ESB - Monthly Billpay driving me up the walls

Hi there,

Mods, if this is in the inappropriate thread please let me know!

We've been having ongoing difficulties with the billpay system that I set up with the ESB when we moved into the house 3 years ago. Basically the billpay system means that you pay a set amount each month so that your bills are covered during the course of the year. It's fairly normal for you to be slightly in credit in the summer and in arrears in the winter but it balances out - or so the theory goes.

Here is my difficulty in figures, and you will see where my dilemma is coming from - I have complained to the ESB but I still haven't got satisfaction and am considering bringing it to the appropriate complaints/regulatory authority.

Existing Monthly Pay Amount: €42 per month
Proposed Monthly Pay Amount (according to the ESB): €68

Just to emphasise, we haven't increased our electricity usage, we have slightly reduced it. The bill is always paid on time and not in arrears for more than €20 during the winter. I just can't get over why they would place an increase on our monthly amount of €68. Apparently, they cannot change the figure as it's now "in the machine" so if I want to change the bill pay amount I have to ask the ESB to cancel the direct debit and set up a new one. However they don't guarantee that they won't come up with the same figure!

I would have thought that the idea of a billpay was to budget your household monies - this budget payment represents and increase that is over 61% per annum, and will overpay my annual electricity bill by over €300.

I've posted on this matter before but thought that it was resolved - sorry Clubman, can't find the original thread!

"...I have to ask the ESB to cancel the direct debit..."

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A Direct Debit is an instruction from you, to your bank, authorising a third party to take funds from your account! The ESB can't tell your bank what to do with your account.
If you, in writing, instruct your bank not to allow the ESB to debit your account then your bank would be at fault/negligent if they allow the ESB to debit your account. There is the caveat that you may need to prove that your bank received your instructions so I would put it in writing and deliver it personally by hand in open format to a named individual in your bank. Explain to that person that you want to cancel the ESB's authority to withdraw funds from your account. (Don't take any bull from them.. It is your account, your money, your bank and most importantly your instructions!!!)
Since you want to pay a certain fixed amount to the ESB each month I suggest you set up a standing order in favour of the ESB (use the details from the giro attached to your bill) for your chosen amount. You may not get the benefits of paying by direct debit (inclusion in ESB monthly draws etc...) but you would be paying what you consider to be one 12th of your annual usage.

will everyone leave the esb alone, they are doing a fantastic job and people just need to turn their tumble dryers and dishwashers off and stop complaining!

everyone has the option to pay however they like with any utility company, if a particular payment scheme is not working for someone they need to switch their payment option, nobody is forced to stay on the monthly payment option.

I too had occasion to query ESB's monthly "Equaliser" option as I could not understand the variation in the payments . They told me that the payments are reviewed after every two bills with the payments increasing or decreasing depending on the usage for the four months. It most certainly is not a system whereby the charges for the last 12 months are divided by 12 and applied for the following year (as I had thought). Such a system would not work in the customer's favour apparantley in an era of ever increasing prices (I shudder to think what ESB price increases are coming down the pipe due to the current oil situation). I was told that it made more sense to monitor the usage during the year and vary the payments accordingly rather than wait for the day of reckoning at the end of the year. I suppose it makes sense. Estimated readings can also screw up the system's calculations, I was advised. If there is a series of under-estimated meter readings followed by an actual one there there will be a sudden jump in the charge and the Equaliser payments will be affected. I was strongly advised to phone in my own readings whenever I got an estimated bill so as to avoid these "surprises". I actually decided to change my direct debit payment method to one where the full amount of each bill is paid each period rather than trying to make sense of the monthly payments.

I recently moved home, and in my previous address had ESB set up on monthly equaliser account, at the time I was living in a 4 bed house, and the monthly payment was €78.00 per month. I found the service to be very good.

