That is totally ridiculous Pete.
I had a similar problem with B G but it's a few years ago now.
Back then I made regular payments in the post office.
Result of it was I stopped the drip of payments and told them to just send a quarterly bill.
We use D.D these days.
Since I moved daughter from them to EDF I read her meters monthly and submit them.
This keeps an eye on how she's doing and EDF can increase/ decrease accordingly.
What will you do about it?