Utility bill am I in credit or debit?

The_stingemeister

Appears a bit of a dumb question....Had a look at a my duel electric and gas account, and I have a fairly high amount with a minus sign. Now on here this query has been brought up before and on the whole most said that you are OWED money. Looking elsewhere on the internet, not just forums, but actual utility companies and the opinions are different. As a rough guess I'd say that 75% said minus means you're owed, and credit means you owe. Contacted the utility company and they say I have underpaid and owe them, which is what I initially thought.

Incredible how many are confused by this. Surely the accounts should spell it out and say: YOU  OWE US or WE OWE YOU.

matelodave

Unfortunately not all companies do it what you'd expect. I've been with those who put a minus sign when I'm in credit and some when the account is in debit.  That's why I keep my own records and do my own sums so that I know whats going on.

It avoids misunderstandings and ensures that I don't end up with my DD being faffed around with because I know whether my account is on track rather than some weird algorithm in the computer which is trying (but not succeeding) to anticipate the state of my account in the future.

MWT

You should be able to work it out if you look at your bills rather than your account balance.

The bills should show your balance plus your payment less your charges.

So if your balance is negative and your payment makes it a smaller negative number, and your charges for use make ity a bigger negative number then you still owe them money...

Pete99

It's your account 'balance' so the minus means that your account is in debit, or in other words you owe that amount, if your account was in credit there would be just the figure with no preceding sign of plus or minus.

The_stingemeister

Pete99 said:

It's your account 'balance' so the minus means that your account is in debit, or in other words you owe that amount, if your account was in credit there would be just the figure with no preceding sign of plus or minus.

That's what I thought originally. But sources on the Internet mostly said the opposite.

Norman_Castle

Pete99 said:

It's your account 'balance' so the minus means that your account is in debit, or in other words you owe that amount, if your account was in credit there would be just the figure with no preceding sign of plus or minus.

That's how it should be but often isn't. When I was with EDF my paper bills would have on the first page in large font, "Your Electricity bill, -£60 but subsequent pages showed the account was £60 in credit. It was very misleading and I suspected intentionally to enable them to justify increasing dd payments.

Gerry1

Pete99 said:

It's your account 'balance' so the minus means that your account is in debit, or in other words you owe that amount, if your account was in credit there would be just the figure with no preceding sign of plus or minus.

Not necessarily so !  Some statements are presented like traditional bills, e.g.

  New tyre   £150.00

  Wheel balancing   £15.00

  10% discount   - £16.50

  Total Due   £148.50

That format makes sense because the normal situation is that you owe the relevant sums, so they are shown as positive amounts with no symbols.

Bank statements work the other way round.  Again, it's kept simple because the expectation is that you don't owe the bank the relevant sum, so the balance is shown as a positive amount with no symbol. Both methods are equally valid.

The problem has arisen since fixed direct debits were forced on consumers.  Traditional energy bills didn't have a balance as such, you paid the positive amount shown (perhaps over the counter in the High Street) and that was that, it was all done and dusted.  However, with fixed DDs that can take the account 'overdrawn', some suppliers now show the balance as being positive if you're in credit.

Some suppliers are better, stating £xx.xx iin CREDIT or £xx.xx in DEBIT to make things completely clear.

Of course, the best solution would be to default to variable direct debits to make everything straightforward and eliminate the endless tales of woe from people trying for months to get their credit refunded after yet another supplier has gone bust !

matelodave

Gerry1 said:

The problem has arisen since fixed direct debits were forced on consumers.  Traditional energy bills didn't have a balance as such, you paid the positive amount shown (perhaps over the counter in the High Street) and that was that, it was all done and dusted.  However, with fixed DDs that can take the account 'overdrawn', some suppliers now show the balance as being positive if you're in credit.

Some suppliers are better, stating £xx.xx iin CREDIT or £xx.xx in DEBIT to make things completely clear.

Of course, the best solution would be to default to variable direct debits to make everything straightforward and eliminate the endless tales of woe from people trying for months to get their credit refunded after yet another supplier has gone bust !

I'm like a lot of others who prefer a fixed DD because it means that I dont have hefty bills in  December, January, February and March and much smaller ones during the rest of the year.

I pay 8.5% of my annual bill every month rather than double that in the winter months and half of it in the summer. It's not really hard to understand and I'm sure it helps those who would find it hard to find twice as much during the winter.

It's not really hard to understand although some energy companies seem to make it so and I'll agree there are some out there who cant actually sort out their finances but whopping them with ginormous bills in the winter months wouldn't help them cope any better

Gerry1

It should be up to the customer to decide.  FDD is good if you're likely to go ovedrawn if a big bill comes in.  Bad if you don't spot excessive usage in good time, bad if your DD is suddenly increased and you think the company has broken a fixed deal by increasing the rates.  Yes, you and I know that's not the case, but it's a popular misunderstanding that pops uptime and time again in this forum.  Bad if you're in credit and your energy company goes bust and it takes forever to be refunded.

VDD: simple and straightforward, at least as good as a smart meter for keeping tabs on your energy costs.

Why should the customer be denied the choice?