If she has swapped from ppm to credit without changing to a DD tariff she is typically saving nothing.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi proptyc69 and welcome to the Forums.

Sorry for the delay updating your daughter's account. It usually takes a few weeks to register the details following a meter exchange but it certainly shouldn't be months. Sounds like the update's going through now so thought I'd pop on to let you know what happens next.

The credit meter will show on the account from the date it was changed. A bill will then be raised from this time up to date. The technician who changed the meter will have noted the final reading on the prepayment meter and the opening reading on the credit meter. The bill will charge energy used up to and from these readings.

It'll help keep things accurate if your daughter can let us have an up to date meter reading.

Charges from the date of the meter exchange will be based on the credit tariff your daughter chose or, if she didn't go for a fixed tariff, our standard product. They won't be based on prepayment prices.

Daily Standing Charges are virtually the same across all our tariffs. The only difference is where payment is by Monthly Direct Debit. Customers paying this way receive a price adjustment off their bills worth about £35 per fuel per year. This is given via lower Daily Standing Charges.

Tell your daughter not to worry about having to pay the balance all at once. As Andy_WSM says, we'll be happy to look at setting up a payment arrangement to spread this amount over a more manageable period. If she goes for a Monthly Direct Debit, we'll be able to include the balance with her ongoing usage.

Once the balance has been cleared and provided she registers with our website, she'll also be able to take advantage of the Direct Debit Manager. This will give her more control over the monthly payments and comes in handy should circumstances change.

Through this tool and provided the account is billed up to the latest meter reading, she'll be able to change payments by up 20 per cent up or down. By up to 5 per cent up or down without a reading.

Before putting the change through, we'll let her know by how much we anticipate the account will be in credit/debit if the new amount's confirmed but usage doesn't alter accordingly.

Sorry again for the delay updating the meter details proptyc69 but hope this is of interest.

Malc