How many suppliers now charge in advance?

[Deleted User]

Just wondering, as i am having to pay my monthy energy bill twice in as many days this month!

Is this the way all energy providers are moving?

And,

Why does it take last supplier ANOTHER six weeks to work out a bill? (especially when last supplier knew i was leaving three weeks previously!)

My arithmetic isn't world-class, but i can work out my own energy bill in minutes....

GunJack

Most of them, except the biggest ones tend to ask for a month in advance. To avoid 2 DDs in the last/first month, if you have more than enough credit, you can ask the current supplier to reduce the DD to £0, as I did with Bulb when moving earlier this year. They were happy to do this, as they still had to refund me another £80-odd anyway without the last DD, so only the DD for the new supplier taken at the beginning of the new contract. I tend to run utilities in credit until I want the cash back anyway, so it's never an issue

brewerdave

Re the delays on the final bill - usually blamed on the delays in the transfer of the meter reading to the old supplier from the new ,via the mysterious 3rd party body who "verify" the readings.
As many will testify, this 3rd party will occasionally change the readings to "industry standard" based apparently on previous records of the property and weather conditions over the past year (?) . These MAY be quite different from the customers but can only be challenged if the difference is outwith certain limits (altho' some suppliers seem to ignore these readings and use their own estimates which can lead to mega problems!!)

Robin9

It really is quite odd isn't it. If I give my supplier a routine meter reading today it will give me a bill based on those readings by return.

[Deleted User]

I can imagine that if i owe a supplier, rather than them owing me, my final bill will arrive much quicker

brewerdave

Wobbly_Bob said:

I can imagine that if i owe a supplier, rather than them owing me, my final bill will arrive much quicker

Not always true -   When I left Avro recently, I calculated that the amount owed would be considerably less than another full DD, so cancelled the DD. It took them 11 weeks to get round to raising the final bill of ~ £35 and only then after I enquired. 

bradders1983

Wobbly_Bob said:

I can imagine that if i owe a supplier, rather than them owing me, my final bill will arrive much quicker

Took Together Energy 12 months to bill me a final bill when I left them, despite me providing the final reading, knowing I owed them roughly £60, emailing them 4 times and asking twice on the phone to get them to send one.

The ultimate insult was when it finally did arrive, it was from their debt collection arm 🙄

brewerdave

bradders1983 said:

Wobbly_Bob said:

I can imagine that if i owe a supplier, rather than them owing me, my final bill will arrive much quicker

Took Together Energy 12 months to bill me a final bill when I left them, despite me providing the final reading, knowing I owed them roughly £60, emailing them 4 times and asking twice on the phone to get them to send one.

The ultimate insult was when it finally did arrive, it was from their debt collection arm 🙄

In a sea of generally incompetent Utility Cos. ,Together Energy are at the bottom of the deepest trench in the Ocean -without doubt ,the worst I have ever had to deal with!!  

bradders1983

Yes I read all that, I suppose the saving grace is they didnt owe ME money as it would have taken ages to get back!

emilyjane92

Most bill in advance, makes switching a bit of a pain as your new provider will charge straight away and you current provider will have charged for some of the time you are going to be with your new supplier. Usually means you will have a credit with your old supplier (assuming your account hasn't gone into debit like Gas often does over the winter months on a fixed DD account). The credit will usually come through automatically after a month or so but sometimes you may need to request it.

[Deleted User]

Sorry to raise this again, but...

So my last supplier also charged in advance, which means the DD which came out 1st of month (just before my switch) means that despite them knowing the changeover date, they still charged me for a months (-1 day) energy.

Now, pls correct me if i'm wrong, but since they apparently get 6 weeks to create a final bill, surely that means that potentially, (unless i cancel the DD) they could bill me again for another months energy, even though i'm no longer with them!