Energy account in credit but company won’t refund the credit as they say it includes £67 EBSS 7 March at 4:47PM in Energy 9 replies 465 views

Debtdodo

Am with Eonnext and annual usage based on their assessment is £2146 and our DD is £200/month on top of the EBSS. We are in credit by £477 which includes the £200 grant for oil users. I asked them to credit our account with £450 but they refused based on their policy that they will not credit monies using the EBSS and will only credit £245.  To me this is very ingenuous and have made a complaint. Has anyone had more success than I have so far and any other arguments to use at this very rigid company policy?

Mstty

What is your annual usage, not their assessment? How many kWh do you use of energy a year?

Scot_39

EOn don't hold on to the EBSS as such,  for their DD customers, they discount it from your what I assume is the annual DD agreed amount.

So if was normally set for £200 they have in reality only taken £133 from your account  - for the 6 months of EBSS - Oct to Mar.

And that is the sort of level I would expect at £2146 annual use prediction.

If was set for £267 would take £200 - but then that's even further over your £2146 annual estimate  and likely to lead to a lot of credit - over £1000 by end of suumer/ early autumn, without afp.

And although Mar and to larger extent for many April  are lower cost than peak winter months (excluding events like beast from East and Storm Emma combined 5 years ago) - they can still eat into credit - i.e. bills cost above annualised DD monthly payement levels for many.

In May June you might have got a different answer.

The remaining £232 - doesn't seem that unfair a credit level at this time of year - its just over £200 / under £267??? - normal monthly annualised bill - with winter months to come.

Especially if epg rises in April.

And depending on your account billing date.

The other EBSS issue is that it is credited early in the month, potentially before the months usage added depending on your statement billing date, the EBSS credited normally as early as 1st or  2nd.

My credit would almost certainly include Mar £67 EBSS, and my compensated  DD reduced by it already planned and not yet taken iirc as its the one due at the end of month to pay the balance.

So in  a similar scenario, can see why they might see and wouldn't pay the £67 part.

Apodemus

Scot_39 said:

EOn don't hold on to the EBSS as such,  for their DD customers, they discount it from your what I assume is the annual DD agreed amount.

So if was normally set for £200 they have in reality only taken £133 from your account  - for the 6 months of EBSS - Oct to Mar.

Are you sure on this? 

I'm with E.On Next and they have continued to take my £150 DD from my bank account each month and then added the £66 or £67 per month to my electricity account, so that I have been credited with a total of £216 or £217 each month.  They have then deducted my actual use each month (roughly £140 per month), so that the credit on my account has been growing by about £77 per month.  They then added the £200 AFP to my electricity account, increasing the overall credit further.  Throughout all this, the £150 DD has continued unaffected.

jbuchanangb

With E.ON Next my DD before EBSS was £230, then reduced to £163. I suppose I could have logged on and reset the DD back to £230, which would have created the sort of situation being described here. Are you sure that they did not reduce your DD back in October, and then by some chance you "corrected" it? Anyway the last EBSS payment has been received now so from now on things will get back to normal. I am expecting them to set my DD back to £230 in April. I guess if they set your monthly DD up to £217 from April you will have a reason for a discussion.

Scot_39

Apodemus said:

Scot_39 said:

EOn don't hold on to the EBSS as such,  for their DD customers, they discount it from your what I assume is the annual DD agreed amount.

So if was normally set for £200 they have in reality only taken £133 from your account  - for the 6 months of EBSS - Oct to Mar.

Are you sure on this? 

I'm with E.On Next and they have continued to take my £150 DD from my bank account each month and then added the £66 or £67 per month to my electricity account, so that I have been credited with a total of £216 or £217 each month.  They have then deducted my actual use each month (roughly £140 per month), so that the credit on my account has been growing by about £77 per month.  They then added the £200 AFP to my electricity account, increasing the overall credit further.  Throughout all this, the £150 DD has continued unaffected.

They are operating my account exactly as I described - and that is as per their own web site on the subject - reducing the DD - although I must admit - when the OP said £200 - I assume it was a fixed annualised DD.

