I didn't ask for this money to be paid back.

[ItsFridayIminLoveJS]

I'm with Eon next and pay a set amount every four weeks £150.. l am a pensioner.
Three weeks ago l had just over a thousand pounds unexpected paid into my bank account.. it turns out it was a refund from Eon next because l was over a thousand pounds in credit. I pay the same all year round so l can have my heating/ tumble dryer etc on anytime l want .( l dont hang my clothes out... disabled). I paid it all back into my account .. but last Monday it was paid back into my bank. I rang Eon next and explained l wanted it to stay in my Eon account.. they said yes that's fine.. Friday it was back in my bank.
I suppose l can keep it there and pay any extra l use.. but why do they do this without my permission?

Some utility companies do this. They take you back to a zero balance on an annual basis and then you start again from scratch. Wouldn't you be better putting it in a savings account to get some interest rather than leaving it in EONs account?

They don't need your permission to return the money to you. Many utility companies have limits of how much 'in credit' you can be with them. Otherwise they are holding 'unearned' money. Ask if they will take £500 back as a bumper and then put the remaining £500 into premium bonds or a savings account.

Probably because it’s not in your best interest to have it sitting in EON’s account. If a regulator ever scrutinised them they’d get in trouble for disadvantaging you because they’re not paying you interest on it. Just stick it in a savings account then you know it’s earning you interest, and you can pay it to them if your account ever gets low.

The same thing happened to me with EDF, not such a large amount but I'd deliberately built up a winter cushion and one day it appeared back in my bank

I was annoyed too as I didn't realise they would do that without even asking me first

Why would that annoy you? It is good practice for them to not allow customers to build too much credit. Surely you would just stick it in a savings account and use it only for what it was intended.

Well yes .. but not much interest on a grand.
I'm lucky l don't actually need the money...
My daughter just advised me to stop with the DD and just pay my bill when it comes... l only did pay bills monthly via DD until l got a pay out from my husbands fatal accident.
Other bills l just pay when they arrive.. think she's given me sound advice.

@ItsFridayIminLoveJS Or you could ask for a variable direct debit where you pay for what you use each month and dont build up a credit. You would pay more in winter and less in summer

Crap the screenshot is for edf

I think that’s too much for them to be holding onto. It’s the sort of the thing the media would make a fuss about if someone complained. Couple of hundred, fair enough, but not £1000.

The eon next variable direct debit

Because it’s your money and thus they’re your debtor. They don’t want to have to show on their accounts that they’re in debt. If you multiply that across the whole of their customer base, that’s going to be a large sum if they let anyone who wants to, to build up a large credit balance. Some companies do let you save for the winter

I thought the rules had changed and they couldn’t hold it. You would earn £50 at 5%, so just hold it in a savings account.

How about opening a seperate bank account for your bills only and if unexpected refunds go back into this account from Eon, you already have the money saved for your energy.

This is what I do and it works for me as I just budget for bills with bank trnasfers every month, which also gives me peace of mind.

Eons' billing systems are defaulting to refund after a certain amount of credit has built up and this may be due to demands made to suppliers from ministers in an effort to protect consumers from agressive biling.

I sort of get why people prefer to pay the same each month if the struggle to budget, but if you are good at managing your own money just pay the bill each month. Put the same amount into a savings account every month during the summer so you have the extra for the winter if you need to.

1000 pound is a lot. You should be able to get 3-4% on savings so why give £30-40 a year to the power company?

*transfers

Lucky you! I was in credit with my energy provider and they said it would be best if my DD was doubled!! They went ahead and did that without much notice so I had to get my bank to reclaim the payment. The only way I could get them to behave was to cancel the DD until the credit was used and then log a complaint to get the DD set to a sensible amount.

There was a lot criticism in the media when rates were really high, that the energy companies were profiteering from keeping excessive amounts of customers'surplus cash. This has led to some companies placing a limit on the amount that can be built up. I would ask the company if you could return a smaller amount to your account as a cushion, then keep the rest in an instant savings account, so you can top up your energy fund if you need to. Also, don't cancel your direct debit, as you will be getting a small discount on your bill for using this method of payment.

I was annoyed because id made a conscious choice to do it that way, it was a few years ago and I was happy to forgo the 27p I'd have earned interest and have a constant DD each month and not have to worry in the winter

I don't have the time or inclination to faff about with different payments each month and moving money around to save next to nothing in interest

Most people would consider it bad practice to be holding £1000 of a disabled pensioner's money, especially when it is over 6 months of their energy bill.

Plus I don't know why people worry about the cost of winter bills or think they need to 'get ahead' as they'll just put your DD up a bit if you're falling behind, they won't ask for it all in one go.

Put the money in a savings account if you're worried about needing it for winter bills and earn more like £27 not 27 p.

Why dont you just go back to normal DD and agree a monthly amount with them that is a bit much than the £150 every 4 weeks which was obviously too much? Pay £40 a month of something? I dont understand why cancelling the DD was good advice?

Paying on receipt of bill is usually more expensive than Direct Debit so not a good idea. £1000 is a lot of credit so I'm not surprised they're returned it. You can pay by variable direct debit and that way you just pay for what you use without going into credit or debit. Consider a fixed rate tariff using a comparison site like MoneySavingExpert if you're not already on one.

I don't have a smart meter

Im on the disability tariff.
Don't have a smart meter.
Ive cancelled DD now. Will just pay the bill quarterly when it arrives.

You dont need a smart meter to pay by variable direct debit. Now youll pay a much larger sum at once rather than paying smaller amounts monthly. Sounds like you've overreacted to receiving your own money back from Eon.

As you dont have a smart meter you'd give a meter reading instead and the monthly bill would be calculated from that.