Outfox withholding 2.5 months of credit

inspectorperez

Totally agree with MWT.

If you are in the slightest bit unsure about the financial stability or administration of your supplier, you can certainly minimise your exposure by taking your refund, but being prepared to make one off extra payments say every 2 months to avoid a debit balance accumulating. Anyone following this strategy who was previouslty with Tonik Energy for instance, may not have ended up so much out of pocket for the period of time it takes an Administrator to validate all the customer balances.

Octopus for one make this very simple as I have found out. I completely underestimated my usage this year on dual fuel supply and the montly direct debits (in total for 12 months) are not sufficient to cover the annual cost so I am from time to time making extra one off payments, or in the case of this month, a very nice £50 referral fee for introducing one of my family as a customer.

Streaky_Bacon

Petriix said:

. If you really want to spend your life arguing with minimum wage call centre staff about how their script is wrong then you could conceivably gain a few pence in interest by keeping your credit balance to a minimum, but it's rarely worth the effort.

Something that your response does not consider is that for many people that credit could potentially make a big difference to their finances (even more so if a supplier went bust and they had to wait to get it back). You are obviously in a position, where the only difference it makes is a few pence of interest. Good for you.

At least we seem to be in agreement that the customer is entitled to request their credit back, regardless of the scheme that the supplier has put in place.

As for arguing will call centre staff, I would always suggest putting any such request for a refund in writing, rather than spending too much time on the phone, although I have luckily never had a problem with a direct verbal request.

iproposterous

Im not surprised to read this thread, I have had the same experiences with OFTM saying that they would review it next year.  I have submitted a formal complaint and take the matter to the ombudsman.  Its a relatively easy process, ok it can take a number of months to get resolved but the more people that complain the more it is likely that the Energy Regulator will take action against them.  A couple of notes that may help:

Condition 27 of energy suppliers' licences is that they must take reasonable steps to ensure direct debit levels are fair, and to explain the level they're set at. So call up and ask – there may be a justifiable reason.

Have a look at this link about switching:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/consumers/household-gas-and-electricity-guide/how-switch-energy-supplier-and-shop-better-deal/compensation-if-there-s-energy-switch-problem