See

https://www.eonnext.com/energy-bill-support-scheme

And the section on admittedly fixed DD

"

We'll be paying the money differently, depending on how you pay for your fuel now:

• Fixed Direct Debit customers will receive the money automatically as a deduction to their monthly Direct Debit. If a customer's EBSS payment takes their Direct Debit below £1 we may put them on a ‘payment holiday’, where we temporarily pause the Direct Debit."

The only slight anomaly being the discount was fixed at £67 for the 6 months, whilst the EBSS credit itself was £66 for Oct/Nov, £67 for last 4.

Sorry - no idea why your account - or how many others - would be being handled differently - from this statement.

Perhaps the OP - can confirm if his is to the website - or operating like your account.

And will try and not assume that EOn do as they say they would - for everyone in the same payment class in future.

As what you describe is more in line with their second method

"Pay on receipt of bill customers and regular cash payment customers will see the money automatically applied as a credit to their energy accounts in the first week of each month. This will show as a credit in the payments section of their monthly bill."

I am glad they are deducting it for me as the web site - as adding EBSS to my credit and taking the same DD - would obiously make it a lot higher. 

Only a thought - I had though increased my DD manually ahead of the Oct Ofgem rise/EPG/EBSS kicking in - without EOn Next asking me too. Was this their way of not asking you for a DD increase (but then your payments match your use - albeit at EPG rates - but not Ofgem rates announced weeks before )?

Apodemus

Interesting stuff!  I was £200 in credit and paying £124/month at the end of August.  E.on increased my DD to £166 in September, but I reduced it by the maximum 10% that you can do online, giving me the £150 monthly DD.  I'm guessing that if I had left it at their £166, they would only have actually taken £100, but I have blown it by setting the DD myself!  In credit by £810 today!

Scot_39

Apodemus said:

Interesting stuff!  I was £200 in credit and paying £124/month at the end of August.  E.on increased my DD to £166 in September, but I reduced it by the maximum 10% that you can do online, giving me the £150 monthly DD.  I'm guessing that if I had left it at their £166, they would only have actually taken £100, but I have blown it by setting the DD myself!  In credit by £810 today!

The front page shows my adjusted figure - after the £67 discount - and - a warning in the text re EBSS - not to change it - and pretty sure that they will set it back.

So lets hope they remember it's your £150 and not there's - they might - heaven forbid just add £67 to them all.

I'll try and rember that 10% - could be handy - if CI £2100 correct.

Did you check to see if you could ask for a rebate of some of the £800.

I went to first level - and it said something about already having checked your account is eligible - do you want to proceed - without giving figures.

Might have a look again once know what Hunt is actually going to do with EPG.

Apodemus

Scot_39 said:

Apodemus said:

Interesting stuff!  I was £200 in credit and paying £124/month at the end of August.  E.on increased my DD to £166 in September, but I reduced it by the maximum 10% that you can do online, giving me the £150 monthly DD.  I'm guessing that if I had left it at their £166, they would only have actually taken £100, but I have blown it by setting the DD myself!  In credit by £810 today!

Did you check to see if you could ask for a rebate of some of the £800.

I went to first level - and it said something about already having checked your account is eligible - do you want to proceed - without giving figures.

No.  I assume that I could get most of it back if I asked.

If I log onto the section to set my DD, it still says that the recommended DD should be £166, but they will presumably do the annual calculation again at some point and take the credit level into account.  I'm not too concerned at the moment about being 5 months in credit - my monthly use doesn't really vary that much through the year (pitfall of an electric shower!), so I don't expect the balance to grow significantly further, as I am using about £140 and adding £150 each month.

Debtdodo

Thanks for all the comments, I was contacted by Eonnext after the complaint, and they apologised as the operator and his supervisor apparently got their policy wrong and apart from that particular month EBSS £67 and they are putting in the credit into my bank account and they confirmed that from next month without any EBSS any credit in the account can be refunded. In relation to the DD I have kept it at £200 waiting to see if the cap is lifted or not. My main issue with this company and with other large companies is their actual processes whether intentionally are not flexible to customer needs and if I had not used the complaints process would not have got the required outcome. This means disadvantaged customers will usually lose out