Man left struggling to pay bills after E.On took £346 from his account early

An E.On customer says he was left struggling to pay his bills after the energy firm took £346 outside of his payment plan.

The gas and electricity provider also tried to take a further payment of £173 from Alex Kingsworth, who worked at an estate agents, in January this year.

He has since been compensated £30 for the error.

Mr Kingsworth had set up a payment plan with E.On after incurring what he described as “excessively high” bills three months into moving into his apartment in Chesterfield in March 2020, shortly before the coronavirus crisis started.

Speaking to The Mirror, he said: “They didn’t tell me they were going to be taking these payments and it meant I struggled to pay other priority bills, like council tax and insurance.

“I was late paying some and it was tough just after Christmas.

“To be completely honest, I am disgusted with E.On and I haven’t got anywhere with them. They’ve only compensated me £30.”

Have you been charged early by E.On? Let us know: mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk

E.On sent an engineer and his metre was eventually replaced (Getty)

In the first three months of moving in, Mr Kingsworth says he racked up bills of £650 with E.On - but after querying this, was told no one could be sent to check his meter due to the pandemic.

E.On eventually sent an engineer in July 2020 to take a reading, and his meter was later changed in November 2020 after it broke down.

After this, Mr Kingsworth claims his energy bills dropped to around £60 per month - but by this point he now owed the energy firm around £1,000.

In a separate issue, E.On was this week ordered to pay thousands back to households after overcharging almost 2million customers in December last year.

The fault, reported by The Mirror on Christmas day , found over a million customers to be affected at the time, with one single mum left helpless after being charged £170 without warning.

A majority of the affected payments were due to be taken in January 2021.

The company will also pay an additional £627,312 to the energy redress fund.

E.On told The Mirror it believes Mr Kingsworth was billed correctly for his usage but has not explained why it took several early payments without notifying him first.

A spokesperson said: “The money owed is for energy he has used.

“We have spoken to the customer regarding the meter and whether it is providing correct information, but as he no longer lives at the property we are unable to arrange for the meter to be checked.

“We are contacting the new tenant to investigate whether the meter is faulty and will be in touch in due course once we have checked the meter.”