Energy Transfer with outstanding debt?

molerat

You now need to find out what is the cheapest EDF tariff for you and sort out a payment plan.

NineDeuce

There isnt any way round this. You cant transfer the debt and you just have to pay before changing.

How did you manage to make it more expensive than your mortgage?

House_Martin

With a gi normous debt like that I suspect EDF will not only block it but arrange to fit a prepayment meter and collect it back weekly at the maximum amount of £16 a week if you cannot make considerable inroads into the debit.. Its far too high. Prepay rates are now a bit lower than standard variable.Molerats advice is better though if you can afford a bigger repay plan. Get onto their best fixed one year deal at least it will be better than prepay tates
Unbelievable that EDF have allowed this debit to accumulate to this level. £800 is the level the suppliers will tolerate before threatening prepayment meters.
Yet another example where smart meters would have avoided this situation to develop.
I work for EDF reading meters , they are a very lax supplier and allow the "must inspects " of meters to gather readings to go on for years and years. They will not implement OFGEMS rules to attempt to get a physical reading once a year. They can go a decade without accessing meters.
OP , EDF are at fault for allowing this to happen. Did you put regular readings in every 3 months or rely on the estimates ?

spiro

NineDeuce wrote: »

There isnt any way round this. You cant transfer the debt and you just have to pay before changing.

That statement is not entirely correct. If you are repaying a debt via a PPM and the current value is £500 or less you can transfer (Debt Assignment Protocol).

Robin9

sazzlejazzle - which EDF tariff are you on and what is your actual annual consumption in kWh

sazzlejazzle

The debt was run up since 2010, when I went through a very bad divorce (resulting in an injunction against my ex husband). I won't go into details, but we both left the marriage with thousands of pounds of debt. I have addressed all of my debts, apart from this one, which has compounded when I have struggled to make ends meet each month (I’m self employed and have 3 kids and until 2014 no other financial support). The energy direct debit, which was set around £350 a month (including my debt repayment) got cancelled, the debt kept adding up and adding up. There would have been several estimated bills thrown in too. After what I had gone through in my personal life and the issues I was still dealing with, my energy debt was the least of my worries. Now I am on an even keel, and trying to complete clearing all of my debts, I am addressing this.
If I didn't make it clear in my original post, I thought the transfer was complete, I was incorrect. I didn't realise I had 14 days cooling off before they actioned it (although not strictly true because they have already moved my gas. Naively, I thought they would allow me time to clear the EDF debt, with the extra money I was saving with Bulb.
I have had pre payment meters for my gas, which I cleared and overpaid for 12 months before I realised. I cannot have a prepayment electric meter fitted because the meter box is on the ceiling.
Sorry for the long post but I now feel I have to justify the debt and my original confusion. It perhaps still doesn’t make sense?!
I have cancelled the transfer and been in touch with EDF but I can’t reinstate my DD’s until my gas is reconnected?!
Thanks everyone for your help.

macman

There is no physical disconnection of the supply of either gas or electricity during a supplier switch. Your gas cannot have switched if you are still in the cooling off period. If it has switched, you will need to apply to switch back again, and go through another cooling off period. And, if you have switched to a tariff with exit fees, then these will be billed to you.
Finally, you should not have cancelled the DD until you received the final bill.