[molerat]

My daughter had a payment review last month and the DD was put up to some silly amount but she had sufficient credit to put it back down again to the amount my spreadsheet suggests which keeps her mainly in credit but gives her a max debit point of 80% of her current monthly DD or 6% of EAC (which is a whole different subject - Hans Christian Andersen springs to mind 🙄 ). Then there was another notification with a suggested DD amount which was ignored then another different suggested DD amount has appeared in the manage payments area. They can't seem to make their mind up how much they want to charge. I am sticking with my variable DD, happy to have their money in my bank for a couple of weeks each month.

[meldrewreborn]

@molerat

we see a very limited number of consumers unhappy with attempts to jack up their Direct Debits. Some of us fight back , but I can well imagine that many just accept the company’s tactics, which to me are not compliant with OFGEM policy on setting them on a fair and reasonable basis. I fully expect fines to follow …..eventually!

[Lee_EONNext]

@meldrewreborn Morning, I've not had any updates on the last piece of information provided if i'm honest. I can see @DebF_EONNext has covered the reasons etc and this hasn't changed since we last spoke. I'm still waiting on someone to come back to me to clarify if its something we can manually change however as things stand its not, because again with what Deb's has mentioned this is something that is done automatically based on reads.

Whilst I appreciate your EAC might not match or be exact, this is an estimate of annual consumption, so this could almost never be 100% accurate and is used as a guide. Even if the EAC was way out, we are still able to manually work out what a Direct Debit should be based on accurate reads.

However, I understand why you would like the EAC to be accurate and 100% however again this is purely an estimate. If anything does change on this I will of course reach out to you.

[meldrewreborn]

@Lee_EONNext

Suppliers rely heavily on the industry EAC, which has many levels and uses, but it is the use in relation to the setting of customer’s direct debits that is of interest here. The figures are made available to Suppliers by the industry but without the means to interrogate or change erroneous data. Energy specialists parrot that the EAC has to be used and totally ignore evidence based protestations that the EAC is wrong. You personally were not able to explain why my electricity EAC stayed exactly the same for 4 months, nor has anybody been able to explain why my EAC remains 10% above the level any impartial person would think appropriate.
I think that Eon Next specialists should be trained to understand that the industry EAC can have substantial flaws rather than being infallible. The requirement from OFGEM is that Direct Debits should be set on a fair and reasonable basis and by making it so difficult to challenge the data it seems to me that Eon Next breach the requirements. Although you say a manual calculation can be carried out, I had to demand that my DD be reduced or I’d go to the ombudsman. And these recent tales of customers in credit being told to increase their DD to avoid unaffordable debt are crass in the extreme. A better approach is long overdue

[meldrewreborn]

Here's a graph of my rolling 12 month electricity consumption back to 2022. My latest EAC is 1748!!!

[AncientOne]

I've just emailed Customer Services with a request to change my Direct Debit to variable. There doesn't seem to be any way to do this on the app.

My problem is that when I moved to E.on, the direct debit seems to have been based on an annual usage of £2795. I can only guess that this was based on my previous history with OVO 🤬, on their ridiculous Type-of-Use tariff. At that point my EAC was 2700 kWh p.a.. I have no idea where that came from.

Within a week, I'd moved to the NextDrive tariff that I had signed up for. Billed costs dropped massively. EAC remained unchanged at 2700.Very low summer month usage was 20% of EAC.

Since then, the EAC total estimate has been close to reality at around 12,000. kWh p.a.. But the split between off-peak and peak use bears no relation to any form of reality.

The EAC shows my night use at 53% consistently. The actual overall figure is 95% to date, although it will probably be nearer to 90% over the full year.

The result is that I currently have a healthy credit balance that should see me over most of the winter, a fixed direct debit that is nearly three times what it should be. And I don't see the EAC reflecting reality for many months to come.

[Mailman]

Looking at my latest figures estimated annual usage (EAU) continues to be above my annualised advances (AA) nearly 2 years into flawlessly lifted Smart readings on both utilities - Gas latest EAU is 7078 kWh v AA of 6482 kWH so inflated by 9.2%. Even taking the worst jan/feb/etc figures over the last 2 years my AA would be 6617 kWh on gas. Electricity a little better but EAU still above AA @ 3% higher than it should be. So for the last 14 months EAU leccy has been consistently higher than AA and 20 months for gas.


The acceptance of such inflated kWh usage figures does lead to an over-inflated DD calculation as mentioned by @meldrewreborn. For those on Variable Direct Debit (such as myself) this makes no difference but for those that must or prefer to use Fixed DDs I can well see how there are wretched tales on energy forums about excessive DD amounts. Another issue relating to the DD calculation is that the supplier uses the EAU calculation and appears to use the same tariff/SC rates for the following 12 months irrespective of the fact that these rates can and do change for many of their customers.

[meldrewreborn]

@AncientOne

Your EAC would relate to that property, not to you previous supplier. Of course that mean exactly the same but it might not. Not reflecting your actual day night split is genuinely appalling - what possible excuse can there be. It clearly a breach of the OFGEM rules.

Switching to variable DD is done via customer service only, not via the website.

[Lee_EONNext]

@meldrewreborn I understand, I really do however again the EAC is purely an estimate.

In terms of your monthly DD we look at actual usage not so much the EAC. So if you were speaking to me in customer service, I would be looking at physical history. If the EAC used at quotation was wrong, then I would ask for something like you have posted to show me what your actual usage, I would have no reason not to believe a customer if they say they have they AAC (Actual Annual Consumption) which in this case you do.

Me as a customer, mine is way out from another supplier, I just found human intervention sorted it, however I do understand why you want this to be as accurate as possible.

If anything does change on this, you will be the first to know.

[meldrewreborn]

@Lee_EONNext

yes it’s an estimate, but it comes from a third party and as my supplier you have better data that could be used to give a much better estimate. They say in the investment industry that past performance isn’t an indication of the future and that’s true, so past consumption data isn’t definitive but it is all we have. The problem is that whatever the EAC is based on belongs in a fairy tale.

I’m sorry but also glad that you have your own experience of EAC issues. It demonstrates a human response rather than a rigid computer knows best approach. Spread the word to you colleagues please!