Refunds for energy customers if pay by direct debit??

[di30]

It looks like that the main energy companies are to refund if account in credit by about £5 or more and if you pay by direct debit.

To date, my Gas it just over £300 in credit and my electric £200 in credit, but our quarterly bills are actually due next week.

So with that, the credit will probably be taken up with the due bills, so to continue with paying by direct debit it will build up again, how does that work out then if they are to refund if account in credit by £5 or more if your paying weekly direct debit to pay towards future bills?

Confused.com

[PlanB]

Re: Refunds for energy customers if pay by direct debit??

I pay by monthly direct debit because EDF gives me a discount if I do. I also get a 'dual fuel' discount for having both gas and electricity supplies with them. The DD is always too high and I always end up ahead of the game with loads of credit. But this month they sent me a letter which said "we've been charging you too much on your DD" so they offered to reduce it. I think there has been a decision by Ofgem which has been foisted on the energy suppliers to stop overcharging upfront.

One thing I have noticed is that energy suppliers make it up based on over-estimates so I make a big effort to give them accurate readings each time.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...explained.html

[vossy]

Re: Refunds for energy customers if pay by direct debit??

It was always the old saying "better in my bank than yours", I can send a reading in every month so that's what I do, it keeps it as accurate as possible but I still overpay a little.

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Refunds for energy customers if pay by direct debit??

I think it will depend how much you've overpaid at the point of receiving your bill Di.

My niece rang me in a panic last month about her monthly payment with BG virtually doubling. It's a very sneaky system isn't it? Start afresh with a company, maybe after using Uswitch, and you get nice low payments monthly which are akin to pay as you go. It seems to justify the switch...
They're not happy with this though are they, even though they're presumably better off than waiting for those using quarterly payments to pay in arrears.
They start getting greedy and wanting it in advance, so they up the payments on their own estimate of what you may use in the forthcoming year, which means that you're effectively paying in advance.

After my niece phoned I checked my own (Npower) and was shocked to find that they'd sneaked up my payments to £240 a month! (I'd missed this as I was in hospital around that time).
I'm now in credit by over £700 (!!!), but like you Di, my bill's due soon so I'll sort it out after that.
We should be able to charge the buggers interest!

When it tops £750 maybe we should send them a Stat Demand?

[SXGuy]

Re: Refunds for energy customers if pay by direct debit??

I had a DD set up with british gas, it was always in credit over the summer months, but it would correct itself by the winter. They used to keep lowering our DD during the summer stating we are paying to much, and we would have to change it back again. In theory refunds are fine, but they need to look at the whole picture, of course you will be in credit in the summer, but that credit gets eaten up in the winter when you use more fuel!

IF they start refunding people because they are in credit in summer. I can see a situation where people are suddenly hit with a high DD charge come winter to "even" things out again.

Look at the people we have had on here, who were paying a charge by DD agreed by british gas, only to find out 12 months later, they were 1 or 2k short on payments. This can only get worse they if start automaticaly refunding people.

Leaving it how it is, whereby you can log on and request a refund yourself. That way you stay in charge of your payments