Energy company issues

[lemonsaretheonlyfruit]

Hi. I am with Bulb and am £946 in credit. I called to ask for a refund but they say they no longer do that. (I noticed after my call that they say they do on their website).

Are they allowed to hold onto my money when I have asked for it back? I don't want it all back, but still was told no. I was also told I can't lower my DD to a nominal amount for the next few months so I can recoup the money that way. I have tried repeatedly over the last few months to lower my DD as I could see the credit adding up. I now I need 'some' in there as a buffer but I don't want that much when I have greater needs for the money right now in real terms.

The person on the phone told me 'off the record' that I should cancel my direct debit for 3 months or so so that they can use the credit in my account. I promptly did this and now I am getting emails from Bulb telling me to reinstate the DD or I may incur an 'admin fee' ?!

I'm a single parent in need of the money to spend on other things. Are they allowed to do this? Should I be making a complaint to the energy ombudsman if not? I feel really annoyed that I am struggling for money and they are sitting on over £900 of mine.

Thankyou

Of course they should be refunding some of your credit balance. I'd ring again or email them

help.bulb.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/115003394031-Getting-a-refund-for-credit-in-your-account

This says to email them or change your direct debit. I wouldn't have cancelled the direct debit without doing that first

@dementedpixie

Yes I tried to do reduce the direct debit first on the app and then over the phone and was told I couldn't despite repeatedly explaining my issue which he seemed to understand. It was then the same customer service person who told me to cancel my DD

How's about cancelling the DD and setting up and standing order for a much lesser amount you are happy with?

change your energy provider it’s easy to do and they will refund all of your credit. It’s a complete pita otherwise.

Unless things have changed, changing supplier is impossible to do currently

It isn’t easy to change the provider. We tried and were told that no companies are doing that now. I know that’s not legal or fair, or possibly even true, but it’s all such a shit show, who can be bothered to spend hours trying. It’s wrong that you can’t access money that is yours and they can accrue the interest on.

Can you reinstate the DD at a lower figure?

ofgem.gov.uk - suppliers must give you back credit promptly unless they have a very good reason not to.

Bulb says they only need to keep one payment in your account and you should email for a return of credit, just by looking on Google and searching - refund of credit bulb - there seems to be lots of people having the same issue.

You have to be persistent, it is your money they are earning interest on.