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.

The idea of being hundreds in credit makes perfect sense. I’m about £500 in credit. Come spring next year, that will be getting close to zero.

To me it makes no sense. I increase the amount if necessary in the winter. Why would I give the energy company money, when it can be earning interest for me?

I am with others keeping credit to minimum. They make ridiculous money on interest but we see no benefit from it.
I just put it into savings account.

Exactly!

None. I like to keep it as close to £0 as I can. They’re not having my interest 🤣. I pay the odd lump sum in the winter and keep the monthly dd low.

This is from 2023
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/apr/26/uk-energy-suppliers-sitting-on-7bn-credit-belonging-to-16m-households?hl=en-GB#:~:text=Tue%2025%20Apr%202023%2019.01%20EDT.%20Energy,research%20from%20comparison%20site%20Uswitch.com%20has%20shown.

I prefer to budget the same all year round. The amount of interest I would make in a savings account for that amount would be negligible.

I’m with British Gas and that’s never happened to me, we are currently about £700 in credit

also British Gas won’t let you change your direct debit to a lower amount, if you try to put a lower amount you get an error message saying the figure needs to be higher than the current amount

i prefer the interest coming to me, not Octopus!

They’ve put mine up by £30 as well and said it was too late to change it for this month. I logged on and they are recommending I pay even more! I’ve put it down £20 but I’m still £350 in credit. Cheeky fuckers they are.

I pay £56 a month for both currently and I'm around £285 in credit. I like to build some over the summer as my dd nearly doubles in winter.

Op if you want to ‘deal with it when the time comes’ then the best thing for you to do is to change to a variable DD where the exact amount of the bill comes out each time.

They’re a business. They’re not shoving it in a savings account. Do business accounts even pay interest? They’re using it to cover their day-to-day running costs and buy energy in advance, amongst other things.

None.

I make sure I only pay the amount due based on my meter readings.

I don't see why I should give energy companies extra money...

I don’t, I just pay the higher bill when they come.

I’m about £300 in credit at mo, roughly 2 months DD, which will obviously get swallowed up in winter , but in won’t let them raise the DD amount , not that they’ve tried but I’d refuse if they did until such point that I was in the red …

Yes, if they didn’t have that money they would need to borrow it as working capital but luckily so many customers are giving them money in the form of built up credit for free. Am sure any surplus is then invested. Do you think that businesses don’t invest their money. Suggest you take a look at some business balance sheets - it will be a revelation!

They are so cheeky! I adjust mine down everytime they 'suggest' an increase. I keep a credit balance of up to £100 maximum before I will reduce the DD.

You'll get better interest with that in your own bank account....

And people who are paying a stable amount each month are less likely to go into debt/default due to an unexpectedly high bill one month. Debt add costs for the company and is ultimately shared out amongst all our bills.

Insurance companies largely give you your insurance at cost, and their only profits are often the interest earned on the gap between premiums coming in and claims going out. So I find it very hard to believe that those 'balances' aren't being invested!

And nor am I mad if they are. I hope they are. Things would cost us all a lot more in the long run if business didn't invest our money to increase revenue.

How can you say £240 is high when unless I e missed it we don't know how big OP's house is or how many people live there.

X

None - I go into debt over the autumn and winter and then gradually get up to a zero balance by summer.

I should preface this by saying we are more than happy with Octopus as an energy supplier, but they always do this to us and its drives me mad. Why should our money be sitting in their account earning them interest !? We have been in continual credit with them for the last 2-3 years. If we’d have just withdrawn that money we could have had a weekend away. I refused to up our direct debit when they tried and instead put it down so we finally started to use some of the credit, but we are still about £200 in front every month.
According to google Octopus supply 8 million households in the UK. If even half of those accounts are sat in £200+ of credit then that’s rather a lot of money they can happily earn interest on don’t you think ?

I pay £200 a month and have worked my way back up to a £220 debit from a £650 debit left over from the winter. I do of course acknowledge that the idea is that you build up credit over the summer but I can’t afford to pay any more than I do!

Incidentally - does anyone know if fixing with Octopus is better as a rule? I know that none of us can see into the future re price rises etc but on the whole what works best for people?

I know but honestly it was like they just took what they felt like in the end. Realise I probably pay a bit more but it suits us this way.