However when I moved house 3 months ago, I contacted ESB to set the same in place, all was done over the phone, they told me that it would be €80.00 per month, however I asked if it would be increased to €100.00 per month as I was now in a 5 bedroomed house, a few days later I got the letter to say it was set up and would start on the 1st may, however I noticed that they had set it up for €250.00 per month. I rang ESB and was infomed that this could not be changed, as it was a computer that set the monthly payment, and they could not over-ride the computer, I explained that I did not live in a mansion, but they would not budge, so I had no alternative but to cancel the equaliser account, and stick with the normal 2 monthly account, I would love to know how a computer can tell that this is the amount of electricity I will use, or are they a forture teller and they can see huge price increases in the future !!!!!

I was on this equaliser scheme before, and to be honest I did not know whether I was coming or going, I paid the monthly sums and every so often I got another bill, never did I get a summary statement outlining what I had paid in total in a year or so. It was absolutely confusing. I am back on paying my bill every two months and I know exactly what I am using and what I am paying.

I used to live abroad, and it worked very well there. The equivalent of ESB told you based on previous energy usage of the house what they expected you to be using, based on that you paid a certain amounteach month for a year and at the end of the year you got a statement, outlining total usage and total paid in by you. You either had to pay extra or you got money back, then a proposal was made regarding monthly payments for the new year based on the year gone by. This makes total sense to me, this way of paying was not an optional, this was the only way. It also saved the company some money as they only had to send a meter reader once every year. ( And of course you could close your account when you moved out..) Either I am not intelligent enough to understand the ESB equaliser bills, or they over complicate matters, I'd hope the latter.

Hi there,

I too had the Equaliser system, however I couldn't get them to increase the bill. I am quite a heavy electricity user because I run my business (lots of computers) from home. ESB in their wisdom decided that €30 per month was a good idea for my bill. After a couple of months they took €200 from me by direct debit without warning leaving me short for the month. I decided to cancel the Equaliser system and return to good old fashioned bills.. At least I can hold off payment if I disagree with their bill.

Cheers

Richard

Don't bother with Equaliser. Pay your bill manually by cheque or, better still, online banking. Work out your usage and spread the cost over the year yourself. Being tardy for the odd bill or part thereof is unlikely to result in a disconnection.

ClubMan said:

Don't bother with Equaliser. Pay your bill manually by cheque or, better still, online banking. Work out your usage and spread the cost over the year yourself. Being tardy for the odd bill or part thereof is unlikely to result in a disconnection.

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Aggree 100% with Clubman here. Had hassles with esb before like this so decided to cancel and just pay using online banking.

I pop 50 euro in every month, which means in summer i'm in credit and in winter near the end a little in debit but they don't seem to mind this at all - never ever had mails about late payment.
Its also handy for extra cash on summer holidays as usualy am pretty well in credit and can afford to miss a month or two - the point is I DECIDE the how much and when .

So work out what you are using on average a year , dIvide by twelve and DIY

It sounds as if the system is a mess.

To be honest I find the whole Irish utility system i.e. where "two-monthly" bills actually mean anything ebtween 6 and 10 week intervals with payments on random dates with as little as 1 day's notice pretty awful.

The sooner we bring in REAL competition to the incumbents the better.

Ooops, sorry i had forgotten about this thread!

Thanks for all the advice. I contacted the ESB again and disconnected the equaliser payment system, then set up a personal DD into our account. Interestingly enough I complained formally and I received a form letter in the post. I nearly framed it as it was clearly a form letter which stated that the equaliser system was not up for debate and nobody could change the payments.

It also stated that my next review for the equaliser payments was - this was followed by a colon and WRITTEN IN BLUE INK - 18/07/2004.

ROTFLMAO

mo3art said:

then set up a personal DD into our account.

