How much credit do you keep on your energy account?

[Amandatelly]

How much balance (if any) do you have sitting on your energy supplier account?

I got an email yesterday from Octopus saying they want to increase my DD by another £30. This despite the fact my monthly DD is already £240 (gas and elec), and have a credit balance every month at the moment. I’m currently £280 in credit.

I can’t find it now but recently I saw it suggested I should be having a balance of over £500 just sitting there.

Now, I know my usage is low this time of year and that will begin to increase over the next few months but I will deal with that as it happens. I’m not going to just let them sit with even more of my money in their bank accounts.

I have had a similar amount added to my monthly DD. By Octopus and I currently have over £700 in credit.
i am considering asking them to reduce my DD as I never spend up the credit balance.

I don't run a credit balance.

I usually pay (by automatic direct debit) the monthly bill amount.

I've got solar and used to only pay in the winter, for some reason last winter they didn't take any payments so now I owe them and they are taking £30pm (I owed around £150 and am making around £20 on the solar atm).

I can understand why people prefer to pay a set monthly amount, but I'd rather manage my finances and have that money in an interest bearing account than held by an energy supplier.

What?!?! I thought they were taking the piss with mine. I had also actually gone through to reduce it to £200 DD last month, but somehow that change never happened. I'd probably be requesting a partial refund in your shoes.

Octopus tried this on with me. I contacted them, emphasised l was in credit and they switched me back to the previous Direct Debit amount.

Get on to them.

I regularly draw down my octopus energy credit and it’s currently £14. I’d just draw it down and keep my monthly payments the same.

That's exactly it, I'm not having some huge highly profitable company dictate how much of my money they have when I don't even owe them anything.
I don't mind keeping a bit of a balance because I accidently ended up in a bit of debt a couple of years ago - I didn't realise the smart meter was only taking electricity readings - so I had a bit of a backlog of gas to pay on as I hadn't given a reading for months (and they never asked for one). But they can bugger off asking for even more.

I kind of assume, given how bloody expensive life is, that most people would not have a credit balance sitting there. It's more vital in our own pockets at this point in time.

Oh they received my reply immediately 😀

My DD is about £160 a month and that was based on my usage over the winter.
Now in credit about £450 and Octopus recommended reducing my DD to about £114.

Think the formula is to have about 2 months worth of the bill in credit when it gets to around November (I might be making this up).

I’ll probably withdraw extra credit until it’s around that amount in the late autumn.

No credit built up, I’d never do it again. My company went bust, I had £600 in credit and it took 6 months to get it returned. I now pay for what I use each month, I prefer it this way.

none, i switched to a supplier who bills monthly for what i've used. Yes, it means I have lower bills in summer than in winter but I budget for the winter bills and anything less is a bonus.

I built up a huge credit balance with Octopus, its their mo. I now check it regularly. EDF dont do this ime.

We were about £600 in credit. If you login in to your account it is very easy to apply for a refund. We left about £50 on the account. We did the same last year. I think they've also reduced our direct debit so I'm hoping we won't build up so much credit this coming year.

I'm also with octopus and have about £100 credit because I recently took back another £150 that was in there. I'm sick of them constantly trying to put the DD up when there is no need. You can manually change it back down yourself, but it takes 14days to action this so often the larger amount gets taken anyways!

We have a flat which has been empty since we moved to current home. We use it only one night a month now before we sell it. The bills are £25/month which is basically standing order only. Last month octopus wanted to put the DD up to £95!

We just pay the bill each month. Late mil had a large credit and dh never did get all of it back after she'd died, despite repeated attempts over six months. They're a bunch of crooks who help themselves to people's money, which they'll gain interest on whilst they have it. To me, this is theft as they then keep the interest on the other people's money.

This is the reason I opted for prepay. Just through idle curiosity I asked my energy provider how much I would need to pay pm if I were to swap back to a "credit" meter. It was almost twice as much as I'm paying now. I pay £60 on the prepay and have over £120 in credit...they wanted £110 pm if I changed back. No thanks, I'll carry on how I am.

I wouldn't be bothered by being a month in credit at this time of year, it will be used up pretty quickly and you'll probably be in debt before Christmas, that will grow further up to about March until you start to pay it back.

The bigger question is whether £240 pm is the right amount for your usage and whether you're on the cheapest tariff. Octopus haven't been the cheapest for a while, so it might be worth switching if you're out of contract or your leaving penalty is fairly low, you'd also get your credit back if you did that. ALso is there anything you can do to reduce your usage as £240 pm sounds quite high (our DD is under £100 pm and it more than covers our usage over the year).

I'm with E On and they emailed me to say they were reducing my DD from £60 to £42. I put it back up to £60.

I'm £240 in credit so have asked for £150 back so I have a buffer for winter.

The problem is that the same sort of person who can't afford to hold a credit balance is the same sort of person who can't afford to pay big bills when they turn up in winter.

And remember that there are some limitations as to what energy companies can actually do to recover debts.

Which is one reason why energy companies strive to keep the balance up prior to winter.

Op you can say no to any increase. There is a computer programme that predicts your energy costs and they run the billing according to that.
Just tell them its too much and they should keep your direct debit as it is.
You can also get a refund if you are in significant credit

I’m about 500 in credit just now but notice they’ve not billed me since the end of May so won’t be accurate

it sees me through the winter so I’m happy with it

I’m with BG for both and once my credit gets to about £300 they send me £200 back whether I want it or not .

I got so fed up with the credit balance they build up, it always seems to work in their favour.

We moved to fuse and now pay in full each month. I just have to flex our budgets to reflect that the monthly cost will vary significantly throughout the year.

I usually let it build up to about 1200 then I take back about 800 before the winter months hit.

I’m always in credit though, it started because during Covid I didn’t want to be panicking (we were earning about half of what we earn now) when prices went up (and I was now working from home) so I switched in advance to £250 a month from about 150-175 (I don’t remember) rather than wait until winter and potentially end up having to pay 350-400. It didn’t ever get that bad and I got used to paying, plus me and my husband both got significant promotions so it just stayed at 250.

It takes a lot longer to build up a decent credit now, but it is nice to still get a little bonus present ever now and again when I take the credit back.

ALSO, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend this to anyone with a dick head husband who they plan on leaving, it could be a good place to keep an emergency leaving fund if he doesn’t check the bills but checks the rest of your accounts. But you definitely didn’t hear that from me

I had this conversation with Octopus last year when they wanted to increase our monthly Direct Debit. I told them at no point in the previous year had we owed them money nor had they had an excessive amount of our money sat in their account which showed their calculations for the year had been spot on.
Their customer services didn't have a reasonable argument to that but spouted on about calculations for the coming year. I said I'm quite capable of monitoring my account and making adjustments to account for any shortfall or increase without Octopus using my money to prop up their bank accounts. They do keep trying though!!

I can’t stand this system of them wanting us to be in credit. I am well over £1,000 in credit, and they want to UP my direct debit! You wouldn’t believe it, so will try to upload screenshots…I currently pay £436pcm.