Have over £100 balance in electricity account - should I change companies?

CSP67

I could change energy companies and save £5 a year BUT is it worth the trouble when I have account balance of over £100? Can that balance be transfered to other company? It's money from my Winter Payment.

RelievedSheff

Is it really worth switching to save £5 per year?

Neil_Jones

CSP67 said:

I could change energy companies and save £5 a year BUT is it worth the trouble when I have account balance of over £100? Can that balance be transfered to other company? It's money from my Winter Payment.

The balance would be transferred eventually if you were to use the same amount of energy and make the same payments, although it would indirectly be refunded to you minus balance of the final bill.

Whether its worth moving for the sake of £5 is up to you. I remember I was on a GB Energy tariff and they launched a new one, the saving to me was £3 so I jumped on it.  This turned out to be a wise decision because three months later they went out of business.

MWT

I would guess that since the money ended up in your suppliers hands, it is actually from the 'Warm Home Discount' scheme, so keep in mind that the scheme is not offered by all suppliers so make sure that any new supplier you consider does offer the scheme or you could be seriously out of  pocket.

In general though, no, I wouldn't suggest a move for £5

ElephantBoy57

CSP67 said:

I could change energy companies and save £5 a year BUT is it worth the trouble when I have account balance of over £100? Can that balance be transfered to other company? It's money from my Winter Payment.

You could get £2 per year interest on that, a small ballance would not bother me.

Smodlet

Why don't you just ask them to reduce your DD to reflect your credit balance?  It is a credit balance, right?

macman

Balances are not transferred: you receive a refund of any credit due within 6 weeks of switching.

Gerry1

macman said:

Balances are not transferred: you receive a refund of any credit due within 6 weeks of switching.

No. six weeks are allowed for the final bill, plus another two weeks for the refund to be made.  Still glacially slow.