Can I claim from an electricity account £200 in credit?

ever-hopeful

I pay Southern Electric £91 per month for gas. My statement shows that I am now over £200 in credit. This has been rising for a while. The company intends to carry that over, but I would like to have it.
With the warmer months approaching (hopefully!), when my usage drops dramatically, I don't think that I will be risking arrears next winter as long as I carry on with high monthly payments.
Can I ask for it back and how do I go about it? I'm sure other people must have had the same experience. :huh:

grimsalve

It's a bit odd that you have a large credit at this time of year - are you sure there isn't a hefty bill heading your way and that might explain the large amount sat in your account at the moment?

If you've recently paid a bill and you've still got a credit then I'd give them a ring and ask to have it refunded and ask them to recalculate your direct debit at the same time.

I had an issue with British Gas when I transferred to them last year because they over-estimated my usage and therefore set the payments too high - I think most suppliers like to keep a bit of a "buffer" for newish customers but AFAIK once they've done a couple of their own meter readings they should adjust the payments and refund anything over a reasonable amount without any fuss.

closed

google "southern electric refund"

http://www.southern-electric.co.uk/GasAndElectricity/BillingAndPayment/Refunds/

ever-hopeful

Thanks, I should have thought of looking on the website myself, shouldn't I! I did that but...nothing happened. So I have "spoken" online with an advisor who is going to sort that out for me. Fingers crossed. :T

To the other reply: thank you for your concern, but I have just had a bill, which is how I noticed that they were holding quite a large sum of my money. As we are coming (hopefully) to a warmer time of year, and as my summer domestic energy consumption is a quarter of what I use in winter, I have time to build up funds before it snows again. I imagine they would refuse to refund if they were worried about that.

Thank you both anyway.

gin

I was in credit with Atlantic about a year ago and I rang them and they credited the money into my bank account. A lovely surprise! :j

Fingerbobs

I'm now in a similar situation with my E.ON combined Gas/Electricity account.

I normally pay each quarterly bill by variable direct debit, but last quarter I knew there would be insufficient funds in my current account to pay the bill, so I paid the full amount manually on credit card, assuming this would stop the Direct Debit happening.

Unfortunately, it didn't, so my E.ON account is now approx. £260 in credit!

My plan is just to leave it there until next quarter, when it should cover the next bill and I won't have to pay anything :rotfl: