EDF and their dodgy twice a year billing rule.

ariarnia

jvjack said:

thanks, yes and i commented on them. They are nice. I'm trying all the time to get one fitted in a holiday so as to not have day off work and it so far has not got done. 
But it's not about me. I can read meter each week and i know what i've used.
It's simple to me. Send in meter read to EDF each month to have bill. Yes i read post about Direct Debit Whole Amount (Monthly) But most people just wait for bill without knowing.

sorry. not sure but checking we're not talking a cross each other? it sounds like your talking about smart meters. i meant someone could change supplier (from edf to octopus or ovo or whoever). nothing to do with smart meters. 

 you asked if only edf didn't give monthly use but its not just them. differnt suppliers offer differnt billing. some monthly. or quarterly. or 6 monthly.

so if 6 monthly bills is a problem for someone then they could change to a company that offers the type of bill they want. all you have to do is change online or by calling and it takes a few days to swap you over. 

jvjack

@ariarnia lol thanks  yes talking accross each other i think
But yes could find other providers
But in herebeme post above looks like they all bill similarily.

Spoonie_Turtle

jvjack said:

@ariarnia lol thanks  yes talking accross each other i think
But yes could find other providers
But in herebeme post above looks like they all bill similarily.

It's my understanding that most companies do offer monthly billings.  I can certainly vouch for Octopus though, it has monthly as the default and generates an updated bill with every manual reading.

jvjack

Will have a look at Octopus. thanks
Was just thinking in general. Don't know anyone with smart meters and most have no idea what bill will be.
So lots waiting to see what their bills are after 3 to 6 months.

Grogsy78

All energy companies should be required to allow you to choose your billing method, if pretty much every other industry can use it fine and have done so for decades, there is no viable excuse not to allow you to choose how you are billed

ariarnia

Grogsy78 said:

All energy companies should be required to allow you to choose your billing method, if pretty much every other industry can use it fine and have done so for decades, there is no viable excuse not to allow you to choose how you are billed

so i should be able to be billed daily if i want? or every third day? or 4 weekly? and every customer could pick a differnt billing cycle. that would be very expensive to administer and likely to cause more billing problems as the computer system would need to be more complicated to allow it. 

i'm not sure what industry you are talking about that lets the customer decide when they are billed?  the council tell us we can pay our council tax in one payment, 10 payments or 12 payments. the water company bill 6 monthly or annually. our builder wanted half up front then the rest when the work was done. the sparky wanted paying in stages as the work was done. credit card is a choice of min about or full amount each month. i honestly can't think of a single situation in which we are free to choose how often we pay a bill. 

they are required to offer a set number of methods for payment and have to follow the rules about billing. some then chose to offer differnt options. if people dont want to pay the way there supplier offers then they are free to change supplier. if lots chose to move away from one supplier because of billing then they will either change how they bill or collapse. 

Spoonie_Turtle

ariarnia said:

Grogsy78 said:

All energy companies should be required to allow you to choose your billing method, if pretty much every other industry can use it fine and have done so for decades, there is no viable excuse not to allow you to choose how you are billed

so i should be able to be billed daily if i want? or every third day? or 4 weekly? and every customer could pick a differnt billing cycle. that would be very expensive to administer and likely to cause more billing problems as the computer system would need to be more complicated to allow it.  

Octopus effectively do actually do that, automatically generating a bill with each reading submitted manually.  (I'm not 100% certain if the same is done with manual readings sent in from smart meters though.)

[In principle though I'd think monthly billing would be sufficient for most people, and those with communicating smart meters should have more info available anyway from the IHD/their online account/a 3rd party app - or even all three.]

_Sam_

When we moved in and haven't yet opened an account Eon Next billed us (the property) every 7 days! That was a bit too frequently

ariarnia

Spoonie_Turtle said:

ariarnia said:

Grogsy78 said:

All energy companies should be required to allow you to choose your billing method, if pretty much every other industry can use it fine and have done so for decades, there is no viable excuse not to allow you to choose how you are billed

so i should be able to be billed daily if i want? or every third day? or 4 weekly? and every customer could pick a differnt billing cycle. that would be very expensive to administer and likely to cause more billing problems as the computer system would need to be more complicated to allow it.  

Octopus effectively do actually do that, automatically generating a bill with each reading submitted manually.  (I'm not 100% certain if the same is done with manual readings sent in from smart meters though.)

[In principle though I'd think monthly billing would be sufficient for most people, and those with communicating smart meters should have more info available anyway from the IHD/their online account/a 3rd party app - or even all three.]

edf do offer monthly billing. its just a bit of effort and a delay to get a bill generated according to the people on the thread. which is why the suggestions if they want to know what they've spent outside of the billing cycle and dont want to ask edf to generate a bill for them then its a mater of minutes to work out. if edf have swapped to 6 monthly to save money then i'm guessing having people ad hoc request a monthly bill is still cheaper than working it out and sending them to all customers by default. 

and ovo generate something similar to octopus i think (updating the current billing period when you send a reading) but i wouldn't say that's a bill because i dont think its always that accurate and it doesn't include any credits or debits (like the government subsidy or standard of service payments or loyalty reward which get added or updated when the actual bill is generated a couple of days after the end of the billing period). and it doesn't include the other side of billing which is payments and reconsiliation. 

you choosing to give a daily meter read (or having a smart meter do it for you) and getting updated charges is only half of it. its really no more a bill (as most people use the term) than a monthly dd is a bill. and as youve already said the ihd with the right rates on it does basically the same thing. or 5 mins with a bit of paper and some basic sums. 

but okay. we mandate everyone onto monthly billing. and get flooded by the threads where people strongly dont want monthly billing? showing the problem when suggesting someone should be able to choose whatever billing timing they want. some people are always unhappy so if 'personal preference' is to be given wait then you end up requiring multiple choice and then more cost. 

i get why some people on six month bills want monthly. i also get why some people on monthly want quarterly or six month or yearly. i recon the number of people in both camps probably balances out. what i dont get is the idea that someone wanting a specific payment method means a supplier should give it. there are other suppliers who do. and its not hard to change supplier. 

inspectorperez

On a slightly different tack, my 2 year fixed deal came to an end yesterday.

To my surprise, I wasn't bombarded with emails from EDF reminding me to submit readings at 31 December 2022. Maybe "punishment" for not having a smart meter and giving them a bit of latitude with estimated calculations when the next 6 month bill is issued.