E.On want to increase my D/D

jheather381

I'm £86in credit with Eon for dual fuel but they want to uncrease my direct debit from £88 to £123 per mth. Because they see me using more fuel.
Surely this is just because its now winter and darker. Can they do this and what should I do?

footyguy

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=73526779&postcount=4

If you agree with Eon that you are going to be using more fuel than you anticipated, don't forget to update your CEC account with the amended details.

Good luck!

trickytree1963

Well you've built up less than one month credit during the lowest usage part of the year so its not surprising they are adjusting it. If you don't want to see it go up read this:

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

System

jheather381 wrote: »

I'm £86in credit with Eon for dual fuel but they want to uncrease my direct debit from £88 to £123 per mth. Because they see me using more fuel.
Surely this is just because its now winter and darker. Can they do this and what should I do?

Hi - welcome to the forum. The first thing to check is that the revised DD payment is based on ACTUAL meter readings and not readings that have been estimated by the supplier. Suppliers have two obligations: one, to ensure that you do not build up a large amount of debt and, two, to try to achieve a zero balance at the end of your contract term.

DD payments are only money you pay on account from which charges are deducted. Looking at your figures, and assuming that a review was carried out at the 6 month point, it would seem that E.oN has recalculated your annual projected charge has increased from £88 x 12 or £1056 to £88 x 6 plus £123 x 6 = £1366. You need to try and work out why your energy consumption is higher than that used to set your initial DD amount. I assume that when you switched you gave the supplier your annual projected usage in kWhs/year based on past usage?

Raxiel

Since it's E.ON, submit new meter readings via the online account, then (after waiting a day for the reads to be processed) go to the direct debit section and ask it to re-calculate again. Can all be done with the account and no need to hold on the phone for CS. If you still think it's too high you can manually adjust it down (I forget the percentage you can adjust it, but it's more with recent reads hence the suggestion to enter some first).

Be aware that if E.ON's predictions are right, and the DD isn't enough to cover winter usage you might get a bigger bump in the new year or even a big catch up bill. You'll still only pay for what you use, just depends if you want to keep payments relatively steady, or try and defer it until after Christmas is paid for.

My current dilemma is that, by my own calculations, E.ON are taking £6 more a month than I need for a £0 balance at the end of the contract, but having just joined I don't have much credit yet and I get the feeling this winter will be a cold one...

MoneyMate

May be worth contacting Helena ,she will look at this for you, just drop an email to her with your name address date of birth and account number. WebForumAdvisors@eonenergy.com

Helena Has MSE’s permission to post for EON company :beer:

matelodave

Most DD's are based on 1/12th of your estimated annual consumption and tends to be linear although most people use a lot more in the winter (up to 70%) than the summer so for part of the period you'll be in credit and some in debit.

Unfortunately some computer systems get into a panic if it looks as though you'll be getting into too much debit and will try and increase your DD to compensate some will then swing the other way when you get too much into credit and drop it down to a level that's too low.

A lot depends on when you started your fix - if in April then you'll have a healthy credit by now going into winter. If in November you'll probably be going into debit already and wont be back into balance till around October next year.

If you've got a pretty good idea of your own energy profile and you think the DD is about right to balance out at the end of your fixed deal then get onto Eon and tell them.

I used to have the same problem with Scottish Power when I was with them - they would try to swing my DD every three months based on my last three months consumption.

House_Martin

Eon have most probably got it right.
We have the 3 or 4 big winter gas bills coming up now. I like to be at least £250 in credit coming into November on the gas account, £85 is nt anywhere near enough and we have had relatively mild weather lately.It will all change no doubt.
I would sooner a supplier be proactive in adjusting low direct debits.Just had a bit of a catch up bill myself because Robin Hood Energy did nt adjust my low monthly d.d. even though I was submitting monthly reads. Now I have left them this year and gone to Eon for a year I hope they adjust upwards , or down if needed

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi jheather381 welcome to the forum.

Thank you everyone great information.

I agree with what's been said on here already.

The first thing to do is to pop some up to date meter reads on to your online account and produce a real time bill, you can then see where the account stands and it'll be fully up to date.

We would expect accounts to have credit at this time of year, moving in to the colder winter months. Have a look online about Direct Debits work, they may help as there's some really useful things on there.

As Raxiel has said, once you can see the up to date bill and balance, you can always use the Direct Debit manager tool also on the online account, then you can actually adjust your own Direct Debit by 20% with account reads and 5% if you don't put reads on.

have a look at the best deal for you as well, just to check you're on the best tariff.

I'm always here to help you though

Helena