Crazy direct debit amount

esubbs

We moved into our new house last week (4 bed, 8yrs old with a high B EPC rating and brand new combi boiler etc) and just spoke to Eon next to set up our direct debit.
Their suggestion £1089.34 per month! 🤣🤣🤣
I mean, I know energy prices are out of control but really? I nearly fell off my chair. Even the lady on the phone laughed and said we could set it to our suggestion and just send monthly meter readings to monitor and adjust accordingly.

sienew

esubbs said:

We moved into our new house last week (4 bed, 8yrs old with a high B EPC rating and brand new combi boiler etc) and just spoke to Eon next to set up our direct debit.
Their suggestion £1089.34 per month! 🤣🤣🤣
I mean, I know energy prices are out of control but really? I nearly fell off my chair. Even the lady on the phone laughed and said we could set it to our suggestion and just send monthly meter readings to monitor and adjust accordingly.

Usage varies a LOT even in two comparable properties so saying what you will spend is very difficult. What one person considers low use another person might consider very high use.

That being said, if you are careful and stick to normal use you shouldn't be spending anywhere close to that. The price cap (£2.5k with the freeze) is often said to be roughly a 3 person, 3 bed property so £3-4k a year is about what I'd very very roughly expect for a house like yours.

Submitting meter readings regularly is important though and you can update the DD accordingly.

Robin9

And what was the annual consumption based on ?   

 

dunstonh

Their suggestion £1089.34 per month! 🤣🤣🤣

Payments are estimated on the 12 months ahead and take into account any credit balance you have from building up summer credit.

You won't have any summer credit and forward pricing was estimated before the Government stepped in.   So, the figure may not be that crazy.   They would also know the previous owner's use and could be factoring that in.

Even the lady on the phone laughed and said we could set it to our suggestion and just send monthly meter readings to monitor and adjust accordingly.

You should submit monthly anyway.  And ideally, keep a record to help you understand how much you use and when you use it.   You haven't mentioned a thing about use or potential use.  Do you have any idea?

FreeBear

Your EPC should give a projected annual figure for heating & hot water in KWh - This would be a reasonable starting point, and maybe use 2900KWh for electricity.

Brie

Did you get copies of the previous owner's bills?  And were their family about the same as yours?  That might be a good place to start to understand potential energy use and therefore what the bills will be like.

That said - the predicted use for our house by Eon was patently absurd so I've told them I'm not changing my DD from £120 a month.  (they wanted nearly 3 times that)

You might want to opt for a variable DD instead of a fixed one.  That way you will be paying for exactly what you use, not some fictional number.  Eon has confirmed to me that this is an option.

esubbs

The lady on the phone did suggest that it was based on the previous occupier and they "must have been running it as a business". However that is definitely not the case as it has been unoccupied since at least April. It was an older couple that lived here but the gentleman sadly died and the lady went to live with her daughter. They didn't pay monthly but quarterly bills we have seen worked out to roughly £100 pm.

Obviously it is difficult to compare usage at two different properties and two different families etc. and predicting what we will use here isn't straightforward but still, over £1k per month is a ludicrous suggestion.

esubbs

sienew said:

esubbs said:

We moved into our new house last week (4 bed, 8yrs old with a high B EPC rating and brand new combi boiler etc) and just spoke to Eon next to set up our direct debit.
Their suggestion £1089.34 per month! 🤣🤣🤣
I mean, I know energy prices are out of control but really? I nearly fell off my chair. Even the lady on the phone laughed and said we could set it to our suggestion and just send monthly meter readings to monitor and adjust accordingly.

Usage varies a LOT even in two comparable properties so saying what you will spend is very difficult. What one person considers low use another person might consider very high use.

That being said, if you are careful and stick to normal use you shouldn't be spending anywhere close to that. The price cap (£2.5k with the freeze) is often said to be roughly a 3 person, 3 bed property so £3-4k a year is about what I'd very very roughly expect for a house like yours.

Submitting meter readings regularly is important though and you can update the DD accordingly.

I agree, I expected £250-£300 and that's what I suggested we start our direct debits at which they accepted. We were in credit in our old house with SSE paying £137 per month, albeit a smaller yet far less energy efficient house. 
Obviously don't want to build up a debt so will take regular readings and update as needed. I'll be very surprised if we need to up it to that much though.

jj_43

What about variable monthly direct debit?