Eon set payments too low

Maybedaisy

My friend is with Eon and she has managed run up over £500 in debt as they set her payments too low. She is not great online and didn't manage to open any of the bills they sent her. However they are supposed to review the payments and she has been building up debt since she switched to them in August last year. They only contacted her by phone in August this year to tell her she was in debt. Is there anything she can do ? I have tried speaking to them on live chat for her but they are not interested. One of her bills is estimated and she has a smart meter. Is that normal ? I still have the old meters.

Maybedaisy

I have gone through her bills and she should have been paying £107 a month. She's been paying £52

Robin9

Eon would have set her DD based on info that your friend gave them when she switched. 

I don't understand the comment "I still have the old meters"  -  they are not yours (or your friends) and would have been taken away by the meter installer.

It's possible to have Estimated readings with Smart if the communications is not working.

Can you post a copy bill with the personal info blanked out ?

MWT

Maybedaisy said:

However they are supposed to review the payments and she has been building up debt since she switched to them in August last year. They only contacted her by phone in August this year to tell her she was in debt. Is there anything she can do ?

That is precisely what they should have done, a once a year review.

She was being told each month that she was building up a debt and at the annual review they have taken an extra step to reach out to her.

It does seem like she may not have given them accurate information when she switched to them hence the low monthly payment.

She probably picked one of the standard options instead of giving them the actual annual estimated from her previous suppliers bills.

Are they asking her to clear the debt or just pay a higher amount each month to catch up?

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Maybedaisy said:

My friend is with Eon and she has managed run up over £500 in debt as they set her payments too low. She is not great online and didn't manage to open any of the bills they sent her. However they are supposed to review the payments and she has been building up debt since she switched to them in August last year. They only contacted her by phone in August this year to tell her she was in debt. Is there anything she can do ? I have tried speaking to them on live chat for her but they are not interested. One of her bills is estimated and she has a smart meter. Is that normal ? I still have the old meters.

Morning Maybedaisy,

Thank you both MWT and Robin9,

That's absolutely right, we base quotes on information that we're provided with.

Each bill will show the usage, payments and any balance, this is also on the online account in the billing and payments history, so you can see if a credit or debit is building up. There is also the option to pop up to date reads on there and use the Direct Debit manager as this will help keep the payment amount accurate.

As MWT says, this does sound like the annual review, your friend can ask to include the balance in to the Direct Debit to spread this out a bit, so the Direct Debit will be a bit higher but it will get the balance cleared.

Please ask your friend to speak to us, to see how we can help with the payments.

Thank you

Helena

Robin9

@Maybedaisy As your friend has struggled to access the bills on the website perhaps he/she should opt for paper bills (it will cost I think £2 pa but may help to keep track of them better)

jbuchanangb

The customer in this case probably needs to pay about £150 per month for a year to cover energy costs and catch up the arrears. Its either that or a one-off payment of £500, and then continue at around £110 per month. If they were thinking of switching supplier, then the one-off payment would be the way to go.