Overpaid gas, best plan of action?

hollymcr

I don't normally pay much attention to my gas bills (yes I know that's bad). This month I got a shock: I pay £44 per month on a monthly payment DD, and I'm currently £480 in credit!

I rang (npower) to get this back, but I can't without an up to date meter reading which I can't get until I get home (when they last took a meter reading in May I was already £360 in credit so there's a good logical case for it not mattering that the current reading is estimated, but some battles don't seem worth fighting). It did buy me a day to find out if I can do better, though.

Are there any regulations saying how much credit can be built up before they do something about it without being asked? I'm nearly a year ahead now based on current payments, probably 2 years ahead based on actual usage.

Can I claim interest? (Has anybody tried?) Is there anything in the DD guarantee that might help me?

Note that there is no suggestion that I should have any problem (once I give a meter reading) getting the £480 back and reducing monthly payments. It just annoys me that they've earnt interest on that and should have reduced the payments themselves a long time ago, and I want to see if I can do any better than just getting the face value back.

espresso

hollymcr wrote: »

I don't normally pay much attention to my gas bills (yes I know that's bad).

Your first sentence says it all really, pay more attention and you would not be so much in credit. Surely it's up to you to check that you are paying the correct amount to cover your actual usage.

:rolleyes:

Cardew

For every person like you in credit, there are probably 10 in debit.

The regulator has stated that all the Utility Companies are massively in dept from these debit balances. A BG employee posted here that an internal memo was circulated saying they were £xxx Million in debt.

If there was a case for you getting interest on your credit balance, perhaps there would be a case for those in debit being charged interest??

Instead this forum is full of posts from people seeking ways that they can get a reduction on their outstanding debit balance and payback period extended over one or two years so they get a futher 'interest free loan'.

hollymcr

espresso wrote: »

Your first sentence says it all really, pay more attention and you would not be so much in credit. Surely it's up to you to check that you are paying the correct amount to cover your actual usage.

Yes, I know!

On the other hand, whilst it might have been unwise/naive/lasy to "trust" npower, I'm not sure that I don't have the right to expect npower to be "trustworthy". There is a clear understanding that the monthly payments are supposed, on average, to cover a year's usage. There must (surely?) be some point at which they would have had to have corrected the payments and refunded the overpayment?

I have had experience of this before with BT, receiving an unexpected cheque for £95 in similar circumstances (similar except that it took no intervention on my part).

Anyhow, this is not about whether this was npower's fault or mine (its my money, I should have been more careful!) but about what I might be able to get out of npower as a result, and whether anyone has tried claiming interest, for example, or knows whether npower have broken any guidelines themselves by letting this situation develop.

oldwiring

It's the end of summer so debit balances will be at their lowest and creit ones at their peak. My account is ell in credit, though not as much as the OP's. I recommend that, before asking for a full refund, he considers what the current cost of a full years consumption is, adjusts his monthly DD appropriately and looks at the projected residual credit and claims that amount now. I always support my claims with calculations and have never had them rejected.

espresso

hollymcr wrote: »

Anyhow, this is not about whether this was npower's fault or mine (its my money, I should have been more careful!) but about what I might be able to get out of npower as a result, and whether anyone has tried claiming interest, for example, or knows whether npower have broken any guidelines themselves by letting this situation develop.

As the mistake is your, I don't understand why you expect to get anything extra out of npower! You should be telling them that your DD payments are too high for your actual consumption. I have always told my suppliers what the monthly payment should be, based on previous usage and current costs.

Dream on if you expect npower to pay for your laziness!

hollymcr

Cardew wrote: »

The regulator has stated that all the Utility Companies are massively in dept from these debit balances. A BG employee posted here that an internal memo was circulated saying they were £xxx Million in debt.

If that's the case (and it's not something I was aware of) then fair enough.

Cardew wrote: »

If there was a case for you getting interest on your credit balance, perhaps there would be a case for those in debit being charged interest??

To be honest, I had simply assumed that where someone was behind they'd be chased to correct it, ie that the "slow to correct the problem" policy would only apply to people they owe money to, not the other way around. If it works both ways that's great, and I'm happy if my oversight has in some way contributed to a balancing act that's lead to those falling behind not getting charged interest. Because I spend a lot of my time out of the house, my utility bills are generally (and thankfully) pretty low so I don't spend much time reading these boards, and had not appreciated that the current balance is not in the utility companies' favour.

Getting the money back will pay off about half my overdraft, so it's crazy that I'd not picked up on it before. I guess I've been focussed on trying to reduce larger monthly expenses and missed what is a small monthly charge but which has lead to a big overpayment over time.

hollymcr

espresso wrote: »

As the mistake is your,

I don't think it is as clear cut as this; overcharging someone is wrong whether or not they happen to notice. You might just as well suggest that if Tesco overcharge you and you don't notice because you don't go through your bill then Tesco have every right to keep the money! Looked at in isolation, I think that claiming interest when the problem is noticed and corrected is perfectly fair. Note that I'm paying by direct debit; if this was a standing order and I'd failed to respond to them telling me to reduce my payments then that would be different. They're taking the money on the basis of a relationship of trust, and taking advance payments in effect for my gas usage in 2009/2010 as they're doing now abuses that trust, whether or not I notice.

However, as I mentioned elsewhere I had assumed (wrongly I accept) that they'd have been very quick to correct the problem if it were the other way around. If others benefit from the other side of the coin that completely changes my opinion of how this "unfairness" should be dealt with. I'll just reclaim the overpayment, reduce my overdraft and try to be more careful in future.

Dream on if you expect npower to pay for your laziness!

Stranger things have happened! (And I know I mentioned laziness myself but that wasn't really the cause; I simply directed the limited time I have in the wrong direction and missed something significant which I had assumed was not.)

hollymcr

oldwiring wrote: »

It's the end of summer so debit balances will be at their lowest and creit ones at their peak. [...] I recommend that, before asking for a full refund, he considers what the current cost of a full years consumption is, adjusts his monthly DD appropriately and looks at the projected residual credit and claims that amount now.

Good advice, certainly.

However, monthly payments of £44 suggest an annual spend of £528, so to be up £480 I've almost paid for a whole year at their predicted rate. Looking now at the figures, my annual spend is more like £350, so monthly payments of about £30 and a full reclaim of the credit balance would seem fair to me.


I'll let them do the maths when I speak to them tomorrow and see what they come up with.

espresso

hollymcr wrote:

I don't think it is as clear cut as this; overcharging someone is wrong whether or not they happen to notice.

That's why they send out invoices for the customer to check and inform them of any discrepancies.

hollymcr wrote:

I'll let them do the maths when I speak to them tomorrow and see what they come up with.

Is that not more laziness? Why don't you work it out and then you know that the monthly figure is correct!

hollymcr

espresso wrote: »

That's why they send out invoices for the customer to check and inform them of any discrepancies.

I'm pretty sure that the computer could have worked that out for them. I'm sure it wouldn't have got to £500 in arrears before it noticed :-)

Is that not more laziness? Why don't you work it out and then you know that the monthly figure is correct!

I have worked it out (and gave the figures in the post you quoted), but I'm sure they'll work out something different; I'll see what they say and take it from there. What I'm expecting is a refund of what's overpaid so far and a reduction to around £30pm.