STBXH has got us into debt found out after he gave ma a STD

[Engineeringlife]

Life is a complicated mess! STBXH refused to move out. He cannot afford to. I am paying all the bills. I am in credit with the energy supplier, over £1000, but they won’t give me a refund because the account is not in my name. If I ask STBXH he could (and probably would) change the bank account details and claim the money. Any ideas on how I can get my money back?

Are you both still living in the marital home? If so, just cancel your direct debit and allow the credit to gradually run down in each billing cycle. If he has no ability to / intention of paying the bills, even if you got the credit back you’d still have to use it to pay the bills or you’d simply build up arrears.

As pp above has suggested. I'd just cancel the DD and let the credit run out. Was talking to someone yesterday who is owed hundreds and they refuse to return it or adjust his DD. So he cancelled it until it's gone.

Thank you for the advice. I am hoping, he will move out and I will keep the house. I have tried to reduce the direct debit by the supplier keeps increasing it again. I am reluctant to stop it because I am worried I will get put on pre-payment meter once I need to start payments again or put on a higher tariff.

Unless the account is in debt and unpaid there is zero reason for them to install prepayment meters.

Also, is he not able to get the refund transferred to his account and then just transfer it to you?

When mine got massive and they refused to reduce the direct debit I changed to “pay what you use”, used up the credit and then changed back to the normal direct debit. Could that be an option?

Yep, if you ask for a variable direct debit then your tariff shouldn't change, but you won't accrue any further credit.

They can’t force you to have a direct debit. They like to make you think you need to have one, and instruct you an amount, because it works best for them - they end up with £1,000 of your money in their coffers rather than your own. You can cancel it with your bank and as long as your account remains in debit and your bill is being paid from that, they have no legal right to change your meter.

That sounds like a possibility. Thank you.

I have not told my STBXH about the credit as he has got into a lot of debt and would keep the money.
The problem is the company will not talk to me because I am not the account holder.

I have tried to do some alterations online but reach a brick wall and get a message to ‘phone to speak to one of our helpful colleagues’.

STBXH has cleared out our joint account and payments were not made so I had to start paying them from my private account back in April.