I've had an email saying my DD will be increased by two-and-a-half times what it was before the EBSS started. I've made a payment to bring my account to zero, went to change my DD and get a message to say that I can't reduce my DD online! Fine, ok, I'll contact them to get it done. Oh - no I won't, because they can't be bothered to provide contact at weekends! They WANT you to pay by DD - but if they behave like this I'm inclined to cancel the DD so I'm back in control of my own money. Plus I'm going to struggle to contact them tomorrow because it seems they have messed up DD payments for loads of customers going forwards - so no doubt thousands of customers will be flooding their phone lines tomorrow. Why are they allowed to treat their customers in this appalling way? Is there any point in complaining to the regulator?
Direct Debit - no customer control!
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Best Answer
Level 9102-04-23Best Answer@Sallyjw1970
If you’re really inclined to cancel your DD you would be best to contact customer service and request being transferred from a Fixed DD to a Variable DD. This way you only pay for what you are billed for each month but you still keep your DD discount.I'm an Eon Next dual fuel customer with no particular expertise but have some time on my hands that I am using to try and help out a bit. -
Level 2102-04-23@Sallyjw1970
Only if all above is true, then go to your internet banking and search for "payees" "manage my payees" or something like that. Here you see a list of everyone who can take a variable direct debit. Most online banks have a way of deleting or modifying details from that list. You will have to remember to put through your next electricty payment at the new April 2023 price, which you should have in writing as a .pdf document by email. Using electricity in April is implied agreement to that letter so you should read it. Mine decreased p/kWh by nearly a penny (how generous) increased standing charge by 11%, and has no outstanding balance to clear. If cancelling your direct debit at your end, and paying for what you use, it is in your immediate interests to go around looking for bill savings at home for this summer. That set top box using power? Turn it off. You can't stop the freezer from needing electricity but many other things can be unplugged or considerably turned down.
If you've detached yourself from a miscalculated DD then you won't need to involve the regulator.
If they have sorted out a more plausible DD for you for May then they can email their proposal to you. If you've not clicked on agreement to it then put through payment again as an internet banking payment every month, until they are consistently getting it right. It was their mistake not yours which necessitated your deautomating the payments which they did not credibly calculate correctly. Since nobody knows what rate next winter bills might cost, it is not your problem to bung free loan money to a multinational in preparation for next winter. You must still make correct payments for what you use though. -
Level 303-04-23@JoeSoap Just spoke to actually a really nice man, he FINALLY agreed to reduce the DD to my own required amount. He offered exactly what you said - to pay by variable DD so the bills are covered in full each month, however I'm not comfortable with that as I know the bills will be much higher in the winter months. I'd rather pay my required amount now, submit monthly readings and pay any balance via a one-off payment each time. Hopefully this won't be necessary over the next 6 months as we're going into the "lower usage" time of year, and I'll be getting credit balances on my bills - which can stay there and build up to go towards the winter bills. Maybe I just have a strange way of looking at these things . . . -
Level 303-04-23@wizzo227 I was prepared to simply cancel the DD entirely if they wouldn't accept that I would like to pay what I can afford on a monthly basis from my income, then make up any underpayments with one-off payments. Although of course the chap I spoke to pointed out that I would then lose my "DD discounted" tariff, so would pay even more. I've been trying really hard to reduce my energy consumption, there's very little else I can do. I just still find it so frustrating that you have to jump through hoops and basically threaten them with a proposal to cancel your DD before they start being a bit more human about it. I think he finally agreed to me paying half of what he wanted because I have a zero balance, he could see I made a MASSIVE payment on Saturday to bring the account back down to nil and I told him I have a savings account which I can dip into if I need to pay extra amounts to keep the balance at nil. It just feels like I had to give the story of my life with personal details in order to be able to control my own money going out to E-On, which feels wrong. Although I appreciate that everybody is in the same boat and as the chap pointed out, lots of customers just let their bills add up and add up until they have massive debts which will causes massive problems for the company and customers alike. Like everything these days, it seems we are never looked on as individuals but all regarded with deep suspicion.
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Level 2103-04-23It sounds as though you have hit the hard limit of using more energy than can always be paid for at 33.5p/kWh.
One way to manage that would be to get a calculator and work out how far ahead the electricity meter can go by 1st May within the cost (at April 2023 price) which you can afford to pay. You'd skip switching off the kitchen ring main because that goes to the freezer. You look at your in-home-display or meter on Saturday 22nd. If you are getting too near to that dreaded number on the meter by the third week of the month then switch off at most circuit breakers at the consumer unit next to the meter and leave it off for the last week of the month. Don't get sweet-talked into using more than you need. -
Level 9103-04-23@Sallyjw1970
Glad you got it sorted. I too like to pay by Fixed monthly DD but would always advise anyone who wants to pay on receipt of bill to choose Variable DD. Any method of DD gets a discount that is worth having. -
Level 2103-04-237% extra fee for not leaving the goons at multinational HQ in charge of deciding how much dd to pay next month? They haven't given ofgem a reason yet for that price disparity, so perhaps they should revise how extra-expensive payment on receipt of bill can be, since it does not really cost them anything extra at all if people do remember to pay on time. Or are they waiting for the regulator to step in and say that they are Not Allowed to charge extra for payment on receipt of bill if paid on time in full? Not your problem, Sally, but I'm in favour of people having control over their usage and bill outgoings, and not having to pay extra to have genuine electricity usage savings resulting in decreased bills.
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Level 9103-04-23@wizzo227
If a customer chooses to pay by Variable Direct Debit it’s entirely in their hands what they pay each month by virtue of how much energy they consume in the billing period. The ‘goons’, as you call them, have no influence. The amount paid will of course also be subject to the tariff rates, which will be cheaper than if they choose to pay that monthly bill by means other than Direct Debit. -
Level 5603-04-23
I completely agree which is why I went over to Variable Direct Debit nearly a year ago. All the bills generated are paid for with Direct Debits taken (to balance the account) some 15 days after statement generation. It gives me latitude to transfer funds from other sources if required or even pay some of the balance off before the DD is taken.
Paying for what I have consumed in the previous month incentivises my household to be much more aware of how much is being used. Annualised usage has tumbled down since the start of 2022 and has obviously led to lower bills than would otherwise have been the case.
Eon Next has not taken 1p more via DD than I needed to pay so I'm happy not to have this wrangling (completely justified in many cases) about the level of Fixed DD that I see in many posts. 👍Last edited by Mailman; 03-04-23 at 21:53.
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