EDF Direct Debit increase despite £130+ credit

Nada666

You have provided no evidence that the increase was unjustified.

(£130 plus two times £5 - that's only an extra 3,333 kWh over two months over your regular payments - not that much per day.)

[Deleted User]

But its still an increase and if she's already in credit the DD should in fact be lowered, not raised. Why should EDF be keeping £155 of the OP's money.., AND increasing the DD. Or trying to.

And I know from experience.., the cost of making these calls, with queueing time etc is not insignificant.

I know with my DD's last year, I ended up considerably in credit.

Nada666

deannatrois wrote: »

But its still an increase and if she's already in credit the DD should in fact be lowered, not raised. Why should EDF be keeping £155 of the OP's money.., AND increasing the DD. Or trying to.

No evidence has been provided to support that. An extra £70 to cover a couple of winter months for an average household is nothing. That only pays for two or three hours of boiler output per day.

It is, of course, possible that the OP has a much lower usage than average - but this information was not given in the op.

Ageing_Stick_Insect

Nada666,

Justification? Surely coming out of winter with a healthy credit is sufficient justification? Would you be happy with an increase if you felt it was unjustified? It's down to personal judgement and your view obviously differs.

I had a large refund earlier last year because EDF hugely over-estimated my consumption. DD reduced from £99 to £73. That's how far out they were so I don't trust them to make accurate judgements.

Deannatrois, I'm a he not a she but thank you for your understanding. I used the 0800 number from a land line so the only cost was my time. That's fine. As you allude to their policy is to keep customers in credit permanently within pretty big limits. I had a £389 refund from them last year. That's an outrageous amount to retain when monthly payments were £99.

matelodave

But you haven't come out of winter yet - February can be very cold as can March.

I can see some justification in chucking your rattle out of the pram if they upped it by £20 or £30 a month but getting all electric over a fiver is a bit much.
They've reduced it back so I can't see why you are persuing a complaint.

Ageing_Stick_Insect

Winters can be mild too. January was the 13th month out of 14 where temps were above average. I know 'cos I keep weather records. Why not assume it will be milder than average? The records support it.

I know it's just a fiver but they do it every time and I'm fed up it. Look at the massive over-estimate that resulted in a near £400 refund. That's how good their programmers are!

ic

I wonder what your time and stress is worth chasing all this. I bet its a lot more than the £5 you've averted, and certainly more than any £25 payment should they not respond quickly.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Ageing_Stick_Insect wrote: »

If anyone is in the same boat I urge you to make a formal complaint. It's outrageous that they should request a higher payment nearing the end of winter when I'm in credit by such an amount.

I don't suppose EDF is any worse than the other 5. Still outrageous though.

The war in the Middle East is outrageous.

Policing the Ecuadorian embassy at a cost of £10m is outrageous.

EDF putting your DD up by £5 is not outrageous.

frank777

ic wrote: »

I wonder what your time and stress is worth chasing all this. I bet its a lot more than the £5 you've averted, and certainly more than any £25 payment should they not respond quickly.

The formula with energy complaints outrageous or not is to email the complaint and sit back and wait for the response and collect £25, don't waste your time and energy on the phone explaining in detail - leave an audit trail and chill out and collect the cash £25 payment - don't try to put the world to right, you won't succeed :eek:.
Don't forget the please respond by email

System

When I spoke at length to my energy supplier yesterday about ongoing switching issues, I did so in the hope of resolution. CS used the word complaint. Looking through the Company's recent formal response to OFGEM on its complaints procedures, the Company used the words 'we see every complaint as a gift'. Still hoping for resolution rather than compensation, I felt that I had no option but to 'gift' them a complaint.

The OP's post may seem petty, but some statistics I looked at recently did suggest that 30% of DD accounts were in credit at annual review, and of this figure 40% were owed a refund of over £100. Put another way, if 12% of customers are owed at least £100 at the annual review, then energy companies' algorithims may need to be looked at.