Eon final meter reading £600!!

gemmacots

Hi, not sure what to do and any help greatly appreciated. I changed suppliers on here last year and all the quotes came back around £65 per month, so I chose Eon. I keyed in the size of the house, people living here, rooms, etc.. so assumed their estimate was accurate. I have now changed suppliers as the year is up and Eon have just sent me their last bill for almost £600!!! I am in shock. I don't have this kind of money to pay in one go. What can I do?? Thanks in advance.

Robin9

The method of estimating by number of rooms etc is very crude and takes no account of your family at its life style.



During the last 12 months have you been reading your meters and sending them to Eon ? Have you been looking at your bills ?

At first sight it looks like

gemmacots

Thank you for your prompt reply. I was checking my bills but not comparing them to the meter to be honest. I have been so busy with work, doing up my house as it was in a state when we purchased and looking after our children I just assumed they were charging me close to what the initial quote was so never thought I would get a huge end bill. I have never had this happen before and always paid a monthly fee. Has just come as a shock! I should have checked the bills thoroughly and will do so in future as a lesson learnt and all that... But what shall I do about this bill? Can I pay them back monthly? Never thought their initial estimates could be so far out when you are trying to get the lowest deal. They quoted me for a one bedroom flat looking at the estimates I have had this time around! Also, when I asked for quotes, I added my latest usage from my previous home and all the details. It just feels like they under quoted me massively.

gemmacots

Sorry to message again. I only have my bills online. I have just checked them and it appears July bill was estimated, but October one was based on a meter reading. Why did they not ask me to change my monthly payments to a higher amount to cover this? Why have they waited to send me a final bill. I would have rather paid them some over the last three months. Thank you

[Deleted User]

So they've sent you a final bill based on an actual meter read rather than an estimate?

So they are billing you correctly?

matelodave

Probabaly 90% of the problems that surface on this forum are because people don't check their bills, dont read their meters and don't get their bills corrected and then get stung with a ginormous bill when the meter finally gets read or they want to change suppliers.

Most bills have info on them asking you to send in regular meter readings and all the advice is to send in a mter reading at least once a month and to never ever accept an estimated bill.

Probably the best you can do is to ask for time to pay which they'll probably allow but it's unlikely that they'll let you change to another supplier until the bill is paid.

If you've gone £600 in arrears in 12 months paying £65 a month then you need to increase your direct debit by £50 to cover your present consumption plus another £50 to pay back the arrears, so I suspect that your DD should increase to around £165 a month for the next 12 months.

Make sure that you are on the best tariff possible with your present supplier and put some effort into trying to reduce your consumption to pay it off as quickly as as you can. Take heed of the advice to monitor your bills a bit more closely in future.

It's also a good idea to download PDF copies of your bills & statements and to save them on your computer so you've got your own record of what's going on.

The next most common problem is from those who've changed suppliers and got a big catch-up bill a year or so after they've left and they've got no evidence of their previous payments.

Companies have up to six years to chase you for outstanding bills or payments so it's worthwhile making sure you've kept copies for your own records, just in case.

gemmacots

Thanks, they did have a meter reading in October, which showed the underpayment, but as I only have online bills, I didn't check, so yes, my fault. Just thought they could have written to me to ask me if I wanted to increase my monthly bill payment due to their under estimated projection. Instead they just sent me the final bill. I have already changed suppliers, so not sure if they will allow me to pay in instalments! Can't believe they let me change suppliers with this outstanding.

matelodave

They may still block the change if you haven't paid the outsatnding amount within 28 days of the final bill.

teddysmum

The problem with monthly payments is that they are based on last year's usage, so if you use more fuel (and it is colder than last year) your cost will be higher and not fully covered by the unchanged payment.


The last bill is only meaningful if based on a real reading.


Some companies will give lower quotations for dds to lure customers in as they know that many people (as shown on here) think that a lower monthly payment means the fuel is cheaper, but it's not, as they have to pay a large settlement bill.

House_Martin

I ve just switched to Eon this year because they came back as not far off the cheapest in the UK with the cashback (£25 and other discounts ) and were comparable with Iresa Energy
The option remains for you to stay with them on their best fixed tariff for another year and pay off the £600 in smaller chunks.Maybe this is a safer bet than trying some unknown cheaper supplier who will also allow you to make a mess of the account, eg Iresa Energy, Bulb, Fox the Market etc
Robin Hood Energy did the same with me but I owed only £130 simply due to a low initial direct debit I set up using my old figures from my last property.
Eon do allow adjustments of direct debits so make sure to put at least 4 readings a year in, or monthly just to make sure.
This is happening all the time in the UK, which is why I m such a fan of smart meters. Most of the prepayment meters in the UK are installed simply to collect large debts. Suppliers allow customers to underpay for years where they end up £2k in debt and once a prepay meter is in they are very hard to get rid of for years

Robin9

Hopefully Eon will block the transfer.

Watch out though because they will probably put you on the standard (ie high) tariff - request they out you on their best tariff.

Might be a good idea to ring today and see if that swop to their tariff can be done today.