News

UK energy supplier E.ON erroneously takes out Direct Debit payments early

British energy supplier E.ON has emailed an apology to its customers after erroneously taking out direct debit payments from their bank accounts much earlier than expected.

The error appears to have occurred over Christmas week.

As observed by Security Report, an email titled “We’re sorry, we’ve made a mistake,” was sent out to a large number of E.ON customers.”

The company claims due to an IT issue, they have mistakenly withdrawn Direct Debit payments from customers’ bank accounts before these payments were due.

E.ON issues email apology for taking out Direct Debit payments earlier
(Source: Security Report)

“We’re sorry for this mistake and want to reassure you that we’re working to refund this money straight back to your bank account. We aim for this to be in your account no later than Tuesday, 29 December 2020,” says E.ON.

“If you’re not able to wait for our refund, then please contact your bank directly to see how they can support you. We’ll then reclaim this payment in line with your usual payment schedule, however, this may be later than expected.”

Customer complaints surface

Soon after the mishap, Twitter was full of complaints from disgruntled customers who demanded their money back or slammed the “Direct Debit” guarantee in general.

Banks like NatWest stepped in to reassure that E.ON should be able to process the refunds by their proposed deadline of 29th December 2020.

E.ON customers impacted by this technical error are advised to monitor their bank account statements and look forward to receiving a refund by December 29th, should they be entitled to one.

While a Direct Debit error like this one appears to be a rare occurrence, customers who do not prefer automatic payments can opt in to receive a bill every month and pay as they go.

Ax Sharma

Ax Sharma is a UK-based security researcher, journalist and TV subject matter expert experienced in malware analysis and cybercrime investigations. His areas of interest include open source software security and threat intel analysis. Frequently featured by leading media outlets like the BBC, Channel 5, Fortune, WIRED, The Register, among others, Ax is an active community member of the OWASP Foundation and the British Association of Journalists (BAJ).

Recent Posts

8 Brutal Truths About Cybersecurity I Wish I Knew

When I first got into cybersecurity, I thought it was all about hackers in hoodies…

15 hours ago

US Air Force Probes Potential SharePoint-Linked Privacy Breach

The US Air Force is investigating a “privacy-related issue” that may have exposed personally identifiable…

2 days ago

Harrods third-party breach exposes 430,000 customer records, hackers reach out

London’s iconic department store Harrods has disclosed that approximately 430,000 customer records were compromised in…

4 days ago

WestJet confirms customer ID, passports stolen in June cyberattack

WestJet confirmed that in a June 2025 cybersecurity incident, a “sophisticated, criminal third party” gained…

4 days ago

Did You Also Get a ‘Real’ Phishing Email From GitHub.com?

Imagine getting an email straight from GitHub’s own notification system: the same one you've trusted…

7 days ago

World’s Largest Supply Chain Cyber Attack… And just 5 Cents Stolen?

You probably saw the headlines: the world’s largest npm supply chain attack, chalk and debug-js…

1 week ago

This website uses cookies.