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E.on Next - gone from £250 in credit to £2300 in debit?!

159 replies

FLA92 · 07/02/2023 20:04

This surely can not be possible?

We have gas and electric with E.on Next. It’s always in credit, it was over £200 in credit the last time I had checked.

We got asked for meter readings which we gave - it said they were high for what was expected but they were correct so we submitted them.

I have just checked my account and it’s now £2,300 in debit!!!

We have lived here for 2 years and obviously this was nowhere near what we paid last year - it’s just the 2 of us living here and I didn’t put the heating on until late November / early December!

I do work from home most days but even so - surely it cannot be this high?

I’m going to call them first thing in the morning, but has anyone else had a similar situation?

OP posts:
Chickenwing2022 · 07/02/2023 21:54

With the gas reading from your 22nd Dec estimated read until your manual read which is just 13 days later on 02.01 - it is a jump of over 500 units. So the gas estimate on 22.12.22 was really underestimated basically.
That will be a big cost to your bill/account.

Needapadlockonmyfridge · 07/02/2023 22:00

Those electricity readings don't look right, surely.
Which are estimates and which are actually readings?

Merlinsbeard83 · 07/02/2023 22:01

Wow I would love 62 a month ,we pay 300 a month

JimnJoyce · 07/02/2023 22:05

your direct debit is too low. Im with Eon Next and just 2 of us here. My direct debit is £120 per month, we are all electric and i think mine is low

plumduck · 07/02/2023 22:06

JimnJoyce · 07/02/2023 22:05

your direct debit is too low. Im with Eon Next and just 2 of us here. My direct debit is £120 per month, we are all electric and i think mine is low

Is that with the government help applied?

Chickenwing2022 · 07/02/2023 22:07

I have checked and one of my recent bills I had used 20 units of gas which cost us £50ish (I do meter reads fairly often)
So your 500 units is 25 times that figure - and so I would expect to pay approx £1250 for that many units. I do think this is partly why your bill is now so high.

plumduck · 07/02/2023 22:07

Merlinsbeard83 · 07/02/2023 22:01

Wow I would love 62 a month ,we pay 300 a month

Every month?

plumduck · 07/02/2023 22:07

Chickenwing2022 · 07/02/2023 22:07

I have checked and one of my recent bills I had used 20 units of gas which cost us £50ish (I do meter reads fairly often)
So your 500 units is 25 times that figure - and so I would expect to pay approx £1250 for that many units. I do think this is partly why your bill is now so high.

Omg I was way out with my calculations!

WaddleAway · 07/02/2023 22:08

plumduck · 07/02/2023 22:07

Every month?

Ours is £330 a month, every month. Obviously usage is higher in the winter but £330 is the amount averaged over the 12 months.

mumyes · 07/02/2023 22:10

cptartapp · 07/02/2023 20:25

We are with Eon Next paying £60 a month for a four bed and around £200 in credit. I submitted a meter reading last week and nothing was changed.

That doesn't sound right...

Chickenwing2022 · 07/02/2023 22:11

@plumduck your gas does seem cheaper than what I pay per unit, so maybe it's to do with our tariffs. You are getting a good deal!
However, you were definitely right in seeing the gas readings as a huge concern! 500 units being added onto the account in 13 days is going to be expensive.

plumduck · 07/02/2023 22:12

WaddleAway · 07/02/2023 22:08

Ours is £330 a month, every month. Obviously usage is higher in the winter but £330 is the amount averaged over the 12 months.

Oh right. Blimey.

plumduck · 07/02/2023 22:13

Chickenwing2022 · 07/02/2023 22:11

@plumduck your gas does seem cheaper than what I pay per unit, so maybe it's to do with our tariffs. You are getting a good deal!
However, you were definitely right in seeing the gas readings as a huge concern! 500 units being added onto the account in 13 days is going to be expensive.

Yeah I'm starting to realise that!

Heyjoewhatsup · 07/02/2023 22:26

This exact same thing happened to me last week. I could have written your post! I’m also on Eon Next and also pay £60
pcm, the tarriff is fixed til October and is the lowest on the market. With the £66 govt payment it’s actually £126 pcm which on an old tarriff for a 3 bed is around average usage. Ignore people saying it’s too low and you obviously owe money.

We got a shock email last week- £2300 in debt down from a £380 in credit . I submitted frequent meter readings.

