E.ON Next increase payments

LE_Bore

Hi MSErs,

We are customers/cash cows of E.ON Next for gas and electrickery. We pay by direct debit. We send regular meter readings -- two in the past month. They have recently mailed to say they are "Adjusting your payments to fit your consumption". They say "based on our latest estimates, you're actually using an average of £8.24 more each month than your monthly payments account for" and "The simplest way to get your balance back on track is with a one-off of £175.56 on a credit or debit card, and increasing your monthly Direct Debit" (by about £10 per month.) If we don;t make the one-off payment they will increase the direct debit by £24 a month.

They also say: "Your account balance is currently £175.56 behind where we'd expect it to be at this time of year." But we are using less energy as far as I can work out. Our billing does say DR most of the time, but sometimes it says CR. Note that is says where they expect it to be, not where it actually should be according to our consumption. 

OK, so we know the price cap has gone up. But our consumption has actually gone down.

We are terribly skint. My wife is disabled with Parkinson's which she has had for 20 years. She gets the higher rate of PIP. I had to give up full-time work in 2018 when she had brain surgery. I still do a little bit of freelance work, which most months brings in less than £350. Every few months I get about £500 extra work. I could perhaps get more but I am caring 24-7-365, I cannot rely on having the energy and time to do more than I do and I don't want to let anybody down. I do not get any benefits, chiefly because we have a little bit of savings which we are desperately trying to cling on to in the hope that one day it might pay the legal/removal bills etc for downsizing, if ever my wife is well enough to deal with such an upheaval. 

Hence we are not using much energy -- we can't afford to. We are both sitting in double jumpers with the boiler off nearly all day except when we get up and get washed. Our house is reasonably well insulated. We run one low-energy light bulb all evening, a telly that's low voltage, broadband, and a new fridge that's low-consumption. We do cook with gas-- I guess this is cheaper than buying takeaways, which we haven't had since I gave up full-time work. . Apart from about 6 kettles to make tea and a hottie every day, where's our consumption that E.ON Next claim we should be using? We send in meter readings. Their billing is utterly incomprehensible to me. 

I have asked them why they are estimating what we should be using rather than what we are actually using? They either do not respond or say it is standard practice. They say we could apply for the one-off fuel discount, but we don't qualify owing to the fact I don't get benefits because I am still stupid enough to try to work and have tried to save when I had a decent job. What should we do? 

Sorry to drone on like this. All suggestions gratefully received. 



 

jimjames

Usage is higher over the winter than summer so the average payment for the year will take account of both seasons. If you can show your consumption this year is lower than last year as you're suggesting then you'd have an argument for paying based on that lower consumption. However the unit rates have gone up unless you are on a fixed rate tariff so the bills will be higher for the same usage as last year. Your consumption would need to have decreased by a larger amount than the percentage rate increase to make your bill cheaper.

LE_Bore

Thanks Jim. I accept that prices have risen but my stone cold feet tell me our consumption has plummeted. But how can I prove this? I don't understand how they can estimate our likely consumption when we keep sending readings. Like a lot of people, I find fuel billing completely incomprehensible. 

Robin9

immac said:

................. But how can I prove this? I.......................

By comparing your actual monthly consumption month by month -  providing the meter reads shown on your bill are ACTUAL rather than ESTIMATED.  Post them in this thread (and include those letters A, C and E)

How do you send your readings - preferably on the website ?

wild666

If you have access to all monthly bills then take the reading from the oldest bill and the reading from bill after 12 months that gives you a yearly consumption for gas and electric. Do this again with the latest 12 months bills, you could be paying more because the prices have increased and even though your usage has dropped the increases in the prices could be more than your DD. If you're on the SVR then they should review the prices every 6 months, that's what BG did with my DD every 6 months and most times it went down, they even thought I was scamming them as my monthly DD was so low around £7 gas and £10 electric per month but that was over 10 years ago.

Companies sometimes increase over due to the fact that there will be an large increase in the prices within that period, normally winter, and only to drop a fraction in summer as less gas and electric is used.

MWT

immac said:

Our billing does say DR most of the time, but sometimes it says CR. Note that is says where they expect it to be, not where it actually should be according to our consumption. 
 

This may be what has triggered the recent changes from their side.

Under their standard terms, they expect to be paid a month in advance and for the account to stay positive, it is quite likely that over time you have eroded that balance to the point where you no longer have that 'month in advance' covered, hence the suggestion to make a one-off payment now and a smaller increase in the monthly amount.

This would seem like a good time to check what your tariff rates are and what your actual monthly consumption is, especially as you are heading into winter.

There can sometimes be a problem when comparing the date of your monthly bill and the date of the DD.

