Back billing principle

bitti

Hi I have succesfully managed to get the back billing principle applied to my energy account with the co-operative, YAY

unfortunately they are taking all of the payments I have made to the account and applying them to the period the BBp has been applied to. So it has been applied to the period up to 14/07/15 but surely any payments I made from 14/07 onwards should come off the bill for energy used since that date?

I hope that has made sense, I have been trying to get this sorted out for over a year now and I feel like I am going crazy, in fact I think that is there aim!

matelodave

As far as I understand the rules, although the supplier cannot ask for any addtional payment for energy used before the back billing date, any money you have already paid to him under a direct debit arrangement can be used towards the energy that you've used prior to the back billing date.

ie he cant ask you for more money but can keep what you've already paid up to the back billing date. You then have to pay for the 12 months worth that he is allowed to bill you

footyguy

bitti wrote: »

Hi I have succesfully managed to get the back billing principle applied to my energy account with the co-operative, YAY

unfortunately they are taking all of the payments I have made to the account and applying them to the period the BBp has been applied to. So it has been applied to the period up to 14/07/15 but surely any payments I made from 14/07 onwards should come off the bill for energy used since that date?

I hope that has made sense, I have been trying to get this sorted out for over a year now and I feel like I am going crazy, in fact I think that is there aim!

If, as you assert, you have succesfully managed to get the back billing principle applied to your energy account with the co-operative, then I don't follow how the supplier can now be using money you are now paying to pay off the old bill.

The old bill would have been zero.
If it wasn't zero after you had succesfully managed to get the back billing principle applied to your energy account with the co-operative,then you still owe that balance.
If it was zero, and credits are now applied, then the account would now be in credit which you can reclaim (unless you have used energy since, in which case that is what the credits will be used for)

bitti

Hi thanks for the responses.
It gets a bit confusing as the ombudsman decided (recently) that the back billing principle only applied up to 14/07 so I appreciate that all payments made up to that date would be used but surely anything I paid from then on should only be used towards the bill that needs paying? It was not a dd but payments I was making whilst waiting for bills.

They have taken all energy used up to the 14/07 worked out how much it cost and taken all of my payments up to 02/12/16 towards it

System

rms3205 wrote: »

NPower Back Billing - I had a massive dispute with NPower at our old house. They supplied gas and electric. I never got a bill from them, even though I was paying £90 per month, which more than covered both gas and electric (we spend about 6 months a year out of the country) I ended up with an additional bill of just under £1,000 which I disputed with the Ombudsman. Long story short, I ended up paying £750, due to threats of selling the debt to bailiffs etc. Out of the blue at the end of 2016, I got a letter promising a refund for back billing on my electric supply, along with compensation. I wrote to NPower, asking when I could expect a refund for the gas supply, which was back billed at the same time as the electric. I had a phone call from a rep at the Executive Complaints dept, who assured me he had conducted a full investigation into my request for a gas refund, which would not be forthcoming, because 'Of the way we purchase and supply gas and electricity being separate'. It sounded like a load of old flannel, so I have asked for his comments in writing, which I was assured would be forthcoming. Still waiting. Anyone had a similar experience?

A repeat post.

rms3205

Hengus ......deleted this, newby here! :-)

Cardew

matelodave wrote: »

As far as I understand the rules, although the supplier cannot ask for any addtional payment for energy used before the back billing date, any money you have already paid to him under a direct debit arrangement can be used towards the energy that you've used prior to the back billing date.

ie he cant ask you for more money but can keep what you've already paid up to the back billing date. You then have to pay for the 12 months worth that he is allowed to bill you

This has come up several times and my understanding is the same as your explanation.

As an example take the case where someone has been paying £100 a month for two years. He doesn't get a bill until today(18 Jan 2017) and that bill is, say, £3,000. (on the same tariff)

The back-billing principle is applied to the period 18 Jan 2015 to 18 Jan 2016 which would 'write-off' £1,500 had he not paid anything during this period. However as he paid 12 x £100(£1,200) during this period he would only have £300 written off.

The explanation(don't shoot the messenger!!) is that the back-billing code is to prevent customers being faced with a huge debt because of non-production of a bill. If someone has paid money in the 'write off' period then that money has properly been credited to their account.

Although I can't find the posts, iirc in some cases all monies paid to the account(up to today's date) have been credited to the period covered by the back billing procedure.

Cardew

footyguy wrote: »

If, as you assert, you have succesfully managed to get the back billing principle applied to your energy account with the co-operative, then I don't follow how the supplier can now be using money you are now paying to pay off the old bill.

The old bill would have been zero.
If it wasn't zero after you had succesfully managed to get the back billing principle applied to your energy account with the co-operative,then you still owe that balance.
If it was zero, and credits are now applied, then the account would now be in credit which you can reclaim (unless you have used energy since, in which case that is what the credits will be used for)

Sorry to disagree but IMO the old bill is not zero.

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/customers/energy-industry-codes/code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills.html

This IMO is the crucial extract from 'Back-billing':

they will not ask you to pay any extra (my bold)for energy you used etc etc.

The OP did pay!

dogshome

The Back Billing Agreement is an agreement suppliers sign up to, it's not an edict by Ofgem but they do 'encourage' suppliers to sign up

The whole point is to save customers who have not been billed for a year, from BILL SHOCK when a bill is eventually produced - When first introduced it was two years, then undoubtedly with pressure from Ofgem it was reduced to one year,

In the early days it applied 100% to both Direct Debit paying customers and those who paid on Bill reciept

However one of the suppliers, ( Think was n'power ), claimed that because D/Debit customers had built up a large credit balance that would meet some/most of the late bill, there was no BILL SHOCK.
After a lot of argee bargee the position today is that suppliers will only apply the Back Billing agreement to billing that exceeds a Direct Debit cutomers Credit Balance

The lesson seems to be that if your supplier is in a pickle with billing and you are D/Debit customer, a change of tariff to pay on reciept of bill could pay dividends despite the higher cost

dogshome

A PS to post #9

In the clogmire of sorting out back-billing for D/Debit customers, there is a problem

At the present time the supplier offsets the entire value of the credit value that a D/Debit customer has built up, against the cost of the uninvoiced energy prior to 12 months
However, this credit value includes those D/debits that have been made during the last 12 months that are chargeable - It is quite reasonable to argue that any part of the credit built up by D/Debits paid during the last and chargeable 12 months, should be discounted when offsetting the overall debt when calculating Back Billing relief

footyguy

Cardew wrote: »

Sorry to disagree but IMO the old bill is not zero.

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/customers/energy-industry-codes/code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills.html

This IMO is the crucial extract from 'Back-billing':

The OP did pay!

I agree.

What I was trying to say is that the account would have been zero'd as at 14/07
i.e. the supplier would have calculated what was due to be paid - say £1500
take off what was already paid - say £1200
cancel out the remainder under the BBP

so as there was then no debit, how can payments made since that date be used to pay off the non-existent debt.

Credits applied will be credits to the account