Cancelling gas supply

lifeisagas

Having a bit of trouble with my gas supplier, hope someone can help

When I moved into my new house, I signed up to the EDF blue plus april 2014 thing for gas and found out recently that everything runs on electricity (which explains why our elec. bill went up substantially) and nothing runs on gas. I checked the meter recently and it's exactly the same as when we moved in
The problem, and also the reason why I didn'tt notice we were using any gas, is because they still took the direct debits but kept my online account in credit for all that money, which is over £300 now. And the supplier wants me to get the meter removed (for a fee, of course!) and they'll then refund me the money, minus the daily standing charge (which is a fair penalty for my mistake, I suppose).
My question is: do I have to get the meter removed to close the account and get my money back? The cost and inconvenience of this seems too much, especially since reinstalling the meter in future would be another costly hassle. Since Blue+ has no termination fees, couldn't I simply cancel the contract now, EDF stop supplying me and refund the money?

Sorry for the wall of text, and advance thanks to anyone who replies

Wywth

Ah, another new user delvling into the realms of fantasy on a wet Sunday afternoon :cool:

How on earth could you not have realised you have no gas appliances?

Why do you need to refer to a meter to tell that?

What anticipated annual consumption figures did you give to EDF to decide upon their Blue+ tariff in the first place?

And finally, EDF don't split the gas & electricity payments in their bill - they simply take the total amount you have paid them and deduct that from the cost of consumption.

If your EDF account is massively in credit then follow this MSE advice:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits#fight

Although EDF will refund you automatically at your periodic review if you are over £75 in credit. (providing they have an up to date meter reading at the point)

The only way you can close a gas account entirely is to have the gas disconnected, for which a fee applies. (If this is a rented property, you'll need the permission of the LL who I doubt will grant it)
You can switch supplier for gas, but it won't get you any alleged overpayment back, but will probably reduce the monthly amount you pay to EDF (depending on wht you told them when you set up the account)
You will of course thenm have a gas account with another supplier.

Or you could switch both fuels to a reassuringly more expensive supplier - that'll get any overpayment back from EDF.

lifeisagas

*How on earth could you not have realised you have no gas appliances? Why do you need to refer to a meter to tell that?

In short, a misunderstanding with the landlord. I was told that the heating system runs on gas, when they're actually storage heaters. Since the direct debit payments continued, I assumed the heaters ran on gas

*What anticipated annual consumption figures did you give to EDF to decide upon their Blue+ tariff in the first place?

First time sorting out energy bills so I just took the average, naively

*And finally, EDF don't split the gas & electricity payments in their bill - they simply take the total amount you have paid them and deduct that from the cost of consumption.

Sorry, should have clarified: only the gas is with EDF. Electricity is done by a different supplier


When I called EDF they said they'd only refund the credit once I've got permission to disconnect the gas. As you say, I don't think the landlord would be too eager to do this.

After looking around this forum, I found ebico (can't post link), an offshoot of SSE, who claim to be an ethical energy supplier. Since they have no standing charge, would it make sense to switch gas supply to them (paying an increased amount per kwh to compensate for no standing charge, but not using any gas would result in a £0 bill)? Or would Ebico not go for this, since there's nothing in it for them?

Also, thanks for the reply and links; I understand helping newbies can get annoying

molerat

Switching to Ebico is probably the best option for you, choose paying on receipt of bill and you will pay £0. When you switch EDF will refund you any credit amount remaining.