What are those dates? Ideally your DD should be paid close to the date the bill comes out and the balance left after the bill payment should be enough to cover the next months bill, how does that compare to what you see on your account?

LE_Bore

Robin9 said:

By comparing your actual monthly consumption month by month -  providing the meter reads shown on your bill are ACTUAL rather than ESTIMATED.  Post them in this thread (and include those letters A, C and E)

How do you send your readings 

Thanks Robin9. Readings are sent on the website 
Electricity:

26/11/21	Manual	16241
30/10/21	Manual	16141
01/10/21	Estimate	16024
10/09/21	Manual	15948
16/08/21	Manual	15857
01/07/21	Manual	15677
22/06/21	Estimate	15690
01/04/21	Estimate	15196
21/03/21	Estimate	15124
21/12/20	Manual	14834
19/12/20	Estimate	14405
07/10/20	Meter reader	14121
01/10/20	Estimate	14094
21/09/20	Manual	14052
18/07/20	Estimate	13726
17/07/20	Estimate	13726
21/04/20	Estimate	13424
18/01/20	Manual	13015

Below are Gas

26/11/21	Manual	7860
30/10/21	Manual	7837
01/10/21	Estimate	7828
28/09/21	Meter reader	7827
10/09/21	Manual	7823
16/08/21	Manual	7815
01/07/21	Manual	7803
22/06/21	Estimate	7766
01/04/21	Estimate	7706
21/03/21	Estimate	7691
21/12/20	Manual	7533
19/12/20	Estimate	7548
01/10/20	Estimate	7455
21/09/20	Manual	7451
18/07/20	Estimate	7428
17/07/20	Estimate	7428
21/04/20	Estimate	7390
18/01/20	Manual	7258

Rodders53

We need tariff rates and a list of you meter reads going back some months, if not years.
Price per kWh for gas and electric plus the daily standing charges for each.

Compare your kWhs for each month with last years and the year before to see if they are similar or higher/lower.

£8.24 a month more is around £100 per annum; so +£10 may be a reasonable enough extra monthly payment, but you can argue it down to £8?
The £176 'debt', currently, would be £14.67 if repaid over 12 months, so +£24 a month is also a fair number to repay debt and not accrue more.

I know my electric-only bill is going up by around 160% of that I was paying my last supplier.  So even if my energy use had dropped to 80% of what it was it would still result in far bigger bills (+128%).

You do need to check if you and your wife are entitled to any other benefits based on your income / savings situation and age.  https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators
Also check that your wife is on the correct PIP rates (in both care and mobility parts).  You may qualify for Carers Allowance for many months on the income numbers you have given here?

https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/information-and-support/support-you may be worth contacting for support ?

QrizB

immac said:

Robin9 said:

By comparing your actual monthly consumption month by month -  providing the meter reads shown on your bill are ACTUAL rather than ESTIMATED.  Post them in this thread (and include those letters A, C and E)

How do you send your readings 

Thanks Robin9. Readings are sent on the website 
Electricity:

01/10/21 16024

01/10/20 14094

So around 1930 kWh/yr

Below are Gas
01/10/21 7828

01/10/20 7455

So around 370 cubic metres per year, say 4000kWh/yr (unless your meter is Imperial, in cubic feet?)

For an Ofgem-capped variable tariff, that would cost about £750/year.

LE_Bore

Thank you. E.On Next have said we are already on their cheapest rate. 
If we're using about £750 a year's worth of energy -- and we have definitely reduced consumption across the past few months- - and our payments are currently £79 a month, is this reasonable? They are talking about increasing to £124 a month if we don't make a one-off payment of £175-odd now. Yet it seems we should be paying about £750 a year... something is wrong here. 

The thing I don;t like is, they are assuming we should be using more than we are, it seems. It;s like if I went to Tesco and bought spuds, and they said "It's winter, you should be eating more spuds" so they charge us for extra even though we're not actually eating more potatoes. 

QrizB

immac said:

Thank you. E.On Next have said we are already on their cheapest rate. 
If we're using about £750 a year's worth of energy -- and we have definitely reduced consumption across the past few months- - and our payments are currently £79 a month, is this reasonable? They are talking about increasing to £124 a month if we don't make a one-off payment of £175-odd now. Yet it seems we should be paying about £750 a year... something is wrong here.

Before I can really offer any thoughts on that:

• Is your gas meter a metric one, measuring in cubic metres, or is it an Imperial one measuring in cubic feet?
• E.On Next think you're £175 "behind". Was there a debit balance on your latest bill, and if so, how much?
• Exactly what rate are you on with E.On Next? Either the tariff name or the actual prices? The standard variable is called "Next Flex".