Insane EDF price hike. Is anyone able to help?

Hmoses

Hi all,

I am on a fixed tariff of £34 with EDF up until submitting my meter readings last week. The bill came through and was surprised to see that my new monthly payments are to increase from £34 to £205. I live in a 1 bed flat on my own and, whilst understanding that the cost of energy is to increase heavily, I didn’t realise it would be this much. I need some advice as I am a bit of a newbie with all this sort of stuff. 

Is there anyway I can get the monthly charge down?

I was unsure what to include information wise, but I’ll endeavour to provide any information required if anyone can help. 

Thank you,

Harry 

TheMilkmansDad

£34 seems insanely low so I assume you are in debt with EDF? What does your last bill say and is it based on actual meter readings?

The_Fat_Controller

Do you have both gas and electricity ?

What tariff are you currently on and when does it end ?

£34 is not an all you can eat figure, is your account in debit by a large amount ?

Hmoses

I was in £170 worth of credit (5 payments of £34)

It’s just Electricity. 

I have attached the financials here. Thanks for the prompt responses and apologies for my ignorance. I can’t make heads nor tails of all this. 

Kind regards. 

Hmoses

And yes actual usage, I submitted a meter reading from in between those two dates (20 Oct to 15 March).

The_Fat_Controller

So you are actually £507.44 in debit right now provided the previous bill's balance was zero.

Your monthly usage appears to be around £140/month over the last billing period so your £34 is not nearly enough to cover it.

You need to pay back both the arrears and a more realistic amount to cover your actual usage, that is why the DD has been increased so much.

Hmoses

Ah ok, that makes sense. Thank you for the help.

MWT

The DD looks to be about right, it should cover the cost of the energy and recover the debt over the next 6 months.

The increase in energy cost in April has no impact on this as it is a fixed tariff.

Only way to pay less would be to use less...

jimjames

I assume from your comment about being a newbie that you moved into the flat in October and this is the first reading you've given since then. When you move in the electricity company has to make an estimate of how much you will use and bases the monthly DD on that. If you use more then you still need to pay for it and the outstanding amount will get added and the DD adjusted to take account as has happened.

If that is the case then you still need to pay for your use but you may be able to look at ways to reduce the amount you use going forward by making sure things are turned off and using low energy bulbs etc. Did you provide the reading when you moved in? If not and you relied on previous owner to submit then it may not have been accurate but hard to argue that now.

(I'm also with EDF and their billing is a complete mess, I've never seen anything quite like it for something that should be simple - calculate use and charge for it!)

Gerry1

Those rates of 26.7225p/kWh and daily charge of 24.381p are less than rock bottom by April's standards, let alone next October's.  On the SVT you'd have been paying 28.02p/kWh and 42.25p per day from 1 April.

Assuming your rates are fixed until October 2024, Beginner's Luck means you'll be laughing all the way to the bank !

razord

Hmoses said:

Ah ok, that makes sense. Thank you for the help.

As others have said - while it doesn't feel like it, you're accidentally got yourself into the most incredible position here. Almost everyone here would love to be on a fix til 2024 with rates as low as yours!

Once you've paid off the debt, you can be smug knowing you're paying significantly less for your actual usage that almost everyone else in the UK!