New Smart Meter Shows "Debt Recovery"

Arthur_Ear

Hello everyone,
I've been struggling to afford my electricity for longer than I can remember. It costs me more for my 1 bed flat than it does my Dad to pay for his bungalow with central heating on most of the time and I've had to make sacrifices. For eg, I can only afford to heat one room with 1 oil filled radiator, (the flat has several storage heaters which are a joke), I don't use the hot water, I wash my clothes elsewhere, I only cook hot food once a day maximum, etc, etc.

I have just gone over to an EON smart meter and, as I cycle through the options on the device, I noticed it says "Debt recovery - £1.14 a day! I don't owe anything so is this for the standing charge or something similar?

Many thanks, Drew.

Rubidium

What tariff are you on?

If your tariff is economy 7 normally used with storage heaters and you are not actually using storage heaters, you will be paying more for the 17 hours not on the cheaper night rate.

Arthur_Ear

This is what is says on my account on the EON website:-

Supplier ; E.ON (E.ON Energy Solutions Limited)
Tariff name - E.ON EnergyPlan
Tariff type - Variable price
Payment method - Smart Pay As You Go
Unit rate - Day 16.989p per kWh - Night 7.361p per kWh
Standing charge - 16.422p per day
Tariff ends on - No end date
Price guaranteed until - Not applicable
Exit fees (If you cancel the tariff before the end date) - Not applicable
Discounts and additional charges - Paperless billing discount: £5 per fuel a year
Additional products or services included - E.ON Reward Points are available on this

The storage heaters are completely useless. If they're cold on start up, each one costs about £2 to £3 to heat up and they are all cold by about 6 in the evening. They keep the place lovely and warm at night but useless in the day. What I'm interested in is what this £1.14 per day debt recovery is. If I have been paying this all the time I've been living here, I work out that EON owe me about £6K for overcharging.

Rubidium

If you have been on that expensive, unsuitable tariff since you have lived there, you are ripping yourself off.

You will need to ask eon about the £1.14 debt recovery displayed on the meter!

System

[QUOTE=Arthur_Ear;71846689I_work_out_that_EON_owe_me_about_£6K_for_overcharging.[/QUOTE]

Think positively: E.oN only owes you £5998.86!!

Arthur_Ear

So the "debt recovery" is exactly that then? I thought it might have been a legitimate charge in some way.
It makes me wonder how much EON make by overcharging customers that don't check their bills. Although, nothing was ever mentioned on any of my bills about a debt recovery, this is the first I've heard of it. If I hadn't had a smart meter fitted, I'd never have found out.

Hengus - I'll take the other £1.14 as compensation fr the cold nights, times when I've chosen to eat rather than have lights or sat at home with leccy but no food.

macman

Standard variable tariff: the most expensive. And by running oil filled rads during peak hours on E7, you are paying about 4 times more per kWh to heat than you would do using NSH's on E7 cheap rate. Have you tried adjusting the input and output settings on the NSH's?
If however you are going to continue to use oil filled rads, then switch from E7 to single rate metering as a priority.

System

Smart meters can be used in credit or prepayment meter mode where a "debt recovery " is used for a weekly payment against a debt.If it says "debt recovery " then it would also have another screen with "total debt " to see the total debt. On the non smart key meter debt recovery and total debt is on screens "S " and "T ". You don t know for sure if you are actually paying this money every week so don t start adding up how much Eon owe you just yet
.Also the standing charge can be counted as a debt if you are on a prepayment meter and it will collect the standing charge debt when you start crediting the meter so this extra debt it is collecting is simply standing charge which you are in arrears by.
Your old key meter would have shown the same screens as the smart prepayment meter, you just were not aware that the info was all on the meter if you had pressed the blue button and scrolled though the screens.Debt and debt recovery would only be seen with the key inserted

Arthur_Ear

I'm using very little power......not that much that a change of tarrif would make much difference, I will look into that though. TBH, I'd rather be using a stove than any electrical heating, Oil filled rads aren't great but running one to keep the place around 18 degrees costs me about a tenth of using the storage heaters, and I've tried all sorts of different settings. Besides, the storage heaters are getting cold by early evening. They need to be skipped IMO, a huge waste of energy. The so called "Room Temp Boost" control just moves a metal flap up and down above the concrete blocks - laughable really. I'm sure they were originally conceived to keep large spaces warm overnight, just keeping the chill out, not as a primary heating system for homes.

HouseMartin - I saw that option for total debt on the smart meter device but it doesn't come up. (I'll have another look). Also, when I'm on the EON website, there's a link to "How much do I owe" which comes up as £0.00. Which is correct, I don't owe them anything.

I guess what I need to find out is exactly how long they've been.....shall we say "taking".... £1.14 a day off me for, my family will tell you they've heard the words "I'm sure I'm paying too much for my electricity" over a very long period of time!

Arthur_Ear

Thanks for all comments BTW...and happy New Years Eve !!

System

Arthur, there are two types of "debt " on prepayment meters.Money that is owed from the last credit meter ,that would be shown on screens S and T (on the old key meter ) with the weekly debt recovery/total debt remaining. But if you do not credit the meter very often then the weekly standing charge would build up and that would be shown as a debit on the first screen on the old keymeter. If you rule out any debts from a former credit meter or standing charge build up then the £1.14 you appear to be paying is an error. I have`nt had a good look at the new smart prepayment meters as of yet to familiarise myself with the various screens but they would show the same screens as the old key meters