E.ON continue to take more than required?

Xeorix

We bought our first house and exchanged in November last year. Given we had no idea what our energy bills were going to be, we stuck with E.ON and they decided that we should be paying £158 a month for gas and electric.

It is now April and we're still paying £158 a month, however we are a huge £498 in credit, yet E.ON continue to take £158 off us.

Are they allowed to do this, I thought there was some law they had to reimburse every billing period as they were making money through interest? There doesn't appear to be any way for us to claim this money back...

Saver-upper

Hi Xeorix,
I am not sure about refund of credit being automatic,but I changed from BG to Marks and Spencer (SEC) in September 2013.Since then,I have phoned them twice to point out that my credit has built up,and ask for it to be refunded.Both times it was done,no quibbles:in about March 2014 (6 month after joining),I was refunded £360,and my monthly DD was decreased.About 5-6 months ago I phoned again and was refunded about £180.
Always worth a phone call.

footyguy

Xeorix wrote: »

We bought our first house and exchanged in November last year. Given we had no idea what our energy bills were going to be, we stuck with E.ON and they decided that we should be paying £158 a month for gas and electric.

It is now April and we're still paying £158 a month, however we are a huge £498 in credit, yet E.ON continue to take £158 off us.

Are they allowed to do this, I thought there was some law they had to reimburse every billing period as they were making money through interest? There doesn't appear to be any way for us to claim this money back...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits

Which law were you thinking about exactly? I must have been playing hookey the day they taught about that one.

mnw1888

Xeorix wrote: »

We bought our first house and exchanged in November last year. Given we had no idea what our energy bills were going to be, we stuck with E.ON and they decided that we should be paying £158 a month for gas and electric.

It is now April and we're still paying £158 a month, however we are a huge £498 in credit, yet E.ON continue to take £158 off us.

Are they allowed to do this, I thought there was some law they had to reimburse every billing period as they were making money through interest? There doesn't appear to be any way for us to claim this money back...

Complain as soon as possible., but watch out for the 8 week deadlock delaying letter they will send you.


EON are one of the worst for this type of abuse.
Check to see if your bills are estimated or are they based on actual readings?
And my advice is to terminate the EON contract at the earliest opportunity and get well shot of.

dogshome

The only time a 'Credit' figure is accurate is when it's on a just issued bill that is based a Meter Readers reading, or provided it's correct, a Customers reading is given to the supplier or a Smart meter is fitted.

Taking the 'maybe' credit of £498 away from the 5 months? of £158 D/D payments totalling £790, gives an actual consumption cost of £292 for 5 Winter months - £58.40 a month.
If this dwelling is a small, well insulated terrace house £58.40 is possible, but for anything bigger that is a semi or detached, the figure seems unlikely

System

Xeorix wrote: »

There doesn't appear to be any way for us to claim this money back...

You could try just calling them with your meter readings. From E.oN's website:


If you pay by fixed monthly Direct Debit it’s normal, for example to build up a credit over the summer months. The credit will then be used during the winter when you’re likely to use more energy. You can still request a refund, we'll ask you for a meter reading and warn you that your future Direct Debit payments may need to change, as we try to get your balance as close to zero as we can by your annual review.

If you pay by cash or cheque, your credit will automatically be taken off your next bill.

If you still want a refund we’ll need to make sure you’re billed up to date, so you’ll need to provide us with an actual meter reading. You can submit your meter reading online or by calling us on 0345 052 0000. You can also get in touch on Facebook or Twitter. Please take the reading before getting in touch, as we’ll ask for this first. If you’d prefer to email us, you can do this here.

lvf

Getting back to the OP:
Any credit balance over £5 is sent to you automatically at the date of your annual review, normally in and around 12 months from the date your DD was originally set up.

You can still request a refund at any time throughout the year, the only requirement is your account needs to be billed up to date, so just call the number above with up to date meter reads and this can be sent back to you.

If that large credit you have is after the account is billed up to date, I'd suggest you ask to have the DD reviewed, or you can do this yourself from the online account by looking for the Direct Debit Manager section on there. No point in paying more than you are using, especially just after the winter period has just passed.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Xeorix wrote: »

We bought our first house and exchanged in November last year. Given we had no idea what our energy bills were going to be, we stuck with E.ON and they decided that we should be paying £158 a month for gas and electric.

It is now April and we're still paying £158 a month, however we are a huge £498 in credit, yet E.ON continue to take £158 off us.

Are they allowed to do this, I thought there was some law they had to reimburse every billing period as they were making money through interest? There doesn't appear to be any way for us to claim this money back...

Morning Xeorix and hope you've settled in to your first house.

Already some great advice on here. Thanks guys. Just to confirm, provided the account is billed up to date, you can have any remaining credit back. As others have said, the aim with Monthly Direct Debits is to achieve as near as possible to a zero balance by the time of the annual review. Also at the annual review, any credit over a fiver will automatically be refunded. To make sure you're on track, we review payment arrangements every quarter but will only change the amount at the mid-term and annual reviews. At the other times, we'll let you know if payments need to change but will leave it up to you to make any adjustments.

When moving into different properties, payment arrangements may sometimes be estimated in the first place until we've more accurate information about your particular usage. This isn't set in stone and we'll be happy to review your payments at any time.

As Ivf points out, the Direct Debit Manager on our website might help. If you've registered with our website, you can use this to take more control of the arrangement, including altering the payments. Comes in handy if circumstances change. Provided the account is billed up to the latest meter readings, payments can be changed by up to 20 per cent up or down. By up to 5 per cent up or down without readings. Before confirming the new amount, we'll let you know by how much the account will be in credit/debit by the time of the annual review if payments are changed but usage doesn't alter accordingly.

For changes outside of these limits and for a refund please phone the number Hengus quotes. This line is open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and between 8am and 6pm Saturdays.

Just thought of something else that might help. You can pop your readings online and also issue your own bill through the Real Time Billing tool on our website. Provided the account isn't in the billing window (14 days either side of the next bill date for quarterly customers), putting in readings will give you the option of seeing the balance that would result or creating a bill to these readings. If inside the window, a bill will automatically be issued once readings are entered.

Hope this is of interest Xeorix. Let me know if you need any more details as happy to help.

Malc