[Andy65]

As I said @meldrewreborn it's just my opinion. It certainly isn't doing anything that would help stabilise or reduce prices, nor is it their job to do so but...

It is now common for businesses to issue statements to either warn of price increases whether justifiable or not, induce buying by scare stories etc. If it's well publicised that for example, the average UK household energy bill could hit £5000 a year next April, I would find it difficult to believe that it wouldn't have any effect on wholesale prices.

Do I believe that the prices we are now seeing for energy is just down to wholesale prices as as result of events in Ukraine? No I don't. There's the ineptitude of OFGEM for example and as we're on the eon-next forum, I'll drag them into it (I'm going off tangent I know).

So what about eon-next, you know as well as I do how many posts are added every day on here because customers tariffs have increased but it hasn't changed on their IHD, imagine how many haven't even noticed. Why does it happen, well it's obvious isn't it?
Now if OFGEM actually did their job, they would dictate that if a customers tariff increases and they're on a smart meter, if the IHD does not show the correct tariff within 12 hours of the increase (I'm being overly generous), then eon-next (or whoever) can only charge the customer what the IHD shows until it is corrected.

So I haven't answered your question with facts because as I said, it's just my opinion.

[meldrewreborn]

@Andy65

I think Cornwall are warning of what is to come and some of us post that information here, thus spreading the word. I suspect many forum members will have fixed their prices as a result.

The problem is that the savvy might heed the warnings while most will not even see them, and will probably be poorer in consequence. I have no short term solution to that.

Personally I'd prefer to have the warnings, and i don't think for one moment the warnings increase the market prices. That my opinion - others are available.

[MikeB]

@RuthP Eon are asking me to increase to £540 per month. I'm £400 in credit trying to increase from 250-350 and the website won;t let me!

[JoeSoap]

@MikeB

I think the most you can reduce your DD by online is 10%. I would be wary of reducing it by too much as £400 in credit doesn't sound a huge amount with a requested DD of £540. You're going to need that credit balance in the winter and the more your DD is at present then the more likely you will exit the winter without being in too much debt.

You could check that your forecast usage is not too wide of the mark and if it's too high then a phone call to Eon Next might help.

[meldrewreborn]

@JoeSoap

There are limits on what the website allows customers to change their DD without human intervention. Usually people want to decrease their payments and the limit is 10%. I'd suspect something like that applies to increases too. I'm afraid you need to contact customers service by phone or social media to get this one through.

Your level of DD is though quite high and i would check the forecast consumption, prices used, factor in your credit and the government credit to come before you contact customers services so that you can debate the matter from a position of strength.

[JoeSoap]

@meldrewreborn

I think you meant to address your last post to @MikeB.

By coincidence though, I'm quite a high user and my DD is very similar to theirs at £535. I also have a credit balance of over £300 and I'm happy to leave it there. What I have done is to reduce my DD by 10% online and I will do my utmost to save at least that over the next year.

Monthly DD against actual usage really does need constant monitoring throughout the year to avoid falling into unmanageable debt, for sure.

This is a great forum to help people understand the nature of energy usage, bills, DDs and the like and, as you have pointed out many times, the constant quoting of a price cap in an annual monetary amount for 'typical' users is very misleading and particularly catches out those who are higher than average users.

[meldrewreborn]

@JoeSoap

Sorry for the slip and for you recognising my error. - Its been a busy morning!