Eon Gas Payments - DD vs Statement Bill

Brookelucy

Hello,

this may sound like a ridiculous question. But I can’t find much online and dare I call EON as they’re unhelpful at the best of times. 

We are on a fixed Gas tariff, which we send meter readings and pay a DD each month. Every 3 months we then have a statement and bill which is then billed and taken - and breaks down the cost of gas for the three months. 

What I don’t understand is why do they take a DD each month, and then on the bill have three months split out with a cost of £10 or so more than our DD, and take a massive payment? 

I’m trying to understand that if I increase the DD, would we no longer get these every 3 month bills and be smacked with an astronomical statement/bill. If no, then why do they charge a monthly DD, only to then charge you for three months - as surely we have paid for our usage every month via that monthly DD? 

I’m seriously confused and also totally clueless so would truly appreciate someone’s knowledge of this! 

Would I be better to cancel my DD, and pay a monthly bill, which is generated based on me submitting my monthly meter reading? 

I don’t think my reason for digging into this helps either - I’ve convinced myself EON are robbing us all, and make up all the payments and charges as they go along each month. The credit in accounts blows my mind - as I genuinely can never see where or when it’s been used especially when we had £400 end of last year and then !!!!!! - gone. 

Thank you in advance!! 

Scot_39

First thing to do is check that the monthly DD's are being taken from any billed usage - before they take the "huge" quarterly DD from your account.

May sound a silly thing to ask - but EOn certainly wouldn't be the first company to take money by DD and then not apply it to the correct customer account.

They may for instance have setup a new payment for the fix - maybe quarterly - but accidently left old monthly in place rather than cancelling it - and if quarterly huge - perhaps not crediting you properly for monthly.

Without monthly consumption, / kWh  rates + SC or just simply £s cost billed per quarter and monthly / quarterly DD levels as a start point - it's impossible to tell what could be going on

So speculatively - for instance the SVT cap is around £80 / month for gas.

If your monthly DD was only £40 - you would then see a quarterly bill for £240 (3x£80)  - if the monthly DD used properly to credit the account - still a quarterly demand for another £120 as only paid £120 (3x£40) - but if not credited properly - you might see the full £240 taken.  Either of those might be deemed huge for many people and relative to the monthly DD.

But then you say only breakdown only about £10 above monthly DD - I'll assume thats £10 per month rather than £10/quarter

So monthly DD say £70, monthly £80 used - £240 bill - and so if monthly DD credited quarterly should maybe only be £30 - now I wouldn't call that huge so not sure thats the case - but if those monthly DD not being applied - still the same £240 taken quarterly.

And it's your huge comment is worrying.

Any chance you would be willing to provide - from a typical quarterly bill - approx figures as above - £s cost billed per quarter or per month for that quarter - and your monthly / quarterly DD levels.  

Possibly even opening and closing balances if the quarterly DD isn't taking balance to zero.

And not wanting to be insulting - but without hard numbers - difficult to see what might be going on - I assume you have checked what you see on those statements as potential payments vs what they have actually taken from your bank account monthly and quarterly.   And not say confusing full usage charge - in my speculative ex £240 - pre DD credits - with the actual demand - say £70 monthly / £30 or £40 monthly / £120 in my examples if monthly DD then being offset.

Also note you only talk about gas - so is your gas account completely separate from your electric account ? 

Again not to wanting to be insulting in any way - maybe another obvious answer might be that the electric say is paid monthly by the monthly DD - the other gas - quarterly DD etc.

Bigphil1474

It's fairly simple. Make sure they are billing you for the energy you actually use and credit the monthly DD payments you've made. Which bit aren't they doing? It's fairly easy to work out what you've used, what you've paid monthly, and what they are billing for?

WiserMiser

Just switch to Monthly Variable Direct Debit, making sure that you send monthly readings from the meters on the wall.  If E.On won't play ball, then switch to a friendlier company when you're not liable to any exit fees.

Of course, you'll have lower bills in summer but higher ones in winter, but you'll always be in full control.