[oldagetraveller]

I received an e-mail recently advising that my monthly bills exceed the DD payments. No they don't, they have been consistently less. As a result my DD will be increased from November.
My account is £410 in credit right now and my next bill will be very similar to the previous ones from over the summer months.
I realise a credit build up is adviseable before winter, but the logic/reasoning for increasing the DD is baffling.
It's only a £9/month increase and I will leave it at that. It just seemed strange that an increase is necessary for the invalid reason given?

[JoeSoap]

Originally Posted by wizzo227

Danger!. Symbio did this in the six months up to their going bust and running off with the money. I was unharmed but only because I'd cancelled the direct debit, written to ask for the correct bill so that I may pay it, and declined to pay them some nonsense overcharging. Symbio asked for more money for increasingly desperately flawed reasons. Anyone else who does that is immediately suspected of having a need to get a big company overdraft from somewhere. They have not offerred to pay interest to you at junk bond rates, so there is no reason at all why you should be lending them more than £410.

A Fixed monthly DD is based around forecast consumption and is always subject to change if that forecast starts to be exceeded, or, if on a variable tariff, a price hike is expected. I'm not so sure that happens when consumption falls below the forecast though.

If you're squeamish about having a credit balance then choose a Variable DD and there will never be one. For those like me who like fixed DDs, high credit balances going into the winter and monthly DD hikes, when deemed necessary, are par for the course.

[JoeSoap]

@oldagetraveller

We're discussing this in the thread linked below. I guess they use EAC to determine what your DD is going to be. All will be revealed...

https://community.eonnext.com/thread...ll=1#post40111

[wizzo227]

Danger!. Symbio did this in the six months up to their going bust and running off with the money. I was unharmed but only because I'd cancelled the direct debit, written to ask for the correct bill so that I may pay it, and declined to pay them some nonsense overcharging. Symbio asked for more money for increasingly desperately flawed reasons. Anyone else who does that is immediately suspected of having a need to get a big company overdraft from somewhere. They have not offerred to pay interest to you at junk bond rates, so there is no reason at all why you should be lending them more than £410.

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by oldagetraveller

I received an e-mail recently advising that my monthly bills exceed the DD payments. No they don't, they have been consistently less. As a result my DD will be increased from November.
My account is £410 in credit right now and my next bill will be very similar to the previous ones from over the summer months.
I realise a credit build up is adviseable before winter, but the logic/reasoning for increasing the DD is baffling.
It's only a £9/month increase and I will leave it at that. It just seemed strange that an increase is necessary for the invalid reason given?

Can I just play devil's advocate here?

Last winter from October-March our DD's were £66/£67 less than they would have otherwise have been and we all benefitted from the EPG rates. One could argue that without these interventions our DD's would have been been mouth-wateringly high. Roll on 1 year later and utility rates have fallen considerably although the HMG interventions should not be kicking in when the EPG safety net scheme finishes in March 2024.

If you haven't already done this, I'd suggest you look at your annualised kWh consumption (not costs) from Oct 1st 2022 - October 1st 2023 (or thereabouts) and apply the tariff rates that you are currently on for the whole of that consumption, add on the standing charges and divide by 12. Is this anywhere near the DD figure Eon Next are suggesting? I'd also suggest requesting a repayment of some of your credit leaving a small buffer in case the winter is worse than it was last year.

Your situation is the reason I decided to go onto Variable DD - as there is no 'haggling' as to the level of the DD and my account is currently @ £0

[JoeSoap]

Originally Posted by Mailman

If you haven't already done this, I'd suggest you look at your annualised kWh consumption (not costs) from Oct 1st 2022 - October 1st 2023 (or thereabouts) and apply the tariff rates that you are currently on for the whole of that consumption, add on the standing charges and divide by 12. Is this anywhere near the DD figure Eon Next are suggesting? I'd also suggest requesting a repayment of some of your credit leaving a small buffer in case the winter is worse than it was last year.

That’s pretty much what I did when I got the DD Increase email the other day. I worked out I will be £200 in credit at the end of my contract. I could request a £200 refund from my current £700 balance but I just know they’ll try to increase my DD again to compensate. Like the O.P. I’m going to do nothing and leave the credit balance as a buffer.

[solidbond]

Well here's an interesting little conundrum. My monthly DD was £278. I changed to the Next Pledge Tracker 12m V1 at the end of August, which in theory would reduce my bill by £50 pa and my EAC calculated that I would use £179 per month average. My DD was reduced to £191, despite the fact that I was over £400 in credit. With my most recent DD payment, I was over £560 in credit, so I decided to request a refund which, IIRC, will be about £280. As a result of taking the refund, my DD is now reduced to £157🙄

So if I hadn't reduced the amount I was in credit, I'd be paying £35 per month more than I will now be paying, with the same EAC. You couldn't make it up!

[retrotecchie]

@solidbond

I think they just pull random numbers out of thin air. I still maintain variable DD is the way to go. Those who prefer to pay the same amount every month can always set up a separate bank account just for utilities. Pay a fixed amount into that from your main account every month and let them take the variable DD from that. Track it yourself and make upward or downward adjustments as you need to. If you are 'in credit', you can access the money yourself, or potentially earn a bit of interest on it.

Your own budgeting will be free of any reference to EAC and adjustments up or down will be easier to manage and instant, with no hoops to jump through.

[oldagetraveller]

Thanks for all the replies. My issue is the lame and incorrect excuse given for the increase.
Is it surprising that the energy sellers hold £billions of customers' credits when they, for no proper reason, increase a DD?
Multiply that £9 extra by the thousands of customers throughout the energy selling rip off cartel and even that relatively small sum adds up.
I'm on a fixed tariff and my DD was calculated by dividing my known annual gas and electricity consumption by 12. Not a particularly difficult bit of arithmetic which Eon seem to have ignored.

[meldrewreborn]

@retrotecchie

I pay by fixed monthly Direct Debit. I think for many people who are just about managing and have avoided prepayment metering this is a sensible way to pay, spreading the peak winter months over the whole year. It can have its drawbacks and it does require monitoring by customers. Evidence suggests that energy companies hold too much of their customer’s money than really necessary.

if customers are really disciplined and can do as you say then they may even collect a little interest. But many don’t have that discipline or perhaps like me prefer to have regular payments going out.

Eon Next is a bit unusual in allowing variable direct debit to benefit from the lowest price tariff so that at least should be applauded.