Energy Company Reluctant to Refund - please

[JemimaPyjamas]

My brain today is mush due to a million other things, but I want to get this 100% clear before I fire off yet another email. Apologies in advance for this being a) boring and b) possibly garbled...

I am in credit over £450 for my gas and electric. I clearly overpay, and hence want some back. The Energy company say that it 'best to be reviewed in a few months time' and are reluctant to refund more than £50. I am now also getting the £66 a month via the government and when my DD goes out, will be in credit by another £125. My bill for last month was £128 with the extra government input but, as it's winter, that's normal.

What my fuddled brain needs someone to explain, in simple terms is, am I paying in advance for what I allegedly using? If so, their energy forecasts are wrong, and also the money in the account is my money and not theirs?
Am I being paranoid in assuming that it benefits them to have people build up a lot of credit as they can accumulate interest on it, but they have no actual right to keep hold of it, or at least that much?

I am admittedly knackered and hence possibly not thinking it through logically, but their insistence on keeping hold of the cash already there doesn't seem to make sense. It's like I owe them rather the the other way round (this is 100% NOT the case.)

I have never been in debt with them and I am also happy to have a slight buffer of, say, £100 for the time being but AIBU to insist for a lot of the current balance back - particularly as it seems to be constantly increasing, AND we have the £66 a month going in as well until April...?

But it's not winter yet, and it's been a really mild autumn and that £450 credit could disappear or seriously diminish after you've had your December, January and February bills.

Our last bill (amount used, not DD with or without £66) was £90, so £128 is quite high. Octopus predict that our Dec, Jan and Feb bills will be about £300 each, so while we're in credit now, we're unlikely to be early next year.

You can insist that they refund your credit, but then it's quite likely you'll be in quite a lot of debt by Easter and they'll be wanting to put your direct debit up again.

Thanks for replying. I have explained to them I can pay for what we do use, and it'll be another £630+ in a few weeks, which seems over the top...? They have predicted I will be paying £215 from next April, but the current amount is £125 due to the extra £66. I don't mind topping up, and having a bit of credit just in case, which I have explained.

Most of the energy use is electric btw as we have a woodburner which we tend to use the most, and hence the gas side won't change dramatically.

Does it still seem excessive or is this normal to have such a large amount of credit?

I think it's normal to have some credit, we're about £600 in credit and leaving it in because a) want a large buffer to get us through to spring just in case and b) our fix runs out next June and we don't know what our new one will look like. We're sort of treating it like a savings account tbh. I think if you can afford to leave it in, you won't regret it - and if come spring you've not used any of it then readdress it with them then?

Have a look at your past usage and you'll get an idea of the variation between summer and winter.

The difference can be massive - you should be well in credit just now. Slightly less clear for us now as we have an electric car but our old house winter months were about 3x summer months cost wise.

@StatisticallyChallenged I did that and it's not a huge difference tbh mainly as we have a woodburner that tends to heat so much of the house that we use that more than the heating. The electric is a sod but we don't use loads more in winter.

Thanks for replies everyone.

Can you ask your bank to pause a DD? Of cancel it and reinstate it in a couple of months?

Asking because I've got a similar issue and am £600 in credit. I could do with that money for Xmas and am happy to pay the monthly DD.

I am not sure, it's not occurred to me till you suggested it!

I don't want the money for Xmas or even to spend, but it does seem more sensible to have it in my account than theirs if I can easily pay if I need to. I know interest rates are rubbish but I can put in my ISA with other savings and it's still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

I think the best thing to do is to close your account and move to another provider. The money will soon come then.

I have gone through this process a few years ago (ended up £800 in credit in April!!) and they were still reluctant to release it. If you want your money back you have to be firm and insist they return it. They have no actual right to keep it. But just be ware you might end up having quite big payments at some point to make up for it, in case you miscalculated or prices go up again etc.

@Norriscolesbag other than the credit situation, I wouldn't want to change or threaten to another provider as I've found them (it's Octopus) to be okay, especially with things being so precarious, but I also don't want to continue accumulating such a large amount of credit.

