Water company doubled my direct debit because i asked for the money my account was in credit for, is this right?

[jwtlapl]

Just wanted to check if this sounds right because i'm getting confused..

A few months ago I went into my water account and saw I was £300 in credit, i asked if i could have it sent to me which they did.

I then found out I was moving so took a metre reading and sent it to them for my old address, moved into my new address and when i was on the phone to give them my new address the agent said because I had that £300 they have to put my bill up each month to recover it as it was an 'agent mistake' and my account should not have been in credit, they tried to get me to pay them £120 over the phone the day i moved in to clear some of the £300 and now my bill has gone from £25 per month to £50, they said after 12 months they would put my bill down to £39. they haven't even asked me for a meter reading for my new flat yet so it is estimated..

does all this sound right? i thought if your account was in credit that means i overpaid so that money was mine? or have i got it wrong?

If its like other utilities then you build up a credit and then when a meter reading is submitted they work out how much you have used and the credit money is used to pay towards the usage. Sounds like maybe the money was paid back to you before that calculation was done from the meter readings.

I mean, the information is literally there in your OP, “it was an agent mistake and your account was not actually in credit”.

This means you owe them money, so your direct debit now needs to cover your current usage and payment towards that debt.

With my water bill, I pay a set amount each month, but the money is only taken out every three months. So it can look like I had a huge credit sitting there, but in fact it was just accumulating in a ‘savings’ account, so to speak.

I think they calculate your account to ideally be in credit, so there is enough to cover your bill when they bill you after 6 months of usage. If there is a certain amount accumulated more than needed to cover your usage, they will refund it.

By withdrawing the money/ credit you were building up towards your next bill, you have effectively been using the water without having credit on account to pay for it.

You can probably change your billing to pay on receipt of bill - after you've used it - but most people pay monthly in advance to have credit on the account to cover the bill when it is issued.