James
Member
Registered: 1st Jun 02
Location: Surrey
User status: Offline
|
I'm with EDF for my gas and electric. There are 2 issues. The first is that I'm £500 in credit with my account. Am I entitled to call them up and ask for the cash? I know they will suggest they reduce my direct debit, but I'm fairly happy with the direct debit amount, I'd rather have the lump sum.
Secondly, when I log onto my online account, there seems to be a gap in my billing. I expect to see 1 bill every 3 months. But but there was a gap between Sep-2012 and Mar-2013, I would have expected to see a bill for Dec-2013.
Are they likely to turn round at some point and say, oh by the way we cocked up and you owe us £xxx?
|
RichR
Premium Member
Registered: 17th Oct 01
Location: Waterhouses, Staffordshire
User status: Offline
|
When mine reached £500 a few years ago, British Gas reimbursed me and stated that they couldn't hold that much on account. I hadn't asked anything, it was automated.
Perhaps worth contacting them directly?
|
AndyKent
Member
Registered: 3rd Sep 05
User status: Offline
|
No you use the credit to pay for your bill and if you don't have enough at the end of a period they adjust the next group of direct debits to make up the shortfall.
I'm with npower and in the past when I've built up a lot they've just refunded it. It's my credit, not theirs.
[Edited on 12-03-2013 by AndyKent]
|
James
Member
Registered: 1st Jun 02
Location: Surrey
User status: Offline
|
Yeh I will get in touch at some point, just haven't got round to it.
I just did some research, it seems the reason for the gap in bills was due to a gap in meter readings.
|
AndyKent
Member
Registered: 3rd Sep 05
User status: Offline
|
Only thing to watch is that npower have an internal limit on refunds.
I once requested the full £520 balance from them and it didn't appear in my account after a couple of weeks. Rang and they said over £500 goes to a middle manager who had declined it.
After being a bit fucked off I requested £490. In my account next day 
|
James
Member
Registered: 1st Jun 02
Location: Surrey
User status: Offline
|
Problem solved. My 2 original issues were linked. Basically I hadn't been billed since September, that's why my account was in so much credit. When they generated a bill from September to March, it wiped out the whole £500 credit and now I'm £80 in debit 
|
John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
|
They like making it confusing.
British Gas took my DD every month, then billed every month for the actual amount separate to this. For some reason they then refunded all my monthly bills and charged me a quarterly one.
Apart from being a bit wtf in the first place, it definitely wasn't clear from the online account page, looked like they had just given me a massive bill one month.
There is no reason for and they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it being so complicated.
|
smcGSI16V
Member
Registered: 26th May 03
Location: Farnborough Drives: Thurlby 888 CDTi No.98
User status: Offline
|
This is the reason I don't do direct debit and only pay for what I use rather than the extra money I have paid gaining interest for these fat cat utility companies. Quarterly bill paid straight away which is budgeted with the monies in a separate account.
|
Toby
Premium Member
Registered: 29th Nov 05
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by James
Problem solved. My 2 original issues were linked. Basically I hadn't been billed since September, that's why my account was in so much credit. When they generated a bill from September to March, it wiped out the whole £500 credit and now I'm £80 in debit
What size property? I appreciate it was winter but £580 for 6 months seems a bit steep for the average household.
|
John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
|
Over winter I've been about £140 a month, goes down considerably over summer.
|
Cavey
Member
Registered: 11th Nov 02
Location: Derby
User status: Offline
|
Our gas and elec is at 111 a month at the moment
|
James
Member
Registered: 1st Jun 02
Location: Surrey
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by Toby
quote:
Originally posted by James
Problem solved. My 2 original issues were linked. Basically I hadn't been billed since September, that's why my account was in so much credit. When they generated a bill from September to March, it wiped out the whole £500 credit and now I'm £80 in debit
What size property? I appreciate it was winter but £580 for 6 months seems a bit steep for the average household.
A fairly large 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom flat. I haven't been particularly conservative TBH. My direct debit is £60 a month, which suggests it will only be £240 for the 6 months over the summer. That's possibly optimistic but we'll see.
|
dannymccann
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 06
Location: Doddington, Lincolnshire
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by smcGSI16V
This is the reason I don't do direct debit and only pay for what I use rather than the extra money I have paid gaining interest for these fat cat utility companies. Quarterly bill paid straight away which is budgeted with the monies in a separate account.
You're missing the direct debit discount then though? If your DD is too high ring them and tell them you want to lower it as you are in credit, easy
|
Jules S
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 03
User status: Offline
|
Funnily enough, we had a meter reading request earlier...so checked our account with nPower
Looking back at the history, they skipped a payment/payments from our account sometime in 2011/2012 and by the time they took the payment in June 2012 we were £800 in credit ffs
One £777 bill later...
|
