£134 in Credit What shoud I Do

Rubber_Duck_4

I switched suppliers in August 2006 and I always pay by direct debit. Since this time I have managed to get myself £134 in credit. I understand you usually over pay in the summer and under pay in the winter and through the year this balabces out but it seems I am over paying every time.

I would welcome your suggestions, should I:

a) leave it and do nothing
b) request some of it back and leave a small buffer
c) request it all back - it's better in my bank than theirs

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Cardew

£134 is not much in credit at this time of the year. The interest on that for a couple of months is only pennies.

Anyway I doubt if they would let you have it all back. The idea of the DD scheme is to have a period of a year and estimate how much you would use and then recalculate the DD after the year.

Obviously if it looks as if you are paying far too much, or far too little, a revised DD will be needed; but it doesn't look like they are too far out in your case.

CELTIC_YOB

If Rubber Duck had wrote the above thread in September, I would agree with you.
It's now coming into spring And now, he should start to get into credit ready, for the following winter.

That's how I understood it.

oldwiring

IMO best to wait for the annual review date amf then you'll know what your consumption for a year is. At that time I always pay ant deficit or reclaim any over payment and start the next year with revised amount. BTW I'm with SE who are very efficient and cooperative in such matters

Biggles

d) learn the lesson that monthly DDs in advance are only for the benefit of the supplier, stop them and change to quarterly DD in arrears, paying the actual amount due.

Why do people keep falling into this trap?

Cardew

Biggles wrote:

d) learn the lesson that monthly DDs in advance are only for the benefit of the supplier, stop them and change to quarterly DD in arrears, paying the actual amount due.

Why do people keep falling into this trap?

Ofcom have stated the overall utility companies have greater debit balances than credit balances; which is not surprising given the scores of posts on this forum where customers have huge Debit balances.(and usually pay their debt off interest free over a couple of years.

Most companies offer a lower tariff for Monthly Direct Debit. The savings on that usually far outweigh the gain in interest you would make from paying in arrears.

Paying by DD saves me well over £100pa on my tariff. Paying quarterly(by any means) would save me approx £7 a year in interest.

tripled

We can still have cold snaps at this time of the year. I would suggest waiting until the end of March/April, giving a reading then and asking them to refund any credit. As you will at that stage be coming into the spring period, you should have plenty of opportunity to accumulate a credit for next winter.

Biggles

Cardew wrote:

Ofcom have stated the overall utility companies have greater debit balances than credit balances; which is not surprising given the scores of posts on this forum where customers have huge Debit balances.(and usually pay their debt off interest free over a couple of years.

Most companies offer a lower tariff for Monthly Direct Debit. The savings on that usually far outweigh the gain in interest you would make from paying in arrears.

Paying by DD saves me well over £100pa on my tariff. Paying quarterly(by any means) would save me approx £7 a year in interest.

I had been under the impression that more posters were concerned about the amount of their money that the supplier owed them and how they were going to get it back?

The actual discount seems to vary, EDF offer £25 a year, elsewhere I recall seeing 3% quoted (under £50 to me). Granted, that's still slightly more than the interest gained on the average £200 higher bank balance I would have but only marginally.

Looks like monthly DD could be worthwhile if you could a) get a good discount and b) find a way of ensuring your monthly payments were realistic and monitor them regularly to ensure they stayed that way.

Cardew

Biggles wrote:

I had been under the impression that more posters were concerned about the amount of their money that the supplier owed them and how they were going to get it back?

The actual discount seems to vary, EDF offer £25 a year, elsewhere I recall seeing 3% quoted (under £50 to me). Granted, that's still slightly more than the interest gained on the average £200 higher bank balance I would have but only marginally.

Looks like monthly DD could be worthwhile if you could a) get a good discount and b) find a way of ensuring your monthly payments were realistic and monitor them regularly to ensure they stayed that way.

Agreed not all discounts are the same for monthly DD.

To have an average annual bank balance £200 higher you have to be using a lot of fuel - bearing in mind that on a monthly DD you do not pay 'up front.' So if your quarterly bill was £200 your average balance paying quarterly would be £100.

Even at £200pa average @4.5%(after tax) that is only £9. I suggest for most people a figure of £5 in interest savings would be normal.