We estimate how much energy we think you'll use over a year, based on past meter readings, or the type of property. We then divide your estimated annual cost by 12 to work out how much you pay by Direct Debit each month.

Your monthly Direct Debit payments are the same each month. However, we may increase or decrease the amount you pay to match your actual energy use over your billing period, based on the meter readings you submit. We'll always let you know first, though.  We'll also do an annual review of your Direct Debit payments at the end of your 12-month billing period. We offer energy efficiency advice and information free of charge.  For more information, visit our energy efficiency pages at edfenergy.com

If you pay by BDD you will get a bill (Annual Statement/Reconciliation) once a year.  In the first year you will receive an interim statement at 6 months and an annual review at 12 months.  After the first year you will receive an annual statement every 12 months

We set your monthly Direct Debit amount by estimating how much energy we think you’ll use over the next 12 months. We divide the total by 12 so you pay the same Direct Debit amount each month.

If your Direct Debit is set at the right amount, you'll build up enough credit over the summer to cover the cost of your higher winter energy use. At the end of your billing year, you will have paid the right amount for the energy you’ve used.

We may review your Direct Debit payments when we get a meter reading. If we see you're not building up enough credit in the summer to cover your winter energy costs, we may put up your Direct Debit.

Direct Debit is designed to spread your energy cost evenly over 12 months. But occasionally, we may need to take more than one payment in a month.

There are two possible reasons for this:

1. The timing of your Direct Debit set-up
2. You had an outstanding balance on your account when you set up your Direct Debit

Don't worry, you will only ever pay for the energy you use.

1. The timing of your Direct Debit set-up

Generally, we’ll take your Direct Debit on, or shortly after, your chosen monthly payment date. However, your first payment may be different.

Direct Debit rules state that we have to give 14 days’ notice when requesting payments from your bank. So if your chosen payment date is less than 14 days away from setting up your Direct Debit, we can’t take the first payment on your chosen day.

In this case, we'll take the payment as close to your chosen date as possible after the 14 days. Your next payment is then taken on your chosen date. Depending on the timing, this might mean your first payment falls within the same month as your second.

If we didn't do this, you would only make 11 payments in the year, instead of 12, and your monthly payments would be higher as a result.

2. An outstanding balance on your account

If you have an outstanding balance on your account, we’ll debit this from your bank account when we first set up your Direct Debit (unless you’ve agreed a payment plan to pay off the balance).

The payment of your outstanding balance is in addition to your 12 monthly Direct Debit payment amounts for the coming year. This means that two payments will come out of your bank account during the first month of your Direct Debit arrangement with us.

Direct Debit is designed to spread your energy cost evenly over 12 monthly payments. But occasionally, we may take 13 payments over the course of a year.

There are two possible reasons for this:

1. You submitted your meter reading too early
2. You had an outstanding balance when you set up your Direct Debit

Even though you've made a 13th payment in the year, you still only ever pay for the energy you use. All your payments are taken into consideration when we review your Direct Debit payments.

1. You submitted your meter reading too early

We usually set your Direct Debit payments for the next billing year as follows:

We carry out an annual review of your account at the end of your billing year.
This involves estimating how much energy you'll use up until your next annual review (usually in 12 months' time).
We divide your estimated annual energy consumption by 12 to set your monthly Direct Debit payment amount for the coming year.

But because you submitted an early meter reading, the process changed:

Your early meter reading triggered an early annual review.
This meant there were 13 months to go before your next annual review.
So we divided your estimated annual energy consumption by 13 to set your monthly Direct Debit payment amount.

2. You had an outstanding balance when you set up your Direct Debit

We took a payment from your bank account to cover your outstanding balance when we first set up your Direct Debit (unless you'd agreed a payment plan to pay off the balance). This was in addition to the 12 monthly Direct Debit payments you made for the rest of your billing year.