Should we be able to get interest back ?

Daddyswede

Hi all,

After being told by BGas that we needed to increase our payments at the start of the year as our direct debit wasn't enough, we find ourselves quite nicely in credit with the gas and slightly in credit with the electric having switched it to a standing order and TELLING them what we will pay them instead of them "reviewing" it.

My question is this really.

Since our money has been gathering dust in their system and earning BGas interest, why aren't we paid this back on top of what they deem as a rebate at the end of the year ?

After all it is our money and as we are in credit, surely we should be entitled to any interest accrued on this money, or am I being idealistic !? ( I understand that it's not a "savings account" and we don't earn interest on that money, but surely the company do )

If we're not then why not, and if we are, who do I speak to ?

These companies earn far too much anyway and have a great reputation for seriously cocking things up for us little people, so why can't we put the focus back on them and ask a bit more of them ?

Thanks in advance and I hope you have a great Christmas.

Daddyswede

stimpo

Might be worth checking if your supplier recognises a standing order as a valid payment arrangement. I know npower do not and if the balance is unpaid after the time given to make payment you will start to recieve collection letters.

Terrylw1

It's a very interesting point but then we just put up with things in this country!

I think this is a very complex question though because there are many factors that have not been considered:

- you would be assuming that they simply just bank this overpayment.
- these companies spend a huge amount of money on sales & marketing as well as IT & BA's/project managers/management consultants etc...to understand and improve the customer journey.
- they have to purchase energy on behalf of their customers whether they pay or not.

So, the question is more "should the consumer be payed for overpayments at a savings rate regardless of whether their money has been reinvested?"

That could just knock on to the unit charges though as this would take a hell of a lot of analysis to understand now and on an ongoing basis.

SwanJon

BG do give a discount for SO, but on gas it is less than for DD.
Would you be prepared to pay interest when you were behind?

Cardew

According to the Regulator the Utility companies are owed far more in debit balances than the credit balances. There are scores of posts on this forum where people are £hundreds(sometimes £thousands) in debt and get 2 or more years to pay off their debt - without paying interest.

You would expect to be in credit for gas at this time of the year - Dec/Feb/Mar are by far and away the most expensive months - I use well over 50% of my annual gas bill in those 3 months.

I always emerge from the winter with a debit balance and enter the next winter with a credit balance.

Incidentally if you check your balances on-line or by telephone you can get a false picture with BG as they credit payments to your account immediately; but only debit every quarter when a bill is produced.

e.g. Looking on-line today I might see that I am, say, £200 in credit. However tomorrow a £250 debit for a quarterly bill be made and I will have a debit balance of £50.

Terrylw1

Yeah, worth noting that in the case Cardew mentioned of customers in debt and paying via lengthly payment plans - no interest is being charged. Of course, maybe they will eventually. No bank would ever miss that trick!

Daddyswede

Thanks all,

It certainly is food for thought though. I agree that although my supplier doesn't charge interest on money owed ( I think ! ), they certainly make up for that in "late charges" and other forms of charges.

With regards to an S/O being a valid for of payment, my arguement is "the money is there and I've paid you, whether you choose to use that to pay my bills is up to you" but the ball is certainly in their end of the court. If they choose to charge me interest on my bill when I'm in debit, then as long as I get it when I'm in credit I'm happy.

Remember that they are, in a way, lending you this debit until you accumulate enough to put your account into credit, as with any other utility that you pay in arrears for.

As for suppliers shelling out for energy whether they actually get paid or not, surely this cost is reflected in the overall unit cost of your energy, otherwise I'm sure it'd be bad business to constantly run at a loss, and even more so if people start to default paying their bills.

As I said, certainly food for thought, but I don't trust them not to !!!! it up immensely. I mean, how come I can draw a tenner out of my bank and by the time it takes me to walk home ( less than 5 minutes ), it'll show that transaction online, but with BGas it's a matter of days rather than minutes.

Thanks a lot all

Daddyswede

Merry Christmas !

Cardew

Remember that they are, in a way, lending you this debit until you accumulate enough to put your account into credit, as with any other utility that you pay in arrears for.

Not understood.
Most utilities use more or less the same methods of payment.

You can pay by DD and normally get some form of discount(not Ebico) because it is cheaper for them to operate and less of a cash flow problem.

OR

Pay in arrears quarterly - but normally pay slightly more.
As I said, certainly food for thought, but I don't trust them not to !!!! it up immensely. I mean, how come I can draw a tenner out of my bank and by the time it takes me to walk home ( less than 5 minutes ), it'll show that transaction online, but with BGas it's a matter of days rather than minutes.

If they don't charge, or give, interest like banks, why do they need to set up a hugely expensive virtually instant computer system?

If it takes a matter of days to show on your account what does it matter? Or perhaps they should estimate your daily consumption of gas/electricity and debit that daily to your account;)

Merry Christmas ![/quote]

stimpo

Daddyswede wrote: »

Thanks all,

It certainly is food for thought though. I agree that although my supplier doesn't charge interest on money owed ( I think ! ), they certainly make up for that in "late charges" and other forms of charges.

With regards to an S/O being a valid for of payment, my arguement is "the money is there and I've paid you, whether you choose to use that to pay my bills is up to you" but the ball is certainly in their end of the court. If they choose to charge me interest on my bill when I'm in debit, then as long as I get it when I'm in credit I'm happy.

If you are on a monthly payment plan then you are free to get that money to your supplier however you wish. But if you pay on receipt of bill the money is generally expected within 2 weeks.

Aside from the cost of your electric, any charges are reflective of what it costs the supplier, usually the full cost of debt recovery visits is not passed onto the customer.

Daddyswede

Cardew,

Maybe I didn't explain it clearly enough but thanks for the reply.

As for them setting up a hugely expensive virtually instant computer system, why not, they'd like us to all sign up to paperless billing, surely they should have a system / service in place to ensure customers can keep up to the minute with their accounts.

Again the question is if my bank can do it, why can't they ? Or maybe I'm just impatient and expect them to do their job as I pay them to.

Have a good one

stimpo

Daddyswede wrote: »

Cardew,

Maybe I didn't explain it clearly enough but thanks for the reply.

As for them setting up a hugely expensive virtually instant computer system, why not, they'd like us to all sign up to paperless billing, surely they should have a system / service in place to ensure customers can keep up to the minute with their accounts.

Again the question is if my bank can do it, why can't they ? Or maybe I'm just impatient and expect them to do their job as I pay them to.

Have a good one

When prices are at a high anyway due to worldwide oil prices. A system such as this would cost millions and that cost would be passed onto customers.

I know exactly who will be the first to complain about that and it wont be suppliers.