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A DD means that the payee (ESB) and not you have full control over what is paid into your utility bill account. They will simply draw the full amount owed on the bill each month/two months. If you wanted to maintain control over this then you should really pay by cheque or online banking as I suggested above. I just pay the bills this way as they come in but if I wanted an Equaliser style approach then I would do a DIY job by averaging my annual usage over the 6/12 months and then pay the two monthly/monthly amount by cheque or online banking. Slight arrears that might occur from time to time are unlikely to result in threats, final notices or disconnection.

I was tempted to phone in a generous estimate a few months back, when i couldn't get access to the meter, I figured worst that would happen is I was paying for the electricity at a cheaper rate.
Don't worry, decided it wasn't quite right, despite them doing the reverse to me the previous year (they underestimated for several periods, and then after a rate rise, did a proper reading..., that's why I try to check it now)

Just browsing theough this thread there would like to request some advice if possible.

Bought a 2 bed apt in mid january. Changed NTL from previous owner to my name-no worries.
Changed ESB from previous owner to my name - €150 deposit (registration so they say!!) plus bill every 2 months. The previous bill from the last owner was paid and my first bill was €208 based on 2 weeks, from 15th jan - 2 Feb, and no estimate indicated on my bill. I let it go as part of the bill was the deposit and maybe i thought the previous bill was carried over.
Next bill €185 (april) was absolutely fuming...
Called ESB to be greeted by a snotty cow on the line probably sitting in a worn chair, fag hangin out the mouth doin her nails at same time.
Explained how i was living in the apt by myself, out of the house mon-fri from 7am - 7pm and have nothing swithed on at all, not even the red light on the tv! no timers, nothing. My bill indicated i was using 745 units at night and 500+ per day, which is impossible. I requested a statement showing the times and units used in my apt so i could analyse the strategy for their invoice. I was sent out a leaflet on "how to conserve energy" 2 weeks later. What a f••kin insult.
Now im about to receive my third bill and am expecting another joke. This is really annoying and surely there is somone i can complain to as the idiots on the phone are just crash test dummies taking calls. I simply cant afford to keep this up.
Before anyone asks have i checked this and that, the answer is yes. The only thing i dont have access to is the meter outdoors as its locked by the management company. Is is possible my line could be tapped? If there is someone i can ask to investigate this problem? €200 excess every 2 months is alot to pay for a bloody lecky bill.

This estimated bill thing is a bit of a rip off. Paying for electricity that hasnt been used and getting a refund at the end of the year for their errors. Are they not making more money from customers on interest on funds being added to their accounts until year ending??? Why are they still a monopoly here. Its clear they are overcharging for this service and if their was more competition, im sure a majority of people would switch..

I'm in the same position - I've moved into a 2-bed apt that must have been previously inhabited by someone from the tropics who had central heating at max 24/7/365... I'm getting bi-monthly estimated bills of €600! Fortunately I can access my meter and submit a customer reading each time and get a corrected bill. However, I got fed up of doing this so rang them to see could they change their computer records to give more accurate estimates. The bad news is that the way-off estimates will continue for around a year since they base them on the usage for the same months in the previous year.

Me: But you can see from my last 3 bills that I'm using less than a tenth of the estimated electricity. Can you perhaps override the computer settings?

ESB: But your readings could just be lower this time because it's summer.

Me: €550 lower? And my winter bills were way way lower too.

ESB: Can't override it.

Me: [Shrug] OK, but it just means you're going to be issuing me with a revised bill every single time until I've been a year in the place and the estimates start to be based on my usage.

ESB: [Shrugs too]...

Don't let it stress you out. Try to get a meter reading (ring them to call them out), and then each time you get a bill that looks way out of line, ring them to request another meter reading and/or just estimate yourself how much you owe and pay that rather than the total sum on the bill. Don't bother paying the huge bill if you know it's completely wrong - just pay a suitable amount. When they eventually do another reading, it'll all work out.

Maybe try to get a key for the meter from the management company (or directly from the ESB if the management co won't give you one) and then you can submit your corrected readings each time you get an estimated bill.