Please help! Eon energy have defaulted me for a zero balance.

Miaq

First time post, any help very gratefully received!

A month ago I got a bill for £400 from eon energy. Called them up and found out that it was for a flat we moved out of 3 years ago. They say I didn’t call them to say that I had moved and therefore bills continued in my name. I’m pretty sure I called them but they are adamant that it would be on record if I did. I proved that I had moved out when I did and the balance was brought back down to zero as the final balance based on a meter reading was £0 when we moved out.

I thought all good until I check Equifax and see that they have recorded a default against mine and my husbands names. Default balance of £516 recorded in January 2018. We are just about to remortgage and I’m panicking. We both work in the NHS, with two young children and can’t afford a big increase in rate or worse still get refused completely and lose out house over this. I guess assumed we would get another good rate with high street lender( could probably afford up to 5%)

All other aspects of credit rating excellent, never missed a single payment. Experian still showing 999 for both of us.

I have complained to the apparently highest level at Eon and they are refusing to remove the default. Their reason- it was an accurate reflection of the account at that time and at that time the account was in our names regardless of the balance being zero when we moved out.

I am really sure I called them as have a record in my phone and called all other energy providers. Have since called every energy provider I’ve ever had to check account closed!!

Please help, I am so stressed by this. Any advice on getting a mortgage with a default, changing default date, getting default removed?

Many thanks

Carrot007

If the default date is Jan 2018 then you can at worsed case argue for them to backdate it.


A mortgage with a 3 year old default is doable. Otherwise you are stuck with you current providers standard variable with it being so recent (though do get a whole of market morgage advisor specialising in bad debt to check).


More realistic is getting EON to do something. You are probably just getting first line monkeys who canntot do anything other than parrot a script. If you don't owe the money and they agree the default should go. Reach out to someone able to see this. The web relations teams of companies often are the easy way.

Miaq

Thank you for taking the time to reply. They definitely agree I don’t owe anything and I haven’t paid anything and I now have written confirmation that balance is zero ect. They even send me £12 apology!!

They ironically said they don’t routinely send out letters, despite this being the basis for the the fact I didn’t call to inform them of address change. Well that and they don’t have the record.

They are just point blank refusing to remove default, although they clearly are able to as just checked today and they have now moved default over to our current address previously on previous address. Not sure if this matters.


I will try again, they seemed pretty adamant I went through 3 different levels on the phone and they said no point complaining to ombudsman as they would agree with them and all they are doing is accurately reflecting accounts. It just seems such an unfair penalty as the absolute worse thing I did was no call to change address, I never owed any money.

They obviously wrote to me lots before default but all went to old address. We had a redirection in place for the first year or so but they only started this about 2 years after we moved.

We are currently with NatWest on 3.4%, if we can stay on standard variable this is 3.99 at the moment. So unfair that this will cost us so much money when don’t feel we have done anything wrong.

I can’t understand why Eon are being so awful to us, it’s a foreign concept when your day job involves doing your best for sick children all day!

System

I am outside my comfort zone here but this link is worth a read:

https://debtcamel.co.uk/get-rid-of-a-default/

Dobbibill

If you have received a final response or deadlock letter or 8 weeks have passed since you logged your complaint with Eon then you can take it to the Energy Ombudsman.

This will stay on your CR for 6yrs so you must address it. It won't just impact your mortgage but all other credit applications too.

Let us know how you get on.

brianposter

Try and find your phone bills for when you moved. If you can find a call to Eon that is perfectly good evidence.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi Miaq and welcome to the forums.

Thank you all on the thread already.

It does sound like you have gone through the correct complaints procedure here.

You should have, a dedicated Complaint Manager looking after this and will be in touch to offer a resolution. Or you may have already had this. If you're unhappy with this, the case will be sent to our Review Team for a second opinion. If this still isn't to your satisfaction, we'll issue a Final Resolution Offer letter that you can use to go to the Energy Ombudsman. There's more information about how we look after complaints on our website.


This is the next stage to go with your complaint.


I do hope you get this resolved.


Thank you


Helena

Miaq

Thanks to all those who have replied. E on have now moved to default onto our current address despite it being for supply on previous address. This has caused credit rating to drop another 110 points.

I called Eon today and got a very similar response to above. Apparently moving any defaults to current address is standard practice for them. Can anyone please explain what!!!8217;s in it for Eon to ruin people!!!8217;s lives like this!!!

Anyway, despite working full time in a stressful job looking after sick children all day and having my own small children and really wanting to go to bed right now I am determined not to let EON ruin others lives like they are ours, so .......

Look out for our story in all the papers, I am writing tonight to the mail, guardian money, telegraph money, setting up twitter account.

[WARNING EON DEFAULT DISGRACE

BEWARE of using energy companies that aggressively report to credit reference agencies as your credit rating matters. There are plenty of others, I generally shop around for the best deal so have used quite a few. British Gas, EOn and Npower share. It!!!8217;s completely different to credit cards, loans ect reporting as it!!!8217;s very easy to get into a dispute with an energy company. It doesn!!!8217;t matter if you are later proved to be correct as in our case, they will already of data shared and possibly defaulted or worse to your account. They will then aggressively pursue to ensure this remains on your account and is updated to your current address. Even once it!!!8217;s settled, they can!!!8217;t tell you how long it will take up update. In the words of Sh...r.n and B...th..y previously from Eon it should already have updated but they can!!!8217;t tell me how long.

Eon will not win this, I am obviously writing to the ombudsman once I have Eons final statement but want to help ensure this doesn!!!8217;t happen to anyone else.

It!!!8217;s already happened to far too many.

Sorry for long and rambling post, I will endeavour to ensure my letters to the papers are more concise, there!!!8217;s nothing quite like a phone call to Eon to rile one!!

Miaq

Not sure why some of my characters are numbers but hopefully you get the jist.

Here’s a link to a similar case to ours

So not even much hope even if you get Eon to remove default even more reason not to use them.

Your credit rating is worth a lot more the the £30-40 yearly saving they may offer you compared with Ovo, SSE ect who don’t report

Miaq

It won’t let me post links but if you type EOn default disgrace, default zero balance Eon there are many horror stories

Katie-Kat-Kins

Try searching for an email for their complaint escalation team, customer service manager or CEO and sending them your complaint. It normally means that the complaint is passed to a higher level and you may get a more sensible response.