Edf bill has gone up ridiculous amount- for our 3 bed, 2 adults and a newborn

[TheCaretakerNadine]

We moved into this house 1yr ago.
Set up a dd with edf - fixed rate til march 2024. Smart meter. Dd set to £200/month for gas and electricity. But for September and October, they have charged a whopping £490!

There are 2 of us and a newborn- I'm on mat leave at the mo, hubby does not work from home but I do- i start back again in Jan and absolutely shuddering at what our electricity bill will be like with my laptop/internet/printer using electricity. We are super careful with electricity. We even turn our tv and internet router off at night.

When I phoned them to explain the bill increase, they mentioned how if i go onto quarterly payments, I have a chance of ending up in debt to them.

How on earth is one supposed to do their monthly household expenditure budgeting if these monthly figures keep changing?

Any advice?

Surely if you are in so much credit they use this to lower direct debits??

You've been there a year already so how do their estimates compare with your actual usage?
I don't have gas but over 14 thousand kWh sounds a huge amount unless that's a typo!

Yes our dd got increased from 200£/month to £490/month without me being told! I just happened to be checking my bank balance for something else and thought hang on why is that account looking unhealthy- i went through statements and thats when I saw, the cheeky buggers did it in September, October AND the app says they intend to in November too.

EDF are a complete nightmare, it is so infuriating that you can’t switch providers at the moment.

they tried to put our DD up to 550 pm and I had to cancel it and just pay the bill online every month when they publish it. Highest bill so far has been 277.00 so not sure why they need double that amount.

we will be being much more conservative with the heating than we were in the past, so I don't think we will ever end up paying anywhere near to 550!

Remember your direct debit is not how much you are actually using. Can you take weekly meter readings and submit to get an accurate bill? I'm with octopus energy and as soon as you submit a reading they recalculate your account. You could do this as often as you like but I do it every two weeks. It doesn't seem to rally with all the emails asking me to increase my direct debit as we are actually in credit.

Not a typo im afraid.

Either theyv botched up or we have a gas leak im unaware of.

Your electricity use is quite low but your gas is a little high.

However, www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/what-are-the-price-cap-unit-rates-/#tool shows that £200 is about right per month which might explain the big credit that will get used up over winter.

Given that you can take £400 off your winter bill, it seems that your direct debit should stay as it is, or could even reduce a little so I would work through the other MSE link I posted above to challenge the proposed £490 DD.

If they've upped your DD and not told you, go to your bank and ask for it to be refunded under the direct debit guarantee.

I don’t know if you’re getting mixed up between your bill amount and your direct debit amount. The bill is quarterly and tells you what’s been used. The DD amount is what they think you will use per year, divided by 12 (including any credit or debit) so that in spring your balance will be around 0. If you disagree you can set your DD lower. Most companies have a ‘range’ that they will allow on DD based on your property type/ usage history.

I’m with SO Energy, the dd was £120 /month before the government payment kicked in, I am £450 in credit.
Semidetached 3 bed, 2 adults (retired), here most of the day.
I submit monthly meter readings.

The person before us in our house was an old lady who had the hearing on all the time, and used loads more gas. We are over £900 in credit.
The just dropped our DD by £86 a month.

Sorry I didn’t see the post about your actual usage! Have you checked the heating/hot water settings to make sure they are not on all day or coming on when you are out? If your hot water is on constant that could explain it (depending on your boiler type) if it’s an old boiler definitely get it checked. A plumber will check safety but also turn the water temp down which saves money

The devil’s in the detail. They’ve literally told you that “if you pay quarterly you may run up a debt”. That’s EXACTLY what quarterly billing is - you pay off the debt you’ve run up.

Our bill for the 6 months of feb to aug came to £1100 = £650 for the gas and 450 for electric.

As we pay 200£/month = £1200 over 6months so we have £100 credit remaining. Then they take 2 payments of £450 for sept and oct and intend to for next month

I have just had this exact problem with British Gas, only resolved by going through complaints. DD was £270 pm at the beginning of the year. It was put up to £370 in March or April. And then £398 in September. At the beginning of the month they requested that I increase it to £550 per month, at which point I went through my account with a fine toothed comb, and got BG to issue an up to date statement. I am £1000+ in credit and my usage has never exceeded £250. I put in a complaint and my payments have been put back to £190. I have a suspicion that energy companies are hiking monthly payments to increase their cash flow.

Thanks I think I will call a plumber round.
I checked our usage for 2 weeks in September when we went away on a break. For gas, 30p a day for not even using anything!

I’d cancel the dd and pay bills based on actual usage.

Though yeah your gas usage sounds high, maybe a faulty meter? Can that be a thing?

For gas, 30p a day for not even using anything!

Is that the standing charge?

*Our bill for the 6 months of feb to aug came to £1100 = £650 for the gas and 450 for electric.

As we pay 200£/month = £1200 over 6months so we have £100 credit remaining. Then they take 2 payments of £450 for sept and oct and intend to for next month*

Yeah well that sounds right. Your dd was too low if now going into winter you only have £100 credit. Up to you whether you pay that amount though. You can pay for what use instead.

This, they can’t just amend your direct debit without alerting you, talk to your bank.

And then tell them you’re in credit so you won’t be paying this figure they’ve suggested, you probably need to up it a bit but tell them what you will pay and keep an eye on your meter readings every month.

Nope.

And we are supposed to be on a fixed rate- but our bill states an increased unit rate- so its not what i was told it would be nor whats on my app under tariff details. Am I missing something? I thought with fixed rate, unit rate remained the same

And this is why I won't have a smart meter and read the meter myself every two weeks.

Yes our account is £1150 in credit- they state that they upped our monthly payments to anticipate for higher energy use in the winter.

Are you getting mixed up how much credit you’re in? Is it £1150 or £100? That will make a big difference.

Everyone is on a pay for what they use tariff. The fix is the price per KWh not pounds per month.
OP even if you’re on a smart meter get in the habit of submitting a meter reading one a month. There may be an option to reduce you dd online. Either that or contact your supplier and ask for the credit to be refunded.