My Eon direct debit has soared

V.L. writes: I am with Eon for gas and electricity. I have been paying £65 a month, a figure set by Eon, but recently I received an email saying my account owes £822 and my monthly direct debits would be going up to £247. This was a shock, especially as my previous month’s statement showed I was in credit by £107. I tried to telephone Eon but my calls were never answered, and online chats were cut off.

CHANGES to the amount Eon has collected from your bank account came with dizzying speed. After rising from £65 a month to £247, payments fell back to £160, only to climb again to £181 – all within weeks.

Eon told me: ‘When Mr L joined Eon, his electricity account was not fully set up, which meant he had not been billed for the electricity he used.’

Utility companies are not supposed to backdate charges by more than one year, so Eon has now cancelled its charges except for the most recent 12 months. It has apologised and paid you £100 to make up for this. The amount you owe has been cut from £822 to a far more manageable £353.