@LovingLifesHurdles I'm heading that way too at the current rate! While it's a nice situation in some ways, it does seem a bit OTT. I'd rather have the buffer of, say, £100 and top up regularly if the bill is over £125, and just keep the £66 payments (of which there are still 5 to come.) That will still result in a large amount of credit considering our usage. That suggestion, however, was responded to with 'lets review in a few months', hence my confusion about whether it was an unreasonable request.

As a disclaimer, I am not great with logical stuff, and it's a double whammy with something as tedious as energy bills I am even worse!

I’m with shell and over £500 in credit, and that’s before the government £66 a month goes in .
They have put my direct debit up by £50 !
Online account won’t let me change it back and they won’t refund me the credit amount as the computer system has calculated that by April I will have used all the credit as well as the monthly direct debit.

This sounds similar to me - I can pay if it goes up but none of the calculations make sense.

When my supplier wanted to increase my d/d by 250% I told them what I thought would be a reasonable price to pay, so they adjusted it.
I'm pretty sure that you don't have to accept the payment they want so it should be worth contacting them and telling them what you are prepared to pay.

The point of a DD is to over pay for the 6 months of summer so there is extra for the colder 6 months.
£450 credit from the summer months doesn’t sound crazy, prices only went up again recently and it has been mild so heating hasn’t been in too much for most people.
It means £75 a month can go towards your much higher winter usage.

Being in credit by £450 suggests your energy supplier hasn’t miscalculated your DD regularly.

Similar situation here, I’ve just lowered my DD amount and will increase when needed

They’re always desperate to have you in credit so they take money off you that you don’t actually need to pay yet.

Id keep pressing to get it back and, if you’re worried, putting it in a savings account til winter is over. Even if you do then need to pay it to them you’ll make a little bit of interest and, importantly, they won’t. Overall they’re making a lot out of having as many people in credit as possible.

EXACTLY the same here.

Shell reckon our annual costs are over £4k. We're living frugally in a 3-bed house so I think we're closer to the £2.5k average. Annoyingly I can access my old PurePlanet account to compare our usage to last year.

I've just changed to pay a variable DD so we pay for what we use each month.

@luxxlisbon as I said in earlier posts, it doesn't vary enormously as most of usage is electric rather than gas.

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing someone else said similar to me but I wasn't sure if it was true or not. Like I've said, I don't mind some credit but I don't want or need to have £100's worth. I can always pay extra if I need to but isn't it more sensible to pay as and when if I can do this?

Can’t you convert to variable DD thereby only paying for what you use each month?
This is what I do. My money is better off in my bank rather than British Gas’

Some good advice from Citizens Advice about this

We’d built up a huge credit with SSE (around £900) then when the rates went up last month I got an email saying they were upping the DD to account for the rides. I flipped, what was the point of building up such a massive credit if they’re going to increase the DD anyway?! So I asked for a refund and got around £500 back. We’re currently using around half the current DD so once the heating goes on a bit more, we’ll probably use up the remaining credit and if I then need to up the DD , I will.
Continue to pursue the refund OP as long as if you do get a high bill in say January you’d be able to pay it. Our money is better in our own accounts right!

How much are you actually hoping they'll refund you? Realistically - i.e. leaving enough for the bill that is due in January?

Given how much you have on your plate, might it perhaps make more sense to leave it for now and review after the next bill?

NB: there should be a form to request a refund on the company's website.

I was £500 in Credit with my council tax but they refused to refund me. They took it off next year’s bill so my payment will be lower overall. Bit annoying.

I don’t understand how people end up in credit with their energy bills or what the point is tbh. I pay for what I use and I’ll continue doing so when bills increase. I’d rather not continuously pay £200 for £100 usage and have the energy company just hold £100s of my money unnecessarily.

I've read you should have double your dd (average monthly bill) at the beginning of winter. Mine is £90 (£23 with government help) and Octopus let me have a refund dropping my balance to £200 last month. So letting you have £50 of £450 dropping it to £400 sounds right.

£128 plus £66 is high for October, it's not really winter and was also mild this year.

Can't you just reduce your dd instead? I've revised mine downwards as needed looking at their prediction tool.