E.on tariff query!

[StripyPixieSocks]

So we checked our E.on bill tonight and it's jumped £20 since the last bill and is now up to £90 / month for a one bedroomed flat (gas and electric).

Now, we've cut back to the bone and it still just keeps on going up and up and we've reached the limit now, we can't change because we're in arrears with them so action is having to be taken before it gets to £100 and onwards!

We're off out tomorrow to buy one of those usage meters which you can plug into any appliance and check how much it is using at any one time and we're on the look out for one of those plugs that you use with the fridge/freezer which cuts the costs down by 25% (or some such) but really, we think we are being stiffed as there's no way on this earth we use the amount to justify £90 / month.

We are now putting in meter readings on the 15th of every month as it seems they want to charge you for what they think is 'reasonable usage' and one person cut her bill from £108 / month down to £38 just by forcing them to use her own meter readings.

But seriously, are we on a high tariff or being charged wrongly because it really doesn't make sense to me how my parents have their heating on all the time and loads of lights on etc etc etc and still use pay half of what we are using and we are uber-careful... something is amiss!

The tariff we are on is Energy Online Extra Saver (HA) Standing Charge 6

Electric: 0.0954 / kwh
Gas: 0.02913 / kwh

The standing charge for the electric is £0.2115 / day and for the gas £0.1217 / day

Is anyone on the same tariff or can suggest a cheaper one as we keep getting fobbed off when we call E.on as to what would be a better tariff for us and when we tell them we use online checkers they say (and I quote) "Oh they're rubbish and they don't work"

We are seriously in trouble at the moment with an income of £71 / week and after we've paid E.on, Water, Car Insurance, Virgin and our debts we are left with almost nothing and myself and my OH have gone way past breaking point lately and the stress is starting to make us very seriously ill!

Until we can get it sorted or work out what is going on we are filling in an excel spread sheet to try and catch them out if they are ripping us off... which we think they are!

[lsm1066]

I'd say you're being stiffed.

We're with E-On and have arrears so they put a key meter in. We're using about £3 a day on it, so roughly the same as they say you're using, and £5 a week of that is taken off the debt. But whist we don't have gas, we do have a 4 bedroomed detached house and run a business from 3000 sq ft of workshops, running lighting, industrial sewing machines and compressors every day. I'd check how many units you're using on a daily basis and work out what it should be, then get them to check the meter.

But do be careful with them because they were responsible for our debt in a way. When we first moved here I set the bill up to be paid by direct debit. I explained that the house had previously been occupied by an elderly couple and that we were a family of 4 and would be using the outbuildings extensively but they insisted that the direct debit only needed to be £56 a month. They estimated every bill, even the one they were supposed to do from a reading at the end of a year, and refused my requests to increase the direct debit when I compared our meter readings with the bills. Eventually, after 18 months, we got a bill for an outstanding amount of nearly £600 and were told we had 7 days to pay. When we couldn't, they took us to court, sent round bailiffs from the sherrifs office (at a cost of £500 per visit), installed a key meter, and we are now trying to clear a debt of nearly £2000! All because they wouldn't take a higher direct debit in the first place.

So be very careful with E-On. We're saving up as much as we can so that we can pay them off as fast as possible and change suppliers at the first opportunity. Because at £5 a week, we're stuck with them for the next 30 years!

[Big Al]

SPS, go on the eon site http://www.eonenergy.com/At-Home/HomePage.htm and log in.

and do a quote and move. This will bring up all the tarrifs that you can have. That will tell you if there is a cheaper tarrif available on Eon for you at present. You say you are in arrears, if it's less than £100 you can move to another supplier without hassle. if it's more than £100 try and swap anyway as it will then be up to eon to see if they let you go or not.
I know i've been banging on about Ebico but they are the cheapest I've found by a long way.

I've been taking daily readings now since June and if I'd been on eon since june until yesterday my electric bill would have been £332.18 with ebico it is £212.56.

To start with I would advise you to start taking daily meter readings. It is surprising how you focus on your power useage when daily readings are taken.

I have a few excel spreadsheets that you can use to help you. If you want them pm me and I'll sort hem out for you. At least then you know how much it is actually costing you in hard cash.

Personally I would be wary of having a standing charge if you don't use a lot of fuel. I worked out yesterday that although I'm paying 15pence a unit for leccy I'm still cheaper than with a standing charge (SC) with a cheaper unit price as I would still pay more with a SC than without.

One of the tarrifs Eon offer now is the first 900 units of the year at one price and a reduced price for all the rest. Adding onto that a daily SC of around 36p.
The problem is if you only use 900 units in say 7 months then you are worse off with a SC so you are rewarded for useing more electric.

As a general rule if you are with the big 6 then you will be getting stiffed... or am I cynical having worked for BG and Eon??
HTH

[StripyPixieSocks]

Thankyou :)

We're going to see if there's a cheaper tariff (even though we were told the one we were on was the cheapest and it's not looking at the link Al game me) and we're going to keep a very close eye on things for three months then if nothing changes and we thing they are charging / have the meter installed incorrectly then we are going to complain and if we get no satisfaction take them to the Energy Ombudsman.

