Edf

Oadbylad

Good morning all
Ive just had my yearly run in with edf, at the end of the year i received my annual summery and i was £40 in credit
Now without any kind on notification at all edf decide to raise my direct debit by £17 per month, this i was informed after getting in touch via chat is base on projected usage
Well that might be but at the end of the day
ITS MY MONEY
And i consider this to be taking money without consent and therefore thief
Being a pensioner on a limited budget it could have ultimately put me into an overdraft situation that i would've known absolutely nothing about
Can this increase be legal??

Cornucopia

When you signed up with EDF, you literally signed up. That is: you signed a contract.

That contract is what permits them to vary your payment in line with their reasonable estimate of what you will use. If it's problematic for you in some way, talk to them.

They are obliged under their own rules and the DD Guarantee to advise you 14 days(?) in advance of any increase in the DD amount. If they did not do this, you have cause for complaint.

It is not theft, though.

As an aside, EDF is unlikely to be the cheapest available suppler. Have you put your details into a tariff comparison recently?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity/

dalek_karn

You did agree that the price could be varied when you signed up. However you did not agree that it could be varied without giving you notice of that.

Unless something has radically changed, the supplier needs to notify you in good time of any change to any amounts to be taken from your account.

You do have right of recourse. If you are not notified, you can contact the bank and have them reverse the direct debit (called an "indemnity" IIRC) and put the money back in your account. You then need to arrange to pay the supplier separately the amount you owe.

That doesn't help if the direct debit is refused by the bank due to insufficient funds. In which case the bank will probably help itself to some penalty fee despite you doing nothing wrong.

If you were not notified of an increase in the amount to be debited and that happens then this is the supplier's fault however it ultimately becomes your problem.

These are some of the reasons why I very rarely allow direct debit; we pay our utility bills and indeed almost everything by bank transfer.

Changing your payment method back to "manual payment" (pay bill on receipt) avoids this but may not entitle you to the same prices as allowing them to take direct debits.

neilmcl

I think this is probably best placed in the Energy forum.

sheramber

We always have a credit with our CALOR payments which they return if asked.

Last year we were overpaid by £164 but they put our payment up by £60 per month- figure that one out.

They did see the nonsense in that when my husband pointed it out to them and reduced the payment again.

We are always overpaid with BT as our use is less than their minimum payment.

Oadbylad

Cornucopia;

Thank you for your responce

I had no prior notification what-so ever
Im a registered member of the Energy club so yes i get updates of offers on rates, but they never take into consideration of the money back as a pensioner i receive before the end of March and £140 is £140, on top of that im on an Economy 7 meter that im waiting to get changed out for a smart meter

LABMAN

OP your account being only £40 in credit for energy in mid July indicates your not paying enough to see you through the winter without increasing your DD now. My own account is £160 in credit at the moment and I'm still concerned about it being enough.

Have you checked your junk/spam folder to see if there's an email regarding your DD increase?

Oadbylad

LABMAN
Thats tosh
the meter was only read two days before and ive not used £40 in that time

LABMAN

Oadbylad wrote: »

LABMAN
Thats tosh
the meter was only read two days before and ive not used £40 in that time

Where did I say you'd used £40 in two days?

marliepanda

Oadbylad wrote: »

LABMAN
Thats tosh
the meter was only read two days before and ive not used £40 in that time

They probably did send you an email, you probably just read it completely incorrectly.

Just a hunch.

Oadbylad

Thanks to all who have been helpful
To those who just make off topic posts
Dont bother