SSE £600+ credit. How on earth do I get it back?

CodeRednuop

Fortunately, I have been in a fixed rate on both my gas and electric with SSE since October 2020. This rate is due to end October 2022 (Terribly timed or perfectly timed?!) and I am not too phased by the price increases due to what I have already been paying.

So when I switched to SSE, I was told that the smart meter was compatible and there wouldn't be any issues switching over. I set my payments at my expected use and that was that. 6 months later I find that the meter doesn't work and that my account is in debit. So I then calculate my yearly usage and  set my payments based on that myself. The next 6 months sees a steady near month on month automatic rise in the payments on SSE's end, which ends up in my gas payment being £90 a month and my electric £156. My usage at peak hits £60 a month on gas and £110 month on electric but would average a around £40 & £90. Leaving me in credit month on month. Now this year I found myself using less and less on both, so much so that I am at minimum 40% down in usage compared to last year. 

So I find myself in credit by near £500 and contact SSE. They tell me that the max they can refund is a combined £20. No matter how many times they explain it to me, the numbers just dont add up. Its as if they're stockpiling my account with credit for when the inevitable double whammy for me happens.  I ring multiple times and get different recommendations but I am always told that they can't refund me anything. So I decide to switch to a quarterly direct debit so I am paying for exactly what I use.

Which brings me to today where I have £600+ in credit. I prepare myself, everything is up to date and I call to ask for a refund. My payments are all up to date and my direct debit is now quarterly. Now I am told that they can't refund me the full amount. That they need to generate my usage from my last bill, to date, in order to get a true reading. OK, fair enough. So I give them the reading and they estimate that then leaves my account with about £490 credit. So I request for this full amount to be refunded....only to be told that they can't refund the full amount. That the back office will not allow an account to go in to debit and that they have to keep at least £100 in the account on each to stop this from happening. So the max they can refund me is £290. The call handler wasn't very helpful, she was more focused on me putting a complaint in against her than dealing with the issue. I haven't really had much success with any of the staff so it may be a company wide stance. 

Now I know eventually this will iron itself out and that I will pay less towards the account when the direct debit does eventually come out. I have been putting the exact same amount (£250) away since switching the direct debit in order to cover the October rises as well but how on earth are they getting away with keeping accounts in that amount of credit? Is there any way of getting it back?  

DE_612183

I guess you could change supplier - then any money that was due to you after the final bill would get paid back to you , but you may end up on a more expensive tariff
have you tried their complaints dept?
And if not then the omburdsman

molerat

My SIL is £800 in credit on a zero use SC only account and she is struggling to get them to refund, they keep promising then come out with a different excuse each time.

rp1974

Not entirely sure about this,someone else may confirm or deny as appropriate,as far as I remember SSE have customer service that's so poor that you can raise a complaint after only 6 weeks,instead of 8 weeks with other suppliers.
That speaks for itself really,you will have to follow SSE's complaints process first before any approach to the Ombudsman though.
You can move within the last 49 days of a fixed tariff to another supplier without any exit fees needing to be paid,given that your fix started in October 2020 it's likely better than what's available elsewhere,which probably won't be the case as we get closer to October 2022.

Brie

the suppliers I used in the past insisted that there must be at least 2 months usage in credit at any time so would only refund down to that level and would only refund when requested.  it's one of the reasons I changed from Bulb but had the same thing from SSE (who were a right pain)

I'm feeling lucky (& knock wood this doesn't change) that my current supplier Sainsburys Eon doesn't seem phased that I'm currently £500 in debt.  This is slowly correcting itself due to less use in summer and the fact that we no longer have someone insisting on all the lights on and all the heat cranked up to 11 all day, every day whatever the weather.  I keep thinking that they will send someone out to check us out given our usage has dropped so significantly.

Mstty

If you switch to variable DD payment with SSE you can use up your credit

https://sse.co.uk/help/bills-and-paying/how-to-pay-your-energy-bill#:~:text=With a variable Direct Debit,up, please get in touch.

Ultrasonic

CodeRednuop said:

So the max they can refund me is £290. 

That doesn't seem totally unreasonable to me, given it's mid-summer.

If you want to work on a zero-credit basis then do as @Mstty suggests but make sure you'll be happy and able to pay much bigger bills during the winter months than you would be used to (which average costs out over the year).

MWT

CodeRednuop said:

So I request for this full amount to be refunded....only to be told that they can't refund the full amount. That the back office will not allow an account to go in to debit and that they have to keep at least £100 in the account on each to stop this from happening. So the max they can refund me is £290.

Personally, I'd take the £290 now and when you get to your first payment date under the new variable DD they should only take the difference between your remaining balance and the new bill, so it will be sorted at that point.

You can certainly raise a complaint and go down that path, but the odds are it will have been resolved by the time you get a ruling.

[Deleted User]

Mstty said:

If you switch to variable DD payment with SSE you can use up your credit

https://sse.co.uk/help/bills-and-paying/how-to-pay-your-energy-bill#:~:text=With a variable Direct Debit,up, please get in touch.

I think the OP has indicated that they have done this.  What they want is to have the account reducing to a balance of £0 right now and I doubt that is going to happen.  However their current balance is almost certainly going to be reduced in the way that MWT has suggested.  I agree with MWT, take the £290 now, with a very small bill/zero /DD taken in quarter 3 before the monster bills arrive for the OP in quarter 4.  As a current payer of variable DD (albeit with another supplier and monthly) I know that a Oct-Dec quarterly bill would be in the region of £950 - and that is with a less than average consumption of gas and electric. 

@ the OP, I assume reading from your initial post that you have detailed figures for your actual usage (year-on-year) and are in a position to plan accordingly for your future bills (esp Q4 and Q1). 

Mstty

No harm giving known information to the OP. May even help others reading and searching the forum and this message as it now includes a direct link to the SSE info👍 

EssexHebridean

Mstty said:

If you switch to variable DD payment with SSE you can use up your credit

https://sse.co.uk/help/bills-and-paying/how-to-pay-your-energy-bill#:~:text=With a variable Direct Debit,up, please get in touch.

And if you choose to do this and there are a few months where no payments are taken from you because of the credit for goodness sake continue to put away the monthly amounts you have been paying in a savings account - and easy access one - ready for when they are needed this winter and beyond!