Yep, they are responsible in a way for our debt too... we changed the tariff and kept paying the fixed monthly direct debit only find out that we were suddenly £166 in debt and they hadn't bothered to tell us. Then we had a couple of months of no money (which isn't their fault) so we're around £350 behind which we're trying to pay off (or will do when our benefits are re-instated correctly and they have back-paid us all that they owe us). As soon as we are under £100 we are going to seriously look at moving and will definitely have a look at the option Al mentioned.

I loved the way on their website it said they would bring prices down next year as long as the oil prices kept falling... yeah, great... only took you 6 months at a super high profit to pass on your savings you... well... illegitimate children!

[Big Al]

Thankyou :)

We're going to see if there's a cheaper tariff (even though we were told the one we were on was the cheapest and it's not looking at the link Al game me) and we're going to keep a very close eye on things for three months then if nothing changes and we thing they are charging / have the meter installed incorrectly then we are going to complain and if we get no satisfaction take them to the Energy Ombudsman.

Yep, they are responsible in a way for our debt too... we changed the tariff and kept paying the fixed monthly direct debit only find out that we were suddenly £166 in debt and they hadn't bothered to tell us. Then we had a couple of months of no money (which isn't their fault) so we're around £350 behind which we're trying to pay off (or will do when our benefits are re-instated correctly and they have back-paid us all that they owe us). As soon as we are under £100 we are going to seriously look at moving and will definitely have a look at the option Al mentioned.

I loved the way on their website it said they would bring prices down next year as long as the oil prices kept falling... yeah, great... only took you 6 months at a super high profit to pass on your savings you... well... illegitimate children!

SPS,

There's nothing to harm in trying to get a better deal now. Phone them up and say that you want a cheaper deal. You are happy to stay with a good provider like eon... YES I KNOW IT'S LIEING BUT CROSS YOUR FINGERS BEHIND YOUR BACK and all will be ok so the fairies tell me.
Ask them how many units of electric you use in an average year. They have this info on the computer so don't be fobbed off with that info is not available...IT IS. Then you can ask them what he cheapest tarriff will be with the amount of units you use.

The idea is that if you are a super low user, say less than 900 units a year then you don't want to be on a tarrif that charges a high cost per unit for those first 900 units then a low price after that.

If you go into your avccount online you should be able to see how many units you use anyway yourself but it puts preasure on eon employees to do their job properly.

Another little tip is that seeing as you only owe £350 they won't quibble at you going over to another supplier. What they will do is keep the DD you are paying now in place to "pay off the arrears". Now i know you probably couldn't aford to keep both DD's in place like I couldn't ( I owed £769) so what i did was cancel the dd to eon the day before it was due, moved over to the new company and then reduced the DD to the new power company by £10 a month and paid £30 a month to eon by telephone. I'm not saying you should do this but it gave me a breather of a month free electric from the new provider and this money went to pay eon's first instalment. Over the following months my bill fell from £170 to eon to £90 for Ebico so the extra £80 I was saving I paid £50 off the arrears to eon and the other £30 went into the budget.

Now I'm a follower of frugalitty my electric to ebico is £30 and gas is £60 a month even in the winter and by the end of march I will have a nil ballance.

As for being responsible for the debt they are not really. The only way they would be is the way some unscruppulous edf salesmen used to sell and that was to target people on low incomes and ask how much the householder wanted to pay each month. Of course some people on low incomes would say £10 per month so they would sign them up at that figure when really they were using a lot more. The problem was when an honest salesman like me went round I couldn't compete and couldn't get through to them they were under paying. Then 4 months later you go round again and they say they are in debt and owe £800 etc. Your heart bleeds for them but it's a bad world out there.

Sadly we all need to be responsible for our useage and keep a check on it and if we see we are using more than we are paying for we should tell the power company to increase the DD..

[happy place]

hi sps
i will lay my cards on the table and say that i am an independant distributor for a company called the utility warehouse

now for the pitch we can put all your utillities on one bill thats one d/d a month we are the the only company that do this we are cheaper than british gas , cheaper than the local electricity supplier and cheaper than bt. which magazine keeps voting us the best in utilitys supply the latest being best in telephone and broadband bundles.
if this sounds intereasting to you please look at www.myfunlife.co.uk
or pm me and i will give you a call to explain it


i am sorry for the blatant adevertising and if anyone feels this has been out of order pls remove this post but i know we can save nearly everyone money and if we cant i will tell you to stay put or go to another supplier

[StripyPixieSocks]

Thanks for all your advice, we will be weighing up all the options as well as keeping an eye on E.on :)

You're all brilliant!!!

