Martin Lewis: Take weekly screen grabs of your online energy account in case your supplier goes bust

Former_MSE_Sophie

In the first episode of a new series of his live ITV show, MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis has urged households to take a screenshot of their online energy account now in case their provider goes bust.

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Martin Lewis: Take weekly screen grabs of your online energy account in case your supplier goes bust

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egyptiancotton

I've been keeping my own records for a while now. I learnt the hard way after npower massively messed up a few years ago - lost access to my account and they had to roll back and re-bill me for a two-year-or-so period. I was completely reliant on them to provide accurate info when they sorted my account - they sent a statement of account showing my payment and billing history, which they used to prove my new account balance after they rolled back my bills and re-billed me, as the statement of account also showed all the DDs I made.

Since then, I download my statements as soon as they're produced and keep a statement of account showing payments (DDs and card payments) and amounts for bills produced, so I know exactly what my account balance should be at any time. This played into its own when Avro went under, but it's handy to do in the event a supplier messes up your billing.

dbks

I fear this advice could unintentially mislead some people. They will see their account is in credit on a screengrab, and will wonder why they are not getting that credit back.

Different suppliers work differently, but in general the online account reflects the lastest account status based upon what has been charged and what has been credited. Some credits can take up to a week to be shown: some charges may not yet have been applied.

So if you are with a supplier that only bills you quarterly, or even longer (especially if you don't supply regular meter readings), but you are crediting monthly by direct debit, then your online account can at times show credit balances of £100s because your account has not yet been charged with the energy used.

Also, many smaller suppliers, and so those more likley to fail, often charge monthly in advance. So my online accounts are always nicely showing a credit because as soon as the supplier has produced the last monthly (in my case) bill that takes account of consumption, there is another credit added. But I don't expect that credit back as it is going towards the energy I am currently conmsuming.

I think better advice is simply to keep your own copies of the bills as they are produced. You should be checking them each time anyway, so that effectively provides stakes in the ground as you go along, so you shouldn't need to go back too far if your supplier fails. But if you do, you have all the details on the bills you need.

As for credits, well that detail is available from your bank (if you have not downloaded your bank statements)

As long as you have the last undisputed bill, then that will state what your account balance is, including charges and credits (which should be detailed) included within that bill.

If your supplier then goes bust, it is a simple task of just accounting for the energy used since your last bill, as well as any credits made recently not included on that last bill. (not forgetting to carry forward any final credit or debit balance shown on that last bill)

What is important, is that you take a meter reading on the day the SoLR starts supplying you, as that will be the final meter reading the failed supplier will use. Fail to do that and you risk a low estimate being used by both, which will mean you get charged more overall in these times where the SoLRs tariff is likley to be higher that the tariff of the failed supplier.

If all else fails, with your downloaded bills, you can do the entire computation yourself of what the failed supplier owes/is owed covering the entire period they supplied you.
You will have the start meter reading with them, the end meter reading with them, the applicable dates, the tariff costs, and as I said, you can get details from your bank as to how much you have paid them.


In short, the online day to day credit balance reflected on your account can give you an idea of where you are, but you also need to fully understand what the balance does and does not include. Only your bills usually have that full information, and provide you with stakes in the ground. So if you are billed monthly (and there has been no dispute) then you are only left working out the the new balance based on the final balance of your last bill, together with the effect of charges & credits not included when that last bill was produced. That's not more than 31 days at most.

Bacman

Yes download your bills, take screenshots, etc.

You will pay Green's rates until SORL is appointed and that date they take over the account so you can work out the daily charge and also take a meter reading to work out how many units you have used and the cost of that, that way when you get a bill from your new supplier they will charge you from that point and you can confirm they have done it correctly.

The new supplier will ask you for meter readings at some point (probably within a week of their taking on your account); we'll then be paying whatever tariff they give us before we know what it is; again given the above meter readings you can check those are right.

When you have had confirmation your new account is set up and login details, that is the time if you wish to find alternative providers if they are better than who we get, if not stay until worth changing.

What is the case too, be prepared for paying maybe 60% more on your tariff than you have been, will be a shock but nothing we can do about it, so budget for paying more for energy as of today...

MoJoeGo

The PE website was great in that it would give you a 'live' balance based on either estimated usage or actual meter reads (if you entered them). 

Of course the downside is that people will think this is still their live balance, whereas in reality, BG will already have us ex-PE customers on a higher priced (but as yet undefined) tariff backdated to the 19th September.

I'm sure they will have plenty of people arguing that their credit balance should be a lot higher than it actually ends up being... and they will have the screen grabs to 'prove' it...

jimjames

Isn't it equally important to get photos of your meter regularly so you have that in case of issues?

[Deleted User]

Downloading bills & screenshots assumes you've been 'active' on your account, ie submitting regular readings.

Personally, i have my online bank statements to say what i've paid, and i take & record readings every week, so i know exactly where i am. I'm currently £163 in credit.

Using the excellent calculator 'jimjames' linked to in another thread, looks like i will be paying £1687 on SVT, up from what i would have paid on Avro's tariff:- £1387

Bacman

MoJoeGo said:

The PE website was great in that it would give you a 'live' balance based on either estimated usage or actual meter reads (if you entered them). 

Of course the downside is that people will think this is still their live balance, whereas in reality, BG will already have us ex-PE customers on a higher priced (but as yet undefined) tariff backdated to the 19th September.

I'm sure they will have plenty of people arguing that their credit balance should be a lot higher than it actually ends up being... and they will have the screen grabs to 'prove' it...

Until an SORL is appointed, we're paying the Green rates so the important thing is to take meter readings from the day the SORL takes over.

MoJoeGo

Bacman said:

MoJoeGo said:

The PE website was great in that it would give you a 'live' balance based on either estimated usage or actual meter reads (if you entered them). 

Of course the downside is that people will think this is still their live balance, whereas in reality, BG will already have us ex-PE customers on a higher priced (but as yet undefined) tariff backdated to the 19th September.

I'm sure they will have plenty of people arguing that their credit balance should be a lot higher than it actually ends up being... and they will have the screen grabs to 'prove' it...

Until an SORL is appointed, we're paying the Green rates so the important thing is to take meter readings from the day the SORL takes over.

Which was the 19th September and yes I do have my readings from that point. The BG tariff isn't massively worse than the Sainsbury's one that I've moved to so I'm not losing any sleep, yet...

Roger-Jolly

Further to Martin's advice to take a screen grab (shot) of your balance. I was too late to do this as am/was with AVRO Energy.
How-ever, I recently received an email from them for a metre reading, so went to submit this, but wasn't able to load the information and a message appeared on-screen, 'We're unable to retrieve your data at this time. We've added your request to the queue, check back in 15 minutes. 
Anyway, no matter which button I clicked on, nothing would come up....., except a window where I could make a one-off payment (yea, as if), so clicked on this, but did NOT enter bank card details, but clicked on the submit button and guess what, a display with today's date and my current balance popped up. So, I was able to do as Martin advised and took a screen shot of my current balance. (Just in case it all gets a bit nasty). For anyone who is in the same boat.