Massive Electric bills from E-On

Maddie12345

I am BEGGING for someone to help me on this!
So, my partner and I have lived in a one bed flat for just coming up to a year. It runs solely on Electricity and we are unfortunate enough to have Storage heaters (rented apartment so sadly we can’t change them!)
We are with E-on and have been paying £64 direct debit per month since we moved in last April.
This week a man came to install a smart meter, It’s beeping at us non-stop telling us we’re using too much electricity; we’re currently only using one small storage heater to heat the whole apartment and we’re not even home 9 hours of the day (so therefore are not running appliances or anything, other than the fridge freezer).
My partner checked our online E-on account and apparently we owe them £568, to end the year. Does this seem excessive to you or is this normal? This is the first time living on our own so we’re not really sure how much these things should cost, but my mother in law owns a 6 bed house and doesn’t pay nearly that much!
When attempting to contact eon it’s been a literal nightmare! The wait times are astronomical and when you do get through to someone they seem to think that we are being billed the correct amount.
Someone please help!

elsien

Have you been sending in regular meter readings or is your £64 direct debit based on estimates?

Carrot007

> we are unfortunate enough to have Storage heaters

Why, you probably have the best option for electric heating. If you know how to use them.


And as above.. "Have you been sending in regular meter readings or is your £64 direct debit based on estimates?"


£64 is low for electric even in a one bedroom flat. Please give your monthly reads to us to look at. You did take them and give them to your supplier right?

Maddie12345

Thanks for your fast reply!
We’ve sent in readings every 3 or 4 months. Annoyingly, since they installed this smart meter all of our previous readings have been lost?

Maddie12345

Really think we could use some advice on how to use these storage heaters cause they’ve been nothing but trouble for us haha!

We took an initial reading when we moved in obviously, and whenever we’ve queried our bill in the past they’ve asked us to do it. When we moved in last year we apparently had crossed meter readings? But as I mentioned above, all of our meter readings have disappeared off our account since we had the smart meter installed.

Robin9

Have you got the readings you gave Eon last April and the ones from the old meter (there should have been a card left by the meter installer)

Do some simple sums with these actual readings and see what the total bill should be then deduct what you have paid in DD's - that what your debt / credit is.

Green_hopeful

What tariff are you on. My son was with eon but not on economy 7 so he was paying full price for all his heating and other energy. Are your storage heaters just working in the night or are you topping up the heat in the day. Have you got an immersion heater for your water and or an electric shower both of these take load of electricity. If you do an energy audit you can see how much electricity each thing is using.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Maddie12345 wrote: »

I am BEGGING for someone to help me on this!
So, my partner and I have lived in a one bed flat for just coming up to a year. It runs solely on Electricity and we are unfortunate enough to have Storage heaters (rented apartment so sadly we can’t change them!)
We are with E-on and have been paying £64 direct debit per month since we moved in last April.
This week a man came to install a smart meter, It’s beeping at us non-stop telling us we’re using too much electricity; we’re currently only using one small storage heater to heat the whole apartment and we’re not even home 9 hours of the day (so therefore are not running appliances or anything, other than the fridge freezer).
My partner checked our online E-on account and apparently we owe them £568, to end the year. Does this seem excessive to you or is this normal? This is the first time living on our own so we’re not really sure how much these things should cost, but my mother in law owns a 6 bed house and doesn’t pay nearly that much!
When attempting to contact eon it’s been a literal nightmare! The wait times are astronomical and when you do get through to someone they seem to think that we are being billed the correct amount.
Someone please help!

Maddie12345 wrote: »

Thanks for your fast reply!
We’ve sent in readings every 3 or 4 months. Annoyingly, since they installed this smart meter all of our previous readings have been lost?

Maddie12345 wrote: »

Really think we could use some advice on how to use these storage heaters cause they’ve been nothing but trouble for us haha!

We took an initial reading when we moved in obviously, and whenever we’ve queried our bill in the past they’ve asked us to do it. When we moved in last year we apparently had crossed meter readings? But as I mentioned above, all of our meter readings have disappeared off our account since we had the smart meter installed.

Hello Maddie12345 and welcome to the Forums.

Totally understand the concern when living on your own for the first time and already some good advice on here - thanks all. I agree with what's been said. Make sure we're billing to actual meter readings and not estimates. If the bills are estimated, we'll be happy to rebill to actual readings. This will need to be done once the account has been updated with details of the new meter.

Following the meter exchange, your account will be being updated as above. This can take time as we need to let industry third parties like the electricity distributor, meter readers, National Database know about the changed circumstances. Once this has all been done, you'll be able to see past readings again.

As there's a debit balance and provided the billing is accurate, it looks like the monthly payments haven't been covering the amount of electricity being used. We'll be happy to look at spreading a valid balance over a more manageable period.

You mention crossed meter readings. I'm assuming you've a two-rate meter - Economy 7/Economy 10 - as these are often found at all electric properties with storage heaters. By crossed readings, do you mean we've been charging day usage at night rates or the other way around? This can soon be sorted. Again, this will need to be done after the account has been updated.

As Green hopeful says, check the tariff and make sure you're on one suitable for your circumstances. Pop your usage in kWh on to the Price Comparison sites. These will show the tariffs available both with us and with the other suppliers.

With two rate Economy 7/10 tariffs, there'll be a set number of hours - 7 or 10 - when usage is charged at lower off-peak rates. Make sure you take advantage of these times. Some of the hours aren't very sociable and timers could help here particularly on high load appliances like washing machines, tumble dryers etc. There's more information about how to save money by saving energy on our website.

Storage heaters are insulated boxes containing bricks with electric elements running through them. They charge up during the cheaper off-peak times. The bricks retain the heat which is then released gradually throughout the day.

Green hopeful also makes a good point about water immersion heaters. If you have one of these, make sure you're using it only when needed. I've seen many instances where they've been left on for long periods leading to high bills.

The beeping will be because a budget has been set on the In-Home Display that came with the smart meter and this is being exceeded. To stop the beeping, either remove the budget setting; increase the budget; or turn off the sound on the display.

I'm sorry about the wait times on the phone. These are better than they have been of late. Have you tried using the online Live Chat service? Advisors are available from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and between 8am and 6pm Saturdays.

Also sorry to ramble on Maddie12345 and hope it's of some use. Let me know if I can help further.

Malc

Raxiel

Maddie12345 wrote: »

Really think we could use some advice on how to use these storage heaters cause they’ve been nothing but trouble for us haha!

We took an initial reading when we moved in obviously, and whenever we’ve queried our bill in the past they’ve asked us to do it. When we moved in last year we apparently had crossed meter readings? But as I mentioned above, all of our meter readings have disappeared off our account since we had the smart meter installed.

We had that when we got a new meter from E.ON, they were gone from the online account, but when I contacted customer services via the web form they were able to provide me with all the readings I asked for by email.

matelodave

Never rely on the on-line account - keep your own records. Send in reading once a month and make sure you save the info either in a spreadsheet or even in a note book.

Likewise, check your on line account every month and download your statements/bills as PDFs and save them. It's the only way you can be sure that you can keep control and sort out problems in the future.

Even though you've got a smart meter (in fact, especially now you've got a smart meter) you need to ensure that readings and bills are using up to date and accurate readings - dont just assume that you can ignore it because that's how your bills get out of control

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Raxiel wrote: »

We had that when we got a new meter from E.ON, they were gone from the online account, but when I contacted customer services via the web form they were able to provide me with all the readings I asked for by email.

Spot on Raxiel. We'll be happy to do this for the OP if they contact us. The Live Chatters I mentioned above will be in tomorrow if that helps.

Malc