In credit with gas and electric

Stu6781

My British Gas online is telling me I’m £250 in credit with my gas and £50 in credit with my electric; both since August when we moved into our house. How do I go about claiming this back? Is it a simple procedure? Sorry this is my first home so I’m new to all this! Any advice is much appreciated !!!128512;

Cardew

Looking at credit balances online is meaningless unless it is at the time a bill is produced.

Direct Debits are credited to the account every month, but generally bills are debited quarterly. Thus I could have the same credit as yourself today, but tomorrow get a huge bill debited and have a debit balance.

Robin9

When did you last have a Bill ? If it was a couple of months ago then the energy used since then may well not have been shown on your account.

Look at your last bill - now do your own meter readings and calculated how much energy you have used in the meantime and allow for your DD's.

Make sure you read your own meters at least monthly and send them to your supplier. Keep a simple spreadsheet.

jbuchanangb

It is normal to build up a credit on your energy account, particularly when you have recently moved into a house. Most energy suppliers will perform a check every so often (annually or half-yearly) to see if your DD payments need to be adjusted based on your actual usage, but they are also open to requests from customers to change the monthly payments. When you have had a year's worth of bills, you can calculate how much the next 12 months energy will cost, then deduct the credit balance, divide the result by 12 and ask the supplier to set the monthly DD at that amount.
If there is really silly large credit balance, you can ask them to refund it, and calculate the monthly DD as a twelfth of the expected energy cost for the coming year.