Here’s what they did and I urge you to check if the same thing happened to you. The absolute buggers did something very naughty. It took 2 hours trawling through bills to spot it. They changed my opening meter reading- reduced it dramatically and recalculated my usage since being with them. So let’s say my opening balance was 45000 units they dropped it to 30000! I phoned them up, provided evidence (first bill and meter readings), they tried to dispute it and I pushed back. They eventually admitted it was a mistake. I am convinced it was done on purpose to extract money.

Next day our account was recalculated and I went back into credit. Then, the cheeky buggers sent an email saying they anre increasing my direct debit to £350pcm as they want to protect me from getting in future debt based on my usage. There is no risk of this looking at my tarriff and usage so I immediately went into the online account and adjusted the amount to £100pcm.

I’m going to keep an eye on them, as it’s obviously a strategy to extract as much money as possible for their cash flow as the tarriff is such a good deal. I will also be taking photos of all meter reads from now on so I have date time stamps.

Good luck.

drunkornot · 07/02/2023 22:30

plumduck · 07/02/2023 22:06

Is that with the government help applied?

No - before I assume as I’m with eon next/all electric too and my bills cost the same before the government help. Albeit the property is empty during the daytime as household is at work.

Heyjoewhatsup · 07/02/2023 22:34

I’m on eon next and they automatically applied the government discount and reduced my Direct Debit. I’ve been manually updating my account with the extra cash

SamBeckettslastleap · 07/02/2023 22:37

Ignore people saying it’s too low and you obviously owe money.

Op is on variable and therefore not comparable to your fixed.

Heyjoewhatsup · 07/02/2023 22:38

@SamBeckettslastleap fair enough… I thought eon next was the fixed tarriff,

OntarioBagnet · 07/02/2023 22:44

Your electric readings seem really odd, one year you have used a lot more than in a previous period of about the same time. When it jumps from 5580 to over 12,000. With you being in a flat are you sure nobody has tapped into your supply? There was a case locally where some cannabis plant growing idiots did this and the person who’s house and supply it was had no idea the neighbour was doing this.

Calmdown14 · 07/02/2023 22:46

While your DD payments are a bit low and you may be in some debt, the figures still don't stack up.

Was the reading for electric from April 2021 a proper one or an estimate?

You have taken a massive leap up in 10 months of over 7,700kwh which is triple your previous years (and was above the UK average for annual use of 2900kwh).

Are you sure you didn't enter it incorrectly? Or read your neighbour's meter?

I've never gone above 5000kwh a year in an all electric house (so heaters and hit water). You'd be going some to use that much electric. Something's not right here unless you've had chronically low estimates for years

Calmdown14 · 07/02/2023 22:52

So at 34p a kWh the difference between your 7700 useage (in 10 months) minus the national average gives about 4800 units.

If you have actually used 4800 units more than the average household (doubtful!) then that's over £1600 hence the enormous debt suddenly added to the bill.

Unless you are running a hot tub or an electric car or two, the figures aren't feasible

mrsbyers · 07/02/2023 23:44

Check that the meter you are reading matches the meter reference on your account and that you have read it correctly as a starting point

Fitbachick · 08/02/2023 00:22

I would be double checking your electric usage as 7000 units does not look right. I just checked my bill and for 6 months usage of electric we used just over 1500 units and we have a 3 bedroom, 2 sitting rooms house. Sosomething definitely looks wrong with your electric usage.

larkstar · 08/02/2023 00:30

@FLA92 just login to your on line account and check the actual meter readings that have been submitted and compare with your current meter reading - it's possible that you have submitted a reading with an incorrect digit, a pair of digits reversed, etc - a really simple error (my MIL once made) could account for a wildly inaccurate bill.

Munches · 08/02/2023 00:39

Unfortunately we were with this dreadful company once . We had the same
issue but was paying a lot more than you per month- then , wham, we got the most extortionate bill.

The issue we found is no one on the phone helps you and the bills are designed to confuse the fuck out of you and so don’t understand the gobbledygook bollocks that is written on them. They are the most dreadful and disgusting company and it took us months to sort it out. We never did get anything off the bill that we believed we hadn’t used but paid it and changed providers .

Never ever again. Looking back I wish I had reported them and I should have reported them but I was a new Mum at the time and we were all over the place anyway.

Good luck to you with this.