EON - increased DD

GemGem001

Need a bit of advice please. Had nothing but trouble with EON who have now said I need to pay £429 per month for my gas & electric this has increased from £120!! When I first switched it was £75 how is this even possible I live in a 3 bed semi detached house! They say I owe them £2k! This is after meter readings have been supplied! I don’t want to be with them anymore has heard horror stories but where do I start! I can’t afford £400 per month and also don’t have £2k to pay what they say I owe! Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! 

Robin9

Could you give us the meter readings when you switched and also today please. And a photo of your meter.

On face value this sounds like a meter reading error

macman

And tell us how the property is heated and hot watered.
Meter readings supplied? So do the bills say actual or estimated?
They are not asking for £400pm and £2k arrears, they want to hike your DD temporarily to claw back the arrears, over about 8 months it seems. Classic catch-up bill.
On what date did you switch to them?

RelievedSheff

Start with the simple things.

Look at your bills are the readings estimated or have you supplied meter readings?

If they were estimated when did you last supply a meter reading?

Gerry1

Two main points.

• You need to think in annual kWh usage from actual meter readings, not DD amounts.  The DD is just a contribution to a kitty which may or may not turn out to be sufficient to pay for what the meters say you have used.  If you don't send monthly meter readings and estimates are used then a bill shock is likely when the meter is next read.
  https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/#whatyoupay
  
• It's easy to misread a meter.  Decimal points on LCD meters are easily overlooked, and even some energy companies (well, at least their web designers) are confused by dial meters.  If you send the kWh value shown on a gas smart meter on the wall, then your usage will about 11 times the correct amount because the energy company will be expecting a volume and will convert it again.

welshmoneylover

Sounds like you had a catch up bill once they obtained meter readings.
also the original DD must have been far too low for your usage.
arrange for a smart meter or take regular readings yourself to ensure any bills are accurate.
also consider a prepayment meter and pay the debt back over longer.
read up on energy advice to lower your consumption.

RelievedSheff

GemGem001 said:

Need a bit of advice please. Had nothing but trouble with EON who have now said I need to pay £429 per month for my gas & electric this has increased from £120!! When I first switched it was £75 how is this even possible I live in a 3 bed semi detached house! They say I owe them £2k! This is after meter readings have been supplied! I don’t want to be with them anymore has heard horror stories but where do I start! I can’t afford £400 per month and also don’t have £2k to pay what they say I owe! Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! 

Unfortunately while you have a large debt with Eon you will not be able to switch from them. What you can do is ring them and ask them to put you on their cheapest tariff that is available to you and arrange an payment plan that is affordable to you and which is covering your monthly usage as well as paying down your debt.

Can you find two bills 12 months apart that were based on actual readings from which you can find your annual consumption in kWh?

It is possible to spend less than £75 per month in a 3 bed home. We currently pay £55 per month for dual fuel for a 3 bed detached home and are in enough credit to see us through the winter months comfortably with an excess at the end of the period. It very much depends on your annual consumption figures and your unit rate per kWh.

dogshome

Eon are not the cheapest supplier by a long chalk, and unless you live on your own and are out at work during the day, £75 a month is way too low.

However it is your right to negotiate repayment of this debt, with regular payments you can afford.

RelievedSheff

dogshome said:

Eon are not the cheapest supplier by a long chalk, and unless you live on your own and are out at work during the day, £75 a month is way too low.

However it is your right to negotiate repayment of this debt, with regular payments you can afford.

That rather depends on your household. There are two of us living in our house and I am currently working from home yet we still manage to spend less than £75 a month on energy bills!

Every household is different and uses different amounts of energy.

The OP needs to find out exactly how much energy they have used which could be difficult if it is a long time sine they submitted a meter reading.

I'm also going to guess that they will be in a stupidly expensive standard variable rate tariff as well.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

GemGem001 said:

Need a bit of advice please. Had nothing but trouble with EON who have now said I need to pay £429 per month for my gas & electric this has increased from £120!! When I first switched it was £75 how is this even possible I live in a 3 bed semi detached house! They say I owe them £2k! This is after meter readings have been supplied! I don’t want to be with them anymore has heard horror stories but where do I start! I can’t afford £400 per month and also don’t have £2k to pay what they say I owe! Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! 

Hi GemGem001,

Already some excellent advice on the thread, thank you all.

I agree this sounds like a classic case of a catch bill, where we have billed to estimates and now we have received an accurate read it's caused a balance.

You can check a lot of information on your online account, have a look to ensure the account was opened using the reads you provided. You can see the previous reads as well and ensure the account is now billed up to date taking the read from your meter.

As macman has said, it would be interesting to know how you heat the property and we can talk through energy saving measures with you.

dogshome is right, please speak to us, we have departments that can help with large bills like this and they can discuss what can be offered and if we can spread the payments over a slightly longer period for you.

Thank you

Helena