NPower bill says I'm £565 in "credit" - ??? Can I get that money back?

[BEAUTlFUL]

I recently submitted a meter reading to NPower, and my new bill says I'm £565 in credit. What does this mean? Is that money which have overpaifd and can claim back?

I want to leave NPower, so can I leave and get a refund?

XH used to look after the bills, btw.

I think you can get it back. Not sure how, maybe you just need to request it.

Martin Lewis is often ranting about this sort of thing. Have you had a peek at the money saving expert site?

AFAIK they will automatically pay it back if you do decide to leave them. I got money back when I switched suppliers.

Really - is it that simple?? For some reason I feel vv distrustful!

Really - is it that simple?? For some reason I feel vv distrustful!

Unless you have built it up over the summer and you are on a 2 rate or Economy 7 meter, ie you have electric storage heaters rather than gas central heating.

If you have 2 rate meter you will build a credit up in the summer where you use less electricity and this credit is eaten up in the winter when your electric bill will go through the roof

If you are on a budget scheme where you pay the same amount every month then you will have a "final quarter" once a year where they assess what you have used in the year and what you have paid, any credit is refunded.

You can ask for a refund and get it as you have over-paid for your electricity.

I used to work for npower, don't flame me

I won't flame you, Fizzylemonade!! You are being vv helpful!!

As far as I know, the credit has built up since they increased our DD rate to (for gas & elec) £280 a month! XH was in charge of this stuff so I didn't know. After he left, I looked through the bills, thought "Fark!" then submitted a reading. Hence this.

I will ask for a refund then, and if they don't immediately comply can I then switch suppliers and get it back?

Be careful about demanding a refund. As FL said, it may be that they have worked out what you normally use in a year then divide it by 12, so you are building up credit for the winter. If you ask for it all back, and have no credit (except what you pay in monthly) they may up your monthly bill to over £300. Maybe call and ask them to talk you through the payments? Maybe get a small refund of you are stuck for money atm. £280 does seems high to me (Im in NI tho, so not sure whats the norm in England)

Thought I was good having £150 excess in my electric bill! Im leaving it there tho, and will ask for refund in Feb when I know the highest spend months are over.

I think - this is from when I was switching last year - that if you choose to leave a company, then they have to pay you back the credit within a certain amount of time. You certainly shouldn't have any problems switching with that kind of credit level

If you decide to stay with nPower, you can ask them to review your payments - ours have just gone down massively because we were £400 in credit.

I've just got my money back with Scottish Power. I was paying £105 a month and was £320 in credit. They wrote to say my payments would go down to £62 a month

I rang and asked for the money back - she did point out that I would lose some of my credit as we're about to go into winter. But I joined them 12 months ago so I think that is not 100% true as I've been through a winter and summer.

So I said to give me £250 back, leave a bit of credit and put my payments back up. She said the payments didn't need to go right back up but have now been pegged at £86 a month. Just got my cheque yesterday.

of cousre you can ask for the money back, it's yours. we're perpetually in credit in the summer, builds up to about £300 by October and I always ask for it back. takes them AGES. (we are v frugal with heat!)

You can absolutely ask for the money back - they've taken it by direct debit and it's incorrect. We had the same with BT and with EDF. They cannot refuse to send you a cheque for the credit balance.

Thank you all so much. I will call them tomorrow and try to be confident instead of dissolving into tears and whimpering, "Keep it then... Buy your kids lovely Christmas presents..." like I normally do with this kind of thing.

Happened to me.
At work we were £1200 in credit!
They refunded it to our bank account straight away

We have just got a much needed £144 put into our account by npower, we were in credit and they gave it back to us!! Couldn't believe it. So I guess you should call them.

Fizzy thinks BEAUTIFUL has gone on a big spending spree and hasn't updated us

Bumping to see if BEAUTIFUL did indeed get her money back.

If you have been shopping, tell us what you bought

Happy to help anyone re electric or council tax as I used to do that too. Now I am just a sahm so it makes my brain work to answer questions.

Sorry Fizzy, just saw this! Yes I got £480 back (some of the credit-amount wasn't due back as it was for the Gas) (or something like that) (I promise I did listen), no problems, straight away. Customer Service girl was lovely and vv helpful. After Novembver's bill I'm to ring back and they'll adjust the monthly direct debit. Kerching!!

Thanks so much for your help.

No problem, nice to have that kind of money given back to you.

Enjoy shopping!