Why did EDF refund me?

[Moltenpink]

I raised my direct debit (the EDF site advised to do this) to try to build up some credit for winter.

submitted my August meter read for the March - August bill, they calculated the cost then refunded me the difference, so my balance is now zero.

it’s annoying because I will probably spend it now and get behind in winter! Is this normal for EDF?

Some companies do this - they refund the credit balance and then want you to increase your direct debit which is annoying if you want to keep the credit to cover the increase in energy bills

Stick it away in a separate account for winter! Or put it in premium bonds or something so you can access it easily when you need it but so no easily you spend on a whim.

BG do the same , they won’t allow you to have a lot of credit sitting in your account because then they get accused of hoarding peoples money .

British Gas did the same. I just paid it straight back as an extra payment.

I find their direct debit guidance really irresponsible at the moment. I’m paying above my useable to allow for winter and rising bills and they keep messaging me to say I’m paying them too muchZ

I just find it really strange, you’d think they would want people to overpay right now. Oh well, premium bonds are a good suggestion by someone above

British Gas are confusing, at the moment we are paying £212 DD pcm, it's telling me to change that to £73 pcm instead!

British Gas did this to me - refunded and increase my DD - I sent the money straight back again, you can do ApplePay via their app

British Gas are a nightmare for this.
I'm on their standard variable rate.

They are apparently just about to reduce my direct debit for gas, so from September onwards instead of being £23 a month, it's dropping to £21 because apparently 'I'm paying too much'.
They reviewed my account at the end of August this year & I had less than £50 credit.

Last year I was over £100 in credit, so they refunded it & then wanted a higher direct debit.

This year, I'm still on the standard variable rate tariff & have no clue why they think I'm going to get through this winter on £21 including standing charges without falling into debt.

I'm going to check each month online & make extra payments to top it up over the winter.

I don't think they included the £400 from the govt, because I'm fairly sure that will be added to my elec account.

They guessed that should go up by less than £20 a month, but if the grant gets added to it I think it should be enough to cover the higher prices up to January, as we aren't big power users even if we don't cut back at all.

They aren't a bank so have to be careful how much money they hold on account.

EDF did the same to me. I just went into my online account and paid it back in.

I've obviously been unlucky in the past. I've left both Scottish Power and OVO in the past as they were hiking up my DD despite me being £300+ in credit and consistently using less than the existing DD set for

With BG it’s very easy to adjust your dd via the app .

They do this if you're above £100 in credit. I'm keeping it in a savings account and will use it to top up over winter. As long as you pay your bill down to zero if it's in debit, they'll keep your DD the same. So that's my intention.

Because everyone complained about energy companies "keeping their money" so Ofgem ruled energy companies had to refund credit despite building up credit in the summer to use in the winter being the whole point of paying a set amount by DD all year. Keep it and repay it onto the account in winter.

I am baffled as I am with EDF , have received last bill recently too and considerably in credit. However they have not sent me a refund at all. Going to leave as it is sitting there to help with the increasing costs.