We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide
Budget Plan Payments - Gas and Electricity
Rhiananders
Posts: 12 Forumite
in Energy
Utility Warehouse are taking VAT off the monthly payment I make so showing a credit to my account of £66.67 instead of the £70 which I pay for electricity, and the same for gas, i.e. taking the VAT off before crediting the net amount to my account. I have never come across this before, is it correct?
0
Comments
-
I could have written that word for word - that’s exactly, even down to the figures, what is happening here too. Their billing so far seems entirely bizarre, and no I’d never seen a vat reduction applied to a payment before, either.🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her0 -
Very glad its not just me being dim. Have you queried it with them? I have, but only yesterday, so no response as yet.0
-
When I had broadband with Shell, I think they did something similar; deducted VAT from my payment, then deducted the ex-VAT value from the ex-VAT bill, then added VAT back on to the balance.Bizarre but it gave the same result so I shrugged it off as "one of those things".N. Hampshire, he/him. Octopus Intelligent Go elec & Tracker gas / Vodafone BB / iD mobile. Kirk Hill Co-op member.Ofgem cap table, Ofgem cap explainer. Economy 7 cap explainer. Gas vs E7 vs peak elec heating costs, Best kettle!
2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 3.6kw inverter. 35 MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.1 -
That sort of makes sense I guess QrizB - my suspicious nature wonders why they would choose to do it in such a convoluted way though!@Rhiananders - I’ve not queried it with them as yet - I’m currently waiting on them getting back to me to shed some light on the additional payment I have made to them a month ago which they appear to have lost - I decided they might benefit from a “one thing at a time” approach!🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her0 -
Something that has been flagged up to me is that one occasion this method of doing things COULD cause a problem is if a supplier goes under - leaving a credit balance to be transferred to a SoLR. The subtraction of the vat amount from the payment in before anything else is done with it may reduce the amount of credit on the account.🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her0 -
Ok - I have today spoken with customer service from Utility Warehouse. The lady I spoke with was adamant that “we have to charge vat on your payments” and seemed entirely bewildered by the concept that no, actually, the vat is charged on the product selling price, not applied to the money the customer pays across, particularly when that money is paid as a credit to the account! She’s going to take it back to the relevant department.On my point about my additional payment showing on the statement - it is as simple as the statements only showing that month’s situation, currently there is apparently no way of us, as customers, seeing the actual state of our account in respect of credit in -v- cost of energy used. Again, she is feeding back the fact that this is ridiculous.My situation is further complicated by the fact that it seems that Bulb didn’t forward our closing readings to UW either as they were supposed to… Currently UW can’t commence billing us for energy used without that. She is getting that chased up.🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her0 -
The closing reading you give to any supplier should also be the opening reading for the new supplier.EssexHebridean said:My situation is further complicated by the fact that it seems that Bulb didn’t forward our closing readings to UW either as they were supposed to… Currently US can’t commence billing us for energy used without that. She is getting that chased up.
When I take closing readings I do them as close to midnight of the last day as possible, like when I left Bulb, my closing reading was done at 23:48 on the last day and I submitted that reading as my new suppliers reading. The most the final bill could be out was by 1 kWh electric and 11.4 kWh gas.
Although I have smart meters, my IHD got waterlogged in the 2015 floods plus it was already dumb from when I left BG in Jan 2018.
I had a similar conflict with OFTM when I left them for Bulb in December 2018 OFTM tried everything to delay giving me a final bill and the estimated bill I had done myself was correct to the last penny when they finally produced the bill 8 months later.Someone please tell me what money is0 -
EssexHebridean said:Ok - I have today spoken with customer service from Utility Warehouse. The lady I spoke with was adamant that “we have to charge vat on your payments” and seemed entirely bewildered by the concept that no, actually, the vat is charged on the product selling price, not applied to the money the customer pays across, particularly when that money is paid as a credit to the account! She’s going to take it back to the relevant department.She is mostly right, but explaining it badly, the amount you pay includes a VAT component and the energy company has to declare that part of the payment as part of their VAT calculations, but most energy suppliers don't show you the workings, they just net it off on the bill.For whatever reason they have elected to show your balance net of VAT, where most suppliers do not, but it doesn't alter the final result. (unless there is a change in the VAT rate of course)Prepayments should always be accounted for net of VAT.
1 -
UW also require that information to be provided by the company we have left - it is that detail that they need to use to commence billing for use, rather than just the readings we provided. Apparently this also explains why readings I have provided via the app have reverted to “00000” currently, although personally I have my doubts about that bit - we’ll see.wild666 said:
The closing reading you give to any supplier should also be the opening reading for the new supplier.EssexHebridean said:My situation is further complicated by the fact that it seems that Bulb didn’t forward our closing readings to UW either as they were supposed to… Currently US can’t commence billing us for energy used without that. She is getting that chased up.
When I take closing readings I do them as close to midnight of the last day as possible, like when I left Bulb, my closing reading was done at 23:48 on the last day and I submitted that reading as my new suppliers reading. The most the final bill could be out was by 1 kWh electric and 11.4 kWh gas.
Although I have smart meters, my IHD got waterlogged in the 2015 floods plus it was already dumb from when I left BG in Jan 2018.
I had a similar conflict with OFTM when I left them for Bulb in December 2018 OFTM tried everything to delay giving me a final bill and the estimated bill I had done myself was correct to the last penny when they finally produced the bill 8 months later.
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her0 -
It doesn't work like that. The GAINING supplier manages the transfer of a supply. It should ask you for a meter reading which is then industry-validated and passed back to both suppliers to open and close your accounts. Follow the arrows on the graphic below to see how the switching process works:EssexHebridean said:My situation is further complicated by the fact that it seems that Bulb didn’t forward our closing readings to UW either as they were supposed to… Currently UW can’t commence billing us for energy used without that. She is getting that chased up.
0
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 354.4K Banking & Borrowing
- 254.4K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 455.4K Spending & Discounts
- 247.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 604.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 178.4K Life & Family
- 261.6K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards