EDF Charging Policy - DD Increase + Fortnightly Charging

BassettHunter

I'm in dialogue with EDF about their charging policy and currently awaiting a reply from them.  Having been several hundred pounds in credit for the majority of 2023, for the first time this month my account balance has gone into Dr and they've written to me saying they want to increase my DD by 50%.  I've written asking them to explain and justify such a large increase, especially at a time when the price cap has come down and fuel bills are expected to fall.
Perhaps I should have paid more attention, but I've discovered that since Sept 2023 EDF has been debiting my account fortnightly with the cost of Gas and Electricity consumed, a move away from the previous quarterly billing and I've asked them to explain when and how they informed their customers of this change to their charging policy.  It all seems to have been carried out low key and under the radar.

MattMattMattUK

BassettHunter said:

I'm in dialogue with EDF about their charging policy and currently awaiting a reply from them.  Having been several hundred pounds in credit for the majority of 2023, for the first time this month my account balance has gone into Dr and they've written to me saying they want to increase my DD by 50%.  I've written asking them to explain and justify such a large increase, especially at a time when the price cap has come down and fuel bills are expected to fall.
Perhaps I should have paid more attention, but I've discovered that since Sept 2023 EDF has been debiting my account fortnightly with the cost of Gas and Electricity consumed, a move away from the previous quarterly billing and I've asked them to explain when and how they informed their customers of this change to their charging policy.  It all seems to have been carried out low key and under the radar.

Are your bills up to date, all meter read current etc? I presume that you have a smart meter if the usage is bring billed frequently but it is worth checking. 

Is your issue that you have used more energy over the winter, or you do not like the billing cycle? EDF used to bill appropriately every six months but have moved to a new billing system that can better deal with modern energy billing. For me the change was communicated that they would be changing the billing system, although I left before it actually happened, but the frequency of bill generation should not create any issues.

Mobtr

It sounds like you’ve moved from the old system to the new one. 

On the old one, if you paid by d/d your payments would accumulate over 6 months, you would then be billed & the charges for that 6 months would then be debited from your credit. This gives the impression you are in credit for most of the year. 

With the new system, you should be getting billed monthly but if you have smart meters & readings get added more frequently then it could be more often on occasions. 

Regardless of whether you get billed weekly, monthly, or 6 monthly, if the readings are correct, your billing will be right. 

When you were moved over to the new system you should have received an initial email or letter advising you this had been done & giving you your new account number. It also says on there billing is changing to monthly 

dunstonh

I'm in dialogue with EDF about their charging policy and currently awaiting a reply from them.  Having been several hundred pounds in credit for the majority of 2023

Were you on the old billing method in 2023?   (i.e. billed every 6 months).
The old billing method would stack up your payments in but not deduct your use until the bill was generated.  This would give a false impression of your account being in credit by a large amount.

 I've written asking them to explain and justify such a large increase, especially at a time when the price cap has come down and fuel bills are expected to fall.

You shouldn't need them to explain.  You should be able to see why for yourself.   After all, the billing is your units used multiplied by your unit price plus standing charge.    All that data is available to you.

The price cap is irrelevant in terms of billing as its factual use multiple by factual unit prices.  Unless you have not given readings and they are using estimates.     

It is also worth noting that 2022/23, whilst more expensive, was warmer.  So, less energy was used than in 2023/24.  So, a little bit more use on the unit count would be expected.

Perhaps I should have paid more attention, but I've discovered that since Sept 2023 EDF has been debiting my account fortnightly with the cost of Gas and Electricity consumed, a move away from the previous quarterly billing and I've asked them to explain when and how they informed their customers of this change to their charging policy. 

That isn't right.
The old billing method (account number starting 67) was 6 monthly but the new billing method is monthly (account number starting A-).    The first month of changing over has two bills  to align you with the correct date in the month but after that it should be the same date monthly.     The new method is very clean and easy to follow and should avoid getting false credit balances shown.    It works the same as every other supplier that using Kraken for billing.

  It all seems to have been carried out low key and under the radar.

As you say, you should have paid more attention.