Getting my money back from energy supplier?

[MamaDuckling]

Hello,

my energy supplier currently holds almost £2000 credit on my account. They have increased our direct debit twice in the last 9 months. I recently supplied meter readings, as I did back in April.

I think this feels like a huge amount to hold on credit. Our dual fuel bill is almost £400 a month at the moment (big house, multi-generation so 4 adults here), so it’s very expensive but I assumed just the ridiculous impact of the energy cost crisis.

I know we are coming into winter and the company advises I leave some credit on the account but not £2K surely?? That’d pay for Christmas!!

I’d really appreciate knowing whether you’d ask for a refund or leave it there? It’s fairly new to me to have credit on the account so I don’t know what to do!

I did !! I realised I had almost ,£500 in credit , so I just emailed them and said " can I have my credit back please,?" After a couple of emails requesting acc. No. / address etc.
10 days later i received the money back into my account.

Personally unless you really need the money rather than just fancy it, I would leave it there for the time being and reassess after winter.

It’s your money, tell them to return it. As long as you can fund your winter bills at the appropriate times then it’s doing more good in your account than theirs.

I suppose I could get it back and put it in a separate account.

does anyone know if I can get half of it back and leave half in credit?

Why?

For unusual reasons we were more in credit than that.
It took a couple of phone calls to get it back. Dont know if we were unusual or not.

Yes I'd request a refund of some of it. Leave a buffer amount but ask for the rest back

I thought they had to give it back when it got to a certain level ?

Because then you can get through the winter without having to worry every time you put the heating on about if you can afford it. Then come summer time if you are still in a large credit get it back. Its not as if you would earn any significant interest on it if it were in your bank so it may as well stay there. If there is something else you need or want to spend the money on then fair enough but if not there is no real benefit from taking your money out of your gas/elec account

She may want some money to use at Christmas and £2k is a ridiculous amount to be in credit. Better that some of it is in the hands of the OP rather than the energy company

change supplier then you’ll get a refund of credit.

Why on earth would you change supplier rather than request a refund from the one you're with?

www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-if-you-are-owed-money-your-energy-bill

You can ask for it back at anytime. You can decide to leave a few hundred pounds in there if you like.

Why would you do that ? I'd get it shifted to an account paying interest, Zopa is paying 2.15% on an access anytime account. Why let the energy companies profit more then they are already.

That's why I said if it isn't need it for anything else. If you need it for something else of course take it out. I assume OP isn't on the bones of her arse based on being able to build up £2000 worth of credit in the first place.

I do t know why it seems different for so e of you, but when my account is in credit I can log in to my energy account and request it there and then, they send it in a couple of days. No phone calls, no writing, no bothers.

If they have a prediction tool, use that to look at what Oct to March is likely to cost, or else use last winter's bills (work out this winter's costs from usage). Take away your dd and £400 from the government. Then leave the difference in your account.

I can do it with Octopus, down to a lower limit they work put somehow.

Because personally thats what I would do. Facing a very cold dark winter while trying to save every penny of energy costs I can knowing I had a £2000 credit and could use my energy whenever I wanted sounds like a lovely luxury. Obviously just personal opinion and other people may have other opinions.

Just ask them to refund they will refund

Or cancel your dd

We had £300 credit and they returned that immediately without us asking

@Hellocatshome Fair enough. I'd like to earn a few extra quid on the balance.

Is is going to be colder and darker than usual? Facing skyrocketing prices of food and other essentials, I'd rather plan to have my balance at £0 on the first of April and the spare money in my bank account to pay for Christmas and living costs.

So you do you and let other people do them. Why does it matter if someoene prefers to have a credit balance and less worry? Maybe the £20 of interest is worth less to them than the stress of large bill