You'll normally use more energy in the winter and less in the summer. If you pay by fixed monthly Direct Debit, you can spread the costs of your energy evenly over the year rather than having a high bill in winter and a low bill in summer.
Depending on the date of your annual review, your account will show either a debit or credit throughout the year, the aim is to have a zero balance at your annual review.
We regularly review your monthly Direct Debit payment throughout the year to make sure you are paying the right amount. Once a year we also carry out an annual review of your monthly Direct Debit payment. We look at how much you used in the previous year, and calculate how much your payment needs to be to pay for the same amount of energy in the coming year. We also include any money that you owe in this calculation. We try to get you back to a zero balance by your next annual review. That way you’re only paying for what you use and don’t build up a large debt or credit. When we review your payment, we comply with the Direct Debit Guarantee.
Every year we’ll have a look at how much energy you’ve used over the last twelve months, and update your Direct Debit to help you spread the costs of your energy evenly over the year (instead of you having a high bill in winter and a low bill in summer).
We call this an annual review because it reviews your account (including any credit, debit and meter reads) and makes sure you’re on track to get your balance to zero for the next year. We’ll also refund any credit you’ve got over £5 (if it’s under £5, we’ll take this off your payments for next year).
We aim to make your annual review date either a year after you’ve set up your Direct Debit or a year after your last review.
To work out how much energy we think you'll use until your annual review, we look at your readings - whether they're actual or estimated - to get an idea of what you've used in the last 12 months. Actual readings give us a more accurate picture of your energy use, so that's why we ask you to give us your readings every time you receive an estimated bill - see 'How can I give you meter readings?'
Giving us regular meter readings will mean you’ll get a better picture of your energy use and what you’ll need to pay. You can use your Direct Debit Manager to keep an eye on your payments and make sure that you’re on track to pay for the energy you’ll use over the year.
It’s easy to give us readings, see “how can I give you meter readings?” If your circumstances change - for example if you have a new baby, have an extension built, or if someone moves out - please let us know, so we can review your payments.
Anything you owe us will be added to and spread out over your payments for the next 12 months.
Anything we owe you will be paid back into your bank account as long as you’ve given us a meter reading in the last 180 days.
You can pay a lump sum online using our online payment pages. You’ll need your account number and a credit or debit card handy (if you use a credit card, there’s a 1.5% handling fee).
Once this payment has cleared (usually about 24 hours), your Direct Debit Manager will recalculate your payments, you’ll just need to go in and accept them.
Your payment will show up on your account within 24 hours, so if you check your Direct Debit Manager after this you’ll be able to see how your Direct Debit payments are affected.
We’ll send you confirmation of the changed payment amount in writing. If you’ve let us know before that it’s okay to email you about changes to your payment, you’ll get an email confirmation from us instead of a letter.
The date your new Direct Debit payment amount starts will be on this confirmation.
Sometimes if you update your Direct Debit online, it’s too late for us to make the change in time for your next payment (so if you update your account on the 7th October and your payment is due to be taken on the 10th October, we won’t be able to update your account with your new details in time, so no payment is taken).
If this happens, we’ll spread the missed payment out over your payments going forward.
Your Direct Debit manager will update to reflect your new tariff, and include any rewards and discounts.
If you think you may have problems paying your new monthly Direct Debit payment, please call us as soon as possible on 0345 052 0000 and we can talk about what we can do to help.
The energy overview in the Direct Debit Manager shows what we think you’ll use until your next annual review, so forecasts for the future. The energy tracker is based on what you’ve used in the past.
All these numbers are what we add up to work out what you’ll need to pay until your next annual review.
We take them from your account, looking at the energy you used last year to predict what you’ll use over the coming year, your discounts, any payments that you’re about to make, and your current balance. Put together, these build up your personal energy overview.
This may be because your browser (Internet Explorer for example) has stored an old version of the page. If you’re using a PC, try holding control and F5 buttons on your keyboard to reset the page.
The Direct Debit Manager needs JavaScript switched on to work, if you still can’t see your Manager, check JavaScript is switched on in your browser. If you don’t know how to do this, you can check the help pages for your browser.
Browser help pages:
Internet Explorer
Chrome
Firefox
Safari
Safari iOS (on iPods, iPads and iPhones)
The last month on your graph shows what we think you’ll use up to your annual review date, not the whole month. Depending on how early in the month your annual review is, this can make your bar much smaller.
Giving your meter readings online is quick and easy - you can:
- go to eonenergy.com/readings
- call out automated telephone service on 0345 052 0000
- download our smartphone app (for iPhone or Android)
If you'd like a refund, please call us on 0345 052 0000 with your meter readings. This allows us to make sure that your Direct Debit payment is accurate and refund any credit balance that we owe you. If your credit balance is less than £5 at your annual review, we will include this in our calculation for next year’s payment rather than refunding you.
Sometimes your payments won't match the amount that we've estimated you'll spend on energy over the next 12 months. This is because when we work out your payments, we don't just look at how much your energy will cost in the next year, we also have to:
- Look at your balance and any payments you're about to make
- Calculate how many payments we may be able to take before your next annual review, this will usually be less than 12
If you can't find the answer to your query here, please call us on 0345 052 0000
