edf almost doubling direct debit!

BillieTheBot

just got home from work and opened up our electricity bill. for the oct-dec period, we used £180 of electricity. this is normal. in the summer we used something like £130!

anyway, we pay £60 a month by direct debit.

they've wrote to us and told us that they are increasing our direct debit to £100 per month. whhhatttt?! how do they work that out if our bill was £180 over 3 months. our winter bill is usually same as autumn bill!

me and my flatmate can't afford £40 extra a month. i dont even know why they are charging it us what should we do?

Former Member

I used to work for Edf and the problem with direct debits going up massively lost us a lot of customers, simply because nobody checks the debit after the computer has done its calculations.

There is a big long explanation to do with future prices, consumption and all that bollocks. It maybe that there is a debit on your account from a large winter bill. The direct debit aims to clear this debit balance before your next bill is due (within 3 months). This is why your direct debit can increase by a lot.

Just call them, ask them to work it out on the consumption calculator whilst your on the phone. Get an up to date reading and ask them to work out your d/debit out over the past year. If there is a debit balance on your account, you need to think about paying that off somehow (it depends if its excessive) or leave it to take care of itself when your consumption drops in the summer.

Call them.

Former Member

do you know when the annual review is?

it says on the letter than if at our annual review, we are more than £150 in debit, they'll take full amount out of bank account. this would bounce as i dont have it.

we are £180 in debit as this is what we used Oct-Dec.

Former Member

But you'd only be 180 pounds in debt if you hadn't paid any DD payments. Somewhere on the bill it should say what the current postiion is.

Former Member

i think we pay for our direct debits just after the quarter.

we set up our direct debit when a big bill came through.

does that make sense? so we'll pay off this quarters bill over next 3 months.

Former Member

when your bill comes through your payments should be aimed towards being even or slightly in credit, if you were £180 in debit when the next bill came then this is why its gone up...

do you do regular meter readings? aim to do 3 per quarter which is the most you can do i believe, this way you are only paying for what you use. If you are in debit i believe they'll let you pay it back over 3 months rather than taking a lump sum.

best thing to do is to speak to them and find out whats going on.