EON Dual Fuel

margemctavish

Ive been with EON for about 5 years and have been paying approx £52.00 a month for both gas and electric. Ive moved home in the past month and decided to stay with EON, they've doubled my direct debit to £104 per month!! stating it's because they don't know how much I'll be using and are basing it on the previous tenant! and if it's too high/too low after me being there 6 months they will review it. Is this right ? Can I challenge this ? Thanks for any advice

d0nkeyk0ng

You will have taken a meter reading when you moved in. Take another one in a month's time and enter it into the online account/app. It should adjust the direct debit to match.

CashStrapped

Hello and welcome..

Before I answer your question, one or two things concern me.

You say you have moved in the last month but have decided to "stay" with Eon.

There is a misconception, sometimes, when people move property that they take their current energy supplier with them.

This is an incorrect assumption, and you can't do it.

1) Say you are with Eon in property A and want to move house. You give Eon a final meter reading for your account at that address. You then pay the final bill and close the account.

2) You then move into property B. The first thing you need to do is find out who currently supplies property B. It may be a different supplier to your last address.

3) The very act of moving into to a new property means you are already in a deemed contract with that supplier. It is your job to find out who it is, ring them up and create an account with an opening meter reading ASAP.

4)Once you have done this, only then can you switch supplier (usually by using a comparison site). This can take another 4 or so weeks.

---

If you have moved into the property and just contacted Eon to create an account, and they are not the current supplier for the property this will inevitably cause problems. At some point you will get a bill from the actual supplier, and it will probably be at a standard rate. Eon should not have allowed you to create an account if they were not the supplier.

If they were the supplier, then you have been lucky.

But remember, the account is tied to the address. In each property you move to you have to find out who the actual supplier is and create an account with them first. You should always do steps 1 - 4.

---

Regarding your question, it may indeed be based on past data of the property. But, it may also be because you have moved property in winter when bills are at their highest.

In your last property, you were there for 5 years. This probably meant that in summer you built up a credit via DD and in winter you used that built up credit. This allowed the DD to be the same average amount year round.

If you move to a property in winter, you have no credit to use up, So the DD has to be set high to take into account winter use.

Remember, a DD is not your actual bill amount, it is a way of spreading the cost over a year.

To get an actual bill, you need to give a meter reading.

Start trying to give a meter reading once a month. This will allow the Direct Debit to be more accurate. If you are a low use, your supplier will usually lower it automatically.


Furthermore, have you actually done a comparison to see if the Eon tariff is actually competitive

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Good morning margemctavishand welcome to the forum.

CashStrapped has pretty much hit the nail on the head, so I won't go through all the info again.

I would like to make sure we do supply the new property and you've provided meter readings for the old house for your final bill and start meter reads for the new house?

You can then pop your reads on to your online account and produce a real time bill and/or balance. This will show you what you've used right up to that point.

If you keep doing this you'll get a really good picture of your usage over a few months (although we do need to take in to account that this is all winter usage at the moment)

Then you can use the 'Direct Debit manager' tool again via your online account. It'll let you adjust your payments up or down by 20% with accurate meter reads and 5% without.

This is really good way to keep everything on track and helps you know exactly where you are.

You can also have a look at the best deal for you and pop some figures in to the comparison sites to have a look what other suppliers can offer as well.

I'm here to help you though, if you need me please ask.

Thank you

Helena

footyguy

margemctavish wrote: »

Ive been with EON for about 5 years and have been paying approx £52.00 a month for both gas and electric. Ive moved home in the past month and decided to stay with EON, they've doubled my direct debit to £104 per month!! stating it's because they don't know how much I'll be using and are basing it on the previous tenant! and if it's too high/too low after me being there 6 months they will review it. Is this right ? Can I challenge this ? Thanks for any advice

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

If they won't play ball, ditch & switch.

On switching to a new supplier, most suppliers simply accept your anticipated annual consumption figure initially.

In any event, consider seperate suppliers, as that can often save you more money.

margemctavish

This is really helpful thank you, should have explained better, I have done the first bit, i.e.: giving meter readings at my old property, new ones at the new address with the existing supplier, i realise Ive got to pay them, then have switched to EON.

I understand what you're saying now about winter/direct debit etc
Thanks for the help

margemctavish

Yes got it, thanks v much

csgohan4

Loyalty doesn't pay, make sure your on the most competitive supplier, bar few such as spark e.t.c