E.on to pay £682,000 to 1.6million customers for taking direct debits early – are you due a refund?
ENERGY provider E.on has been ordered to pay over £682,000 to 1.6million customers after it took direct debit payments early.
The payments were supposed to be taken in January 2021, but instead the direct debit charges were taken on December 24 last year.
The error left some households without enough cash to pay other bills, while others were hit by unexpected overdraft charges.
The early payments were taken due to a technical fault following changes the provider made for pre-payment customers between Christmas and New Year.
At the time, E.on apologised and said it would refund customers but not until after Christmas, leaving some families short over the festive period.
An investigation by the regulator Ofgem found that not enough had been done to make sure this kind of error would not happen.
How to find out if I've been affected
CUSTOMERS who have been affected by the payment error will see that the cash has been taken from their bank account.
Shortly after the error occurred, E.on contacted all 1.6million customers who were charged early by email.
Customers didn't need to do anything at the time as the provider was working on issuing automatic refunds.
But the earliest date the cash could reach customers' bank accounts was December 29.
Households' direct debits were then taken again on their normal payment date in January.
Now, Ofgem and E.on are urging customers who were negatively impacted by the early direct debits to come forward to claim a portion of the compensation fund.
The extra cash will help cover any additional bank charges suffered as a result of the technical error.
You can call E.on's customer service team on 0345 052 0000.
E.on has already issued £55,039 to customers who contacted them with a complaint that they suffered extra bank charges due to the early payments.
Now, the energy provider has agreed to payout an additional £627,312 to households who may have suffered because of the fault.
The total compensation pot is worth £682,351, meaning each of the 1.6million customers would get a small payment of 42p on average.
However, some households will be entitled to a bigger payout, depending on how badly the early direct debits affected their finances.
Others may not be able to claim any cash at all as they were not hit with any extra charges.
Customers who were negatively impacted and haven't already spoken to E.on are being urged to contact the provider to make a claim.
The extra cash will cover the cost of any unexpected bank charges or other detriment caused by the early payments.
Anna Rossington, director of retail at Ofgem, said: "Ofgem expects suppliers to adhere to the terms of contracts they have with customers, in particular the agreed direct debit payment dates.
"This failure is a reminder to suppliers that when making changes to their systems, they need to undertake appropriate checks to avoid any unintended consequences for customers."
E.on boss Michael Lewis said: "This error should not have happened and it was unfortunate that it was so close to Christmas.
"We apologised to those affected at the time and I apologise to them again now.
"As soon as we noticed the issue, we took immediate steps to put things right for our customers."
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