E-on increasing my Direct Debit when in Credit

dunstonh

When you use the budgeting method of payment (i.e. a relatively stable payment each month where you average out the years use), then normally you look to be at or near a nil balance around May.     From that point on, you look to build summer credit and would expect to see your credit balance go up until the cold spells start when it will start to go down again.    If your use has been in line with yours and your suppliers expectations, you should be close to nil again by May.

In your case, £24 credit in mid September is low.  It suggests you have not being paying enough via DD.

Has this happened to anyone else and does E-on have any right to increase my DD without my consent when I am already £24.80 in credit?

You may be in credit but you are almost certainly behind target.  Hence the need to increase the regular.    And yes, they do as its a variable direct debit.  Plus, they appear to be doing you a favour by avoiding you going into arrears.

la531983

Anomnomnomaly said:

TCDSTM18 said:

Hello,

I have had my direct debit (DD) changed to £126.07/month by E-on without my consent even though I am £24.80 in credit on my account. Please see the attachment below. E-on also sent a letter to me saying my DD needed to increase but made no mention they'd actually changed it.

Has this happened to anyone else and does E-on have any right to increase my DD without my consent when I am already £24.80 in credit?

Kind regards,

Theo

Fixed deal ends 29th Sept... after that eon can go f*** themselves.  They're incapable of getting anything right until you go down the complaint to ofgem route.

You may as well get the ball rolling now tbh, they cant charge you exit fees in the final 7 weeks (?) and it will likely take a few weeks to get things moved over anyway.

Exodi

This type of thread comes up every summer.

If you want to pay roughly the same amount every month, by the fact you use more energy on heating in the winter, you will need to build up a credit balance during the summer that can be used during the winter. Alternatively, you can just pay more in the winter.

As @dunstonh says above, this breakeven point is generally around May.

MSE sometimes releases charts showing this, I've included the below from May 2023 (though I wouldn't pay attention the specific credit £ amounts as energy prices have changed since then).

It shows that you might expect to have a nil credit balance in May, with your highest credit balance being around November, at which point you start to diminish your credit position as the heating goes on.

Being in September with virtually no credit is an issue, hence why Eon has increased your DD.

[Deleted User]

You may as well get the ball rolling now tbh, they cant charge you exit fees in the final 7 weeks (?) and it will likely take a few weeks to get things moved over anyway.

With faster switching, the 49 Day waiver on exit fees appears to have been dropped from Supply Licences. I say appears as I can find no reference to fixed price tariff exit fees in the latest version of the document. It isn’t an easy read ……..

Boxman

Exodi said:

If you want to pay roughly the same amount every month, by the fact you use more energy on heating in the winter, you will need to build up a credit balance during the summer that can be used during the winter. Alternatively, you can just pay more in the winter.

Being in September with virtually no credit is an issue, hence why Eon has increased your DD.

This only applies if it is a condition that the account is to have a positive balance at all times.  Surely the whole point of having an equal monthly d/d is to end up with a zero balance at the end of the twelve month cycle and therefore depending on the start date of the cycle, at any time clearly the account could have a large credit or debit balance. In my case (for gas) circumstances led to me switching to EDF in November 2021. In November 2022 my account was in credit by about £275 and unrequested by me EDF returned this to my bank obviously leaving my account with a zero balance and they set my d/d at a level calculated to give a zero balance at November this year. Predictably this meant that my account had a debit balance of £275 or so at the end of March but should be in credit at the the start of Autumn. It would seem that all parties are happy with this.

Interestingly because of lower actual gas prices since those predicted at the time it turned out that the d/d was set too high last November and although my account when last reviewed by EDF in May despite showing a debit balance of £180 they reduced the ongoing d/d by 25%. Even so I guesstimate that at the next review in November will show a credit balance in the region of £140, it will be interesting to see if they return this and set a new d/d figure.

Chrysalis

That credit amount isnt particularly high, so I can kind of understand why they want to increase it as its an end of summer balance.  If you want to go into detail and think they over charging you then check your usage levels for the past 12 months, get the calculator out on current unit rates and see what numbers you come up with the amount is split into 12 payments for a year.

The suppliers have been told to get their act together on the accuracy of the fixed DD platform, but that doesnt mean they still cant raise DD's if needed.

[Deleted User]

molerat said:

With EDF the cycle is review and adjust DD at 6 months taking account balance into consideration then refund credit at 12 months and set new DD for year ahead. The 3 monthly price reviews have messed up the accuracy though.

As you know, the biggest weakness in fixed DD schemes is the start date. For someone switching to a supplier in, say, October with an average annual bill of £2400 or £200 month, they could end up with a large debit balance come April. For this reason a number of suppliers have either insisted on the account remaining in credit, or they have adopted a scheme of higher payments in Winter which fall away come Spring. I have no problem with either provided the supplier has a transparent policy.

dunstonh

Interestingly because of lower actual gas prices since those predicted at the time it turned out that the d/d was set too high last November and although my account when last reviewed by EDF in May despite showing a debit balance of £180 they reduced the ongoing d/d by 25%.

Or maybe it was because winter 2023 was much milder than average and most people's energy use was down compared to average.  EDF would model on the mean or thereabouts.   They won't model on mild being the norm.

pseudodox

jimjames said:

If you're not happy paying an increased DD when you have a credit balance then you can switch to paying monthly DD based on usage instead. Downside is that you might have a bill in the summer of £20 and in the winter of £400 so you need to be quite organised to ensure you can pay that.

Yes - you need to be organised and motivated to put money aside in a savings account in YOUR name, not the name of the energy supplier, where YOU can earn interest at increasingly decent rates.  This is taking the MSE ethic on board - saving, not handing out free loans to corporate bodies and it hardly takes any effort at all.  Set up a S/O to transfer the ££ you are not paying by FDD to the energy company to YOUR savings pot before you are tempted to spend it on something uneccessary.  Sit back, let it accumulate and when that "OMG! I got a big winter bill, I wonder why that happened?" happens you simply pay.  Winter is guaranteed in this country to come round once (normally!) per year.  If savings exceed spending you don't have to jump through hoops to request a refund - you just mosey on down to the ATM, draw it out and spend! spend! spend!

jimjames

pseudodox said:

jimjames said:

If you're not happy paying an increased DD when you have a credit balance then you can switch to paying monthly DD based on usage instead. Downside is that you might have a bill in the summer of £20 and in the winter of £400 so you need to be quite organised to ensure you can pay that.

Yes - you need to be organised and motivated to put money aside in a savings account in YOUR name, not the name of the energy supplier, where YOU can earn interest at increasingly decent rates.

And at 5.2% interest that could be a decent amount at the end of the year