MSE News: GB Energy goes bust, 160,000 customers affected

Gas and electricity provider GB Energy has ceased trading, it has emerged tonight....
Read the full story:
'GB Energy goes bust, 160,000 customers affected: here's what you need to know'
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Comments

  • So we just left GB energy a week ago and have switched to a new supplier. We were ~£200 in credit but now they have ceased trading.

    We were hoping to request the credit refund but now we're not sure what to do. What should we do?
  • How can it be best to leave a DD paying money to a business which has ceased trading?

    I think it may be more sensible to cancel the DD and work my way through the £198 I was in credit (putting the payments aside to pay whoever ofgem offload us to)
  • Lisbon
    Lisbon Posts: 415
    I've been Money Tipped!
    Forumite
    Wassa123 wrote: »
    So we just left GB energy a week ago and have switched to a new supplier. We were ~£200 in credit but now they have ceased trading.

    We were hoping to request the credit refund but now we're not sure what to do. What should we do?

    Read MSE's article now (it covers your question) and then read it again when it has been updated in a couple of days, when things might be clearer.
  • Stonk
    Stonk Posts: 937 Forumite
    GB Energy took this month's DD payment on Friday; I just called my bank to see if I can claw it back under the terms of the DD Guarantee, and they refused. Their reason was that GB Energy was and still is my supplier, and the DD was a payment for the supply. The fact that I am very much in credit with GB Energy, and therefore the DD would be paying for electricity actually supplied sometime next year, is obviously something they cannot verify and did not sway them. I think this is fair enough, to be honest. It was an optimistic call.

    Anyway, what this means is that if GB Energy for any reason took another DD (by mistake, or maliciously), it too probably could not be clawed back. Therefore it makes a lot of sense to cancel the DD to prevent any possibility of that happening.
  • Stonk
    Stonk Posts: 937 Forumite
    edited 27 November 2016 at 12:44AM
    Wassa123 wrote: »
    So we just left GB energy a week ago and have switched to a new supplier. We were ~£200 in credit but now they have ceased trading.

    We were hoping to request the credit refund but now we're not sure what to do. What should we do?

    I think this is the worst situation to be in, unfortunately.

    Ofgem appear to be asserting (in other news sources) that credit balances of people supplied by GB Energy are protected (although their documentation doesn't quite say that, it's more along the lines of "we kind of hope that your new supplier will honour the credit balance but we're not really sure").

    But if you are no longer a customer, then I have a nasty suspicion that you are going to find yourself a normal creditor of a failed business, in a very long line, and might end up with little or nothing. I hope I am wrong, for everybody's sake, but it does makes more sense that way. After all, why should your new supplier, to whom you switched before the failure, have your credit balance forced upon them? I can understand how the supplier appointed by Ofgem to take on all the GB Energy accounts might be forced to accept the credit balances (e.g, Ofgem could make it a condition of them being appointed the supplier), but for your credit balance to be thrust upon any other supplier would be unjust.

    If anyone is in the process of switching away from GB Energy, but the switch hasn't gone through yet, I recommend you do whatever you can to cancel the switch. For example, if you are in the cooling-off period, you have every right to tell your new supplier not to go ahead.
  • blackgothic
    blackgothic Posts: 1,036
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    edited 27 November 2016 at 7:21AM
    Wassa123 wrote: »
    So we just left GB energy a week ago and have switched to a new supplier. We were ~£200 in credit but now they have ceased trading.

    We were hoping to request the credit refund but now we're not sure what to do. What should we do?

    Rang my bank an hour ago as i am in the same situation as you with a credit balance still at GB energy after moving to another supplier.
    I decided to change supplier at the start of this month mainly due to GB Energy emailing me to say that they where going to nearly double my monthly DD which i thought a bit strange .
    My Bank has just told me that they are going to reverse my last DD from 3 weeks ago. The credit GB have of mine more than covers the reclaimed DD and im still out a fiver but it could have been worse.
    A little grunt a little squeeze and out it comes like lemon cheese
  • Rang my bank an hour ago as i am in the same situation as you with a credit balance at GB energy after moving to another supplier at the start of the month and they are going to reverse my last DD from 3 weeks ago.

    Which bank please?
  • Roddieee wrote: »
    How can it be best to leave a DD paying money to a business which has ceased trading?

    I think it may be more sensible to cancel the DD and work my way through the £198 I was in credit (putting the payments aside to pay whoever ofgem offload us to)

    I too cancelled my direct debit last night.

    As someone else has stated on one of the plethora of GB threads (mods please sort out) I bet lots of GB ex customers will be very creative about the meter readings they take in the next few days!
  • blackgothic
    blackgothic Posts: 1,036
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    which bank please?

    m&s ...............................
    A little grunt a little squeeze and out it comes like lemon cheese
  • We had an email from GB energy recently saying they were reducing our DD! I will probably cancel the DD later (am about to be out for the rest of the day in a moment). Hope they hurry up with the new supplier and then can get back on the switching sites. A pity, we never had any problems with them and it was a good deal, possibly too good which is why what happened happened. I am normally a very anxious person, but for some reason this has failed to get me going!
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