Southern Electric claiming credit

mrlambertgeog

Hi - apologies if this is a topic that has been posted a lot before but I am a Southern Electric dual fuel customer with £260 credit on my gas account and £115 on my electricity.

I know that it is sensible to keep some credit back for winter months whenI will use more but does anyone know what Southern's policy on customer account credit is? I know some suppliers automatically refund over a certain amount but didn't know if I would need to chase Southern for it, as I would rather earn any interest on my money than have it in their bank account!

Very annoyingly they are an 0845 number and their webchat is conveniently not enabled for the latest version of Internet Explorer, but I wanted more information before I do spend my money calling them!

gazjoneswales

mrlambertgeog wrote: »

Hi - apologies if this is a topic that has been posted a lot before but I am a Southern Electric dual fuel customer with £260 credit on my gas account and £115 on my electricity.

I know that it is sensible to keep some credit back for winter months whenI will use more but does anyone know what Southern's policy on customer account credit is? I know some suppliers automatically refund over a certain amount but didn't know if I would need to chase Southern for it, as I would rather earn any interest on my money than have it in their bank account!

Very annoyingly they are an 0845 number and their webchat is conveniently not enabled for the latest version of Internet Explorer, but I wanted more information before I do spend my money calling them!

Each company has a different policy regarding how they refund credits and when. Though most suppliers only automatically do this at the dd review date (normally in the spring) Instead of wasting your money calling them, why not send them an email?

What irriates me about this time of year is all the posts regarding "rather earn interest in my account". By paying by direct debit you get a decent discount, normally about 6%, which works out alot more than any interest you would earn. I also think it would be interesting to see companies allow customers who would request to have credits retutned to them as they would prefer to earn interest themselves, but then come the end of winter the companies can ask for the full outstanding balances to be paid, as the companies would prefer to have their interest in their account not the customers. Could you imagine the uproar?

Cardew

Welcome to the forum

Is that credit after showing on a bill or when you check on line? Don't forget DD payments are credited monthly, but bills are debited quarterly. i.e. I could be showing as having £400 credit now but tomorrow a £500 bill is debited and I will be £100 in debit.

£260/£115 credit is excessive if you only pay £10 a month DD, but insufficient if you pay £300 a month DD - you get my drift!

Lastly you can of ensure that you get all of the interest on your money by paying your bill quarterly - you lose the DD discount but ......

Mugget

If you have recently been billed on a actual reading and it is 'true ' credit on the account SE will refund that money to your bank or by chq. They will give it all back no questions asked. Might be worthwhile to get them to review your DD at the same time. A good adviser would offer to do this anyway if u wanted a refund without you having to ask.

jalexa

mrlambertgeog wrote: »

I am a Southern Electric dual fuel customer with £260 credit on my gas account and £115 on my electricity.

I know that it is sensible to keep some credit back for winter months whenI will use more but does anyone know what Southern's policy on customer account credit is?

As hinted at by other posters there isn't quite enough information to calculate accurately. Do you know your annual consumption(s) in kWhrs? Have you been with Southern Electric long enough for them to have an idea? BTW it should be on a recent bill. Have you lived in your home long enough to have established a typical annual consumption? Do you know the date your payments were last reviewed?

Given answers to most of these questions it is possible to calculate accurately (which is not the same thing as saying Southern Electric will calculate accurately).

The objective is to have a zero balance at the annual review, typically April. Did your account achieve a zero balance at the last annual review?

More questions than answers I'm afraid, but you won't get *anywhere* if you don't talk to your supplier, 0845 or not. Do you *really* want a rebate?

BTW, my past experience of Southern Electric was that I could always find a still working 0800 number on one or other pieces of paper. Have you checked "Saynoto0870"?

lola34

We are with Southern Electric and get our bills 6 monthly, the last one in Feb we were owed £60 but I had to phone them to get the money refunded, I havenever known them automatically refund any excess, I also think that it depends who you talk to at the other end, they will probably try and say that as we are coming up to winter then you should be in credit to compensate for extra usage, it depends how much you pay anyway monthly, we are currently what amounts to 2 months in credit but thisis probably due also to a new boiler but I am waiting until the bill in the spring, though what they might also suggest also instead of crediting you is reducing your monthly payment.

EmptyWallet_2

I've only just had my last electric bill, which has brought to my attention that I'm nearly £500 in credit on electric and £105 credit on my gas account!! (I live in a modest 3 bed semi)
You'd have thought they'd suspend the DD for a couple of months, but no - they just keep taking the money... No wonder I'm struggling to make ends meet... :mad:

I've just fired off an email to claim some back...! (No customer service on a sunday - and looks like they quote 5 working days to refund :mad: :mad: )

johnk

They held a credit of over £1000 from me for over a year until I found out and claimed (I am on online billing and do not often check my accounts). When I asked about interests on this credit, they sounded puzzled?-(

I have since moved away from them.

macman

But if you were £1,000 in debit, would you be happy to pay them interest on that? If you don't bother checking your online bills, that is not their fault.

johnk

macman wrote: »

But if you were £1,000 in debit, would you be happy to pay them interest on that? If you don't bother checking your online bills, that is not their fault.

Forgive me for my limited knowledge - has any energy firm ever allowed a customer to be in debit for over £1000 without calling in a debt collector? If you could make a predecence, you will create a very popular supplier, I believe.

spiro

johnk wrote: »

Forgive me for my limited knowledge - has any energy firm ever allowed a customer to be in debit for over £1000 without calling in a debt collector? If you could make a predecence, you will create a very popular supplier, I believe.

All of them do if they send you estimated bills for 2 years all of which have been underestimated and the customer does not phone up with the correct (higher) reading. You only have to see all the posts on here about 'catch up bills'.