Eon next direct debit

Newcad

Fair enough, different suppiers could do different things and I didn't know Eon were doing it that way.

Like you say it probably made the bills easier to understand.

I was with SSE billing when the Energy Rebate started but got moved to OVO billing at the end of January, although ostensibly the same company they way that they calculate things is slightly different.
(PS. When it started my electricity DD was less than £66 and I wondered just how SSE would do it, as it was they 'refunded' the full £66 anyway).
OVO do seem to over-estimate how much DDs should be for the next year, but I can adjust DDs online if/when I don't agree..

Scot_39

Jordanparly92 said:

I was just going to put the amount back up £67 if I’m honest 

Pretty sure EOn will be doing that automatically.

But they seem to be doing actual recalcs - so just a new level without the £67

From my Oct price change summary letter

"From October, as you’re eligible for the government’s Energy Bills Support
Scheme £400 discount, you’ll get a reduction of your DD by £67 a month from
October to March"

MikeJXE

Newcad said:

OVO do seem to over-estimate how much DDs should be for the next year, but I can adjust DDs online if/when I don't agree..

Are you sure about that ?

I was switched from SSE to OVO and my direct debit went up 50% 

Try to change the DD online and it gave me a choice of what it is and something even higher 

I decided to move to Octopus who allowed me to set my own DD

Newcad

Yes. you can put it up how much you like but you can only reduce it from their 'recommendation' by 10%.

If you want to put it down by more than 10% then ring them and explain why, if what you are asking for is reasonable they will do it.

I did that when I changed over and they wanted to put it up, I rang them and said "2 weeks is not enough notice, keep it the same as it was" and they did.
They have just emailed that they want to put it up by about 7.5%  based on their estimate for the next 12 months, an estimate based on current tariffs which everyone is sure will be going down. So I'll let them put it up to their 'recommedation' and then before a payment is due I'll put it back to what it is now and monitor the situation.

MikeJXE

Newcad said:

Yes. you can put it up how much you like but you can only reduce it from their 'recommendation' by 10%.

If you want to put it down by more than 10% then ring them and explain why, if what you are asking for is reasonable they will do it.

I did that when I changed over and they wanted to put it up, I rang them and said "2 weeks is not enough notice, keep it the same as it was" and they put it back down.
They have just emailed that they want to put it up by about 7.5%  based on their estimate for the next 12 months, an estimate based on current tariffs which everyone is sure will be going down. So I'll let them put it up to their 'recommedation' and then before a payment is due I'll put it back to what it is now and monitor the situation.

Good luck with that.

I was with SSE on smart meter and when OVO took over wanted to put my DD up I rang them, emailed them, wrote to the CEO to no avail

I had 2 years living in the same property SSE set my DD at £91 at the new price in October last, OVO wanted £156. 

having 2 years records made no difference to OVO, as far as they were concerned I was a new customer and had to be classed as an average user 

TheElectricCow

MikeJXE said:

Newcad said:

Yes. you can put it up how much you like but you can only reduce it from their 'recommendation' by 10%.

If you want to put it down by more than 10% then ring them and explain why, if what you are asking for is reasonable they will do it.

I did that when I changed over and they wanted to put it up, I rang them and said "2 weeks is not enough notice, keep it the same as it was" and they put it back down.
They have just emailed that they want to put it up by about 7.5%  based on their estimate for the next 12 months, an estimate based on current tariffs which everyone is sure will be going down. So I'll let them put it up to their 'recommedation' and then before a payment is due I'll put it back to what it is now and monitor the situation.

Good luck with that.

I was with SSE on smart meter and when OVO took over wanted to put my DD up I rang them, emailed them, wrote to the CEO to no avail

I had 2 years living in the same property SSE set my DD at £91 at the new price in October last, OVO wanted £156. 

having 2 years records made no difference to OVO, as far as they were concerned I was a new customer and had to be classed as an average user 

Don’t know how it is with OVO’s system but for Eon, who also have a 10% rule, they would let you reduce the DD by more than 10% online if you set a new value multiple times in a row, reducing by 10% each time. Took a few minutes but I put mine down by 90% with them last year without any issues.

Still, as you’ve already mentioned, Octopus does far better in this department anyway by simply allowing customers to set whatever DD they want online without any messing around.

Newcad

MikeJXE said:

Newcad said:

Yes. you can put it up how much you like but you can only reduce it from their 'recommendation' by 10%.

If you want to put it down by more than 10% then ring them and explain why, if what you are asking for is reasonable they will do it.

I did that when I changed over and they wanted to put it up, I rang them and said "2 weeks is not enough notice, keep it the same as it was" and they put it back down.
They have just emailed that they want to put it up by about 7.5%  based on their estimate for the next 12 months, an estimate based on current tariffs which everyone is sure will be going down. So I'll let them put it up to their 'recommedation' and then before a payment is due I'll put it back to what it is now and monitor the situation.

Good luck with that.

I was with SSE on smart meter and when OVO took over wanted to put my DD up I rang them, emailed them, wrote to the CEO to no avail

I had 2 years living in the same property SSE set my DD at £91 at the new price in October last, OVO wanted £156. 

having 2 years records made no difference to OVO, as far as they were concerned I was a new customer and had to be classed as an average user 

LOL I found out what you mean, but I did get it sorted to my satisfaction.

As I said last time they had emailed me with an increase, saying that it needed increasing from £162 to £175.
7 days later I got another email saying that because I hadn't increased it myself online to their recommendation they had increased it themselves to £190.

£190 a month equates to £2,280 a year - to me that was suspiciously close to the EPG  for a typical household.

I then found that I could no longer adjust that £190 downwards online. (but see below).

Doing my own calculation I reconed that my DD for 12 months forcast usage at current (as from April) prices should be just over £146.

Plus slightly more because OVO appear to regard the balance carried over from SSE as a debt to be repaid rather than the normal fluctuation in winter/summer balance that you get with DDs.

I'm guessing that this is because OVO recalculate DD's monthly rather than the more usual 3 or 6 months that other suppliers do.
It's that difference in how they calculate DDs that makes things look odd when you are used to the more usual method.
It should resolve itself out once we have been with them for 6 month or a full year, but now that I know how OVO calculate DDs I'll be watching it each month.

A telephone call to OVO customer support (long time on hold) and a chat with their agent (put on hold again while she did her own calcuations) and we agreed that I would pay £151 monthly ongoing.

So a simple telephone call got the latest set DD of £190 reduced to £151, a reduction of £39 a month.
It's also now £11 less than when I moved from SSE to OVO in January.
(I never actually made a payment of £190, so my DD has in fact gone down).

Just to note that's for dual fuel, both Gas and Electricity.