[Big Al]

hi sps
i will lay my cards on the table and say that i am an independant distributor for a company called the utility warehouse

now for the pitch we can put all your utillities on one bill thats one d/d a month we are the the only company that do this we are cheaper than british gas , cheaper than the local electricity supplier and cheaper than bt. which magazine keeps voting us the best in utilitys supply the latest being best in telephone and broadband bundles.
if this sounds intereasting to you please look at http://www.myfunlife.co.uk
or pm me and i will give you a call to explain it


i am sorry for the blatant adevertising and if anyone feels this has been out of order pls remove this post but i know we can save nearly everyone money and if we cant i will tell you to stay put or go to another supplier

Hi happy place,

Have you worked for any of "the big 6" ?
I ask as you are offering the same old pitch that you are cheaper than British Gas, Local Electric company and BT.

Industry, and like me ex industry sales quote this because of the way the privatisation was set up. For those that don't know when the system was set up to make competition "work" the incumberant supplier I.E. British Gas for gas and your local electric company had to have the most expensive prices. This is laid down in the law. Thus other suppliers could come in and undercut the local supplier so the sales pitch is we are cheaper than BG and cheaper than your local supplier. That is no lie but it's not the whole truth when many feel there is not a level playing field anyway.
The same with BT being the incumberant telephone supplier although I'm not sure of the set up structure of the telecoms privatisation.

When which says that you are "best in utillities supplies" is that on the whole or just (the latest) telecoms and broadband?

I ask because you have come on here touting a pitch for sales and that's probably not right becaue it's a sales pitch and not an open honest view of the market. Quoting well known consumer magazines can be misleading as well.
I make no bones about it that I am on ebico and will shout it from the rooftops because I feel it is the best for a vast number of people but I don't sell it on here, in fact I don't sell anything anywhere. I make no financial or personal gains from telling people about ebico except the warm glow that people might benefit if they join ebico.

Don't forget ebico don't charge any different for the way you pay so if you are on the current expensive prepayment meters you pay the same tarrif as the rich on DD........ (sorry couldn't miss the opportunity to have a tounge in cheek moment)

One thing I did look for on your site was the tarrif for gas and it is baned into 3 bands, low user, standard user and high user with different tarrifs. To be totally convinced that ebico is right for me I worked out my figures for this month( ONLY HALF A MONTH) based on your tarrifs. However I could not find on your site where it will tell me what user band I fall into. Can you please point me to the place on your site where it tells me what the upper and lower limits of the 3 bands are?

For reference my gas useage so far this month
1446 kwh with a calorific value of 39.9000
on ebico is £44.98

UW low tarrif £66.46
standard tarrif £51.50 + £1.50 SC
High Tarrif £49.51 + £3.50 SC

So as you can see the Utillity Wharehouse isn't best for me by between approximatly £21, £8, £8 but I am interested in the banding figures in case you do become cheaper for me.
My comments here are not meant to be portrayed in a nasty or hurtfull way and I'm going off line for a few days so don't think I am ignoring any response, I'll get to it later this week.

Take care,

Big Al.

[happy place]

hi big al
i know it was a sales pitch but i only pitched because i trully believe that we can save most people money
the way the savings work best is if you take mutiply sevices as this gets a loyalty reward of free calls
the differant taffifs are allocated to you based on your usage and the best value for you ( i dont know how they work this out but will try to find out)
as for working for the big 6 no i have never worked for any of them,or in sales for anybody and i am not directly employed by the utilities warehouse but am an independant distributor for them so this is my own buissness.
as for your usage i'm legally banned from caculating savings you may make as i do not know your usage and anyone who tells you they can save you x amount is being untruthful ( this may seem that i am being picky but i have to be careful with my words)
i hope this has answered your questions and if you have any more or want more info pls contact us direct via the web site



i also only mentioned this buisness as i truly believed it may have been of help and don't intend to plug it here unless it is of direct relvance to a post or info is requeasted

[lsm1066]

I just wonder when the the hundreds of thousands of us who don't have the option of gas because there isn't a gas main anywhere near where we live are going to get any kind of incentives for staying with our suppliers. After all, if you have gas and electricity from the one supplier some suppliers will give you jolly stuff like free standing charge. We don't have a choice, so it's tough!

Hardly seems fair really (not that I care about having mains gas. It's actually cheaper to cook with bottled gas anyway. The standing charge alone costs more than we would pay for gas bottles in a year if we converted from electricity)

Lynne

[StripyPixieSocks]

OK after 1 week exactly of watching our meter and how much we use...

Turning off lights
Turning off PC's when we go out
Boiling what we need in the kettle
... and we found if we close the living room door it gets so hot in here it's silly... now we don't know if that's the PC's or the fact that 'them downstairs' have their heating on tropical setting (seriously it takes your breath away when they open the door) we don't need to turn the heating on AT ALL!

So, we have used a grand total of:

Electric: 93 Units
Gas: 6 Units

This should cost us around £10:00-ish on our current tariff

So that's £10 x 52 / 12 = £43.34 / month... HALF our current bill of £90+

Considering we have told them our situation and that we are having to cut back on food just to pay it and they still keep raising the charge even though we hardly use any I'm absolutely disgusted!

We're going to cut back so much that they are going to get to a point where they will either be paying us or they are going to come and check the meter to see if we aren't fiddling it.

I urge everyone to do it and stick it too them, don't let them get away with charging whatever they feel like, force them to change and pay for what you use!!