How much credit with energy company?

[Isyesterdaytomorrowtoday]

How much credit would you say is sensible to have with your energy company at this point in the year?

we have quite a bit and my DH is keen to have them refund some but I’m nervous about rises etc- we aren’t on a fixed tariff. also trying to work out if we can’t get them to reduce DD.

how conservative should we be? Or just leave it til March and get it then?

It seems like the electricity companies are holding some people to ransom. I’m not surprised some have cancelled DDs. We are in credit and I submit monthly readings. We are more than covering our usage but they have suggested we pay more which I have declined to do.

Balance £371
DD £150 (plus govt payment = £216)
Latest bill £156
Leaving it there for now, will pay difference monthly once balance has reduced, & adjust DD when April rates are confirmed.

None

I pay by variable DD and have a spreadsheet with last years usage on a month by month basis and this year's predictions with the new charges in there.

If I did pay by monthly fixed DD, I would be using this to predict my usage for a year and seeing what I would need to pay.

We're £1000 in credit
Dd is £786 a month but use £500

800 in credit. Used 120 last month and pay 160. I'm happy to leave it there for now. I don't want to be overly worrying about bills over the winter period.

£1300 in credit.

Was paying £285 a month, then following some review, they said they needed to put it up to £344 a month. I have managed, via the app, to drop it to £304, which is the lowest it will let me. I was in the past really rubbish at submitting meter readings, but now I update monthly. If I really do start using almost £450 a month as they say I will, then I may look to up it.

I just got my bill for October..

My gas is usually around £15‐£20 a month, it was £32 this month. Literally had no heating on at all, gas hob used a few times and the hot water comes on twice a day for a total of 1 hour. Couple of hot water boosts in there, but nothing major. Usage is still low. It's such a worry for people who need heating on!

I've been with OVO for a few years, so they pay me 5% interest on any credit in my account. Which is a lot better than I can get anywhere else, so I was happy to pay a higher monthly direct debit, using it like a savings account.

Not being a bank account it isn't covered by the UK bank guarantee, so when I realised several energy companies were going bankrupt I transfered most of the money to my ISA at the bank, where it only earns 0.78% interest but is covered if the bank folds.

In previous years when I logged on to the OVO website it would always suggest that I lower my monthly direct debit. That changed this year when they sent out dire warnings that prices were going to increase dramatically and suggesting that I might want to sign up for a horrendously expensive fixed rate deal, which I ignored. This autumn the amount they annouced that they were going to double the direct debit charge, and then did so without asking my permission. That annoyed me so much that I logged on fully intending to reduce the amount back to what it had been, intending to use the money already in the account to pay the next few months bills, but the web page would only allow me to increase the direct debit, options to reduce it were no longer available. An error message tells me that "The Direct Debit amount has to be a whole number between £190 and £2000".

If I could afford it I would change it to £2000 just to rob them of that 5% interest, but sadly it is hard enough just scraping together the £190.

gosh ,we have £180 in credit and I think that's ridiculous, way more than it needs to be. DH put our debit down to £7/month 6 weeks ago, only because he couldn't put less. Because we are getting £67/month from govt via utility company & govt has capped rates, we aren't going to need to pay more than £7/month ourselves: we have been using << £67/month.

The amounts we have had in credit have been
end October £180
end September £111
end August £168
end June £70

We were £700 in credit so I asked for a refund on the balance above 2 months DD (£185 a month) out bill is lower than the DD.

How are your utility bills so tiny?

Single person household, and a small flat rather than a semi or detached house?

I don't know anyone who's had the heating on yet. It's unseasonally warm here at present (uk).

I don't pay monthly or by direct debit, so no credit.

I've had the heating on occasionally, as sometimes the temperature has dropped indoors. I'm not going around telling people though.

I do have £1.3k worth of heating to burn through though. A

My DM has had her heating on, for early mornings when she had my (young) DNs there.

She was less concerned when we were children! 😄

None at this point, because my financial year with the energy company runs from 1st Nov - 31st October. Between Nov-April I run up a debit and then from May-Oct I gradually pay it back.

The energy companies have done a great job of making everyone believe their year has to run from 1st April-31st March, or in other words, that you build up credit for the first six months then it winds down over the next six.

But it can just as easily work the other way round!

Mine starts in September. Funnily enough, this year they were less keen on me reaching 31st august with an exactly £0 balance, and quite happy for me to run up credit

None.
I just pay the bill monthly based on the meter readings.
In the summer it's cheaper, in the winter more expensive - it's not exactly unexpected!

If any credit is building up it's in my account earning interest, not sat with an energy company so they can do similar.

Never understood this.. why give a personal credit line to big businesses at 0%??
They sure as hell wouldn't do the same for you. Madness.

Large 4 bed house with 5 people.

Its efficient on gas, keeps heat in well so minimal heating. But bear in mind, those figures I've quoted are currently without heating..

And my electricity bill is higher. Usually around £65 a month and this month was £83.

I'd never have guessed! I'd have thought tiny house, new build, one or two people. Our bills are much higher.

Just over 2k. Our DD has been 433/month since the spring. I think we’ll use the credit up over the winter.

Without heating on, gas use shouldn't have anything to do with house size. Ours was £15 to £20 through summer with only two people, gas hot water and hob. I don't think the number of people has as big an effect as people would think either, we use no more with a guest here for a few weeks. The hot water tank is too big for our needs really, so we are heating water we don't use. We used to have a 50l tank at a previous house!

Ours was c £20pm through summer too - 3 bed (plus attic) Victorian terrace, combi boiler, 2 adults all the time and adult kids visiting some of the time.

(It was £80 for October, at new higher rates, & with heating coming on automatically most mornings for 30 mins or so - thermostat at 18)

Thanks for that, I didn't realise you can do that👍
I got slated on another thread for objecting to energy companies having my money and virtually got told that they are doing us a favour so there is money there for the increased usage over winter months........... And there was me thinking I was an adult and could manage my own money😂

You might not be able to with all suppliers/tariffs.
I'm with Shell, and couldn't do in on the app or the mobile site, but the option was there on the desktop site.