£400 electricity credit to be paid in instalments - confirmed

Valanna

The article in yesterday's MSE News shows that half the energy companies will 'pay' this discount by simply reducing customers' direct debits by £66/£67 per month.  My direct debit is less than this - single person, tiny home, low usage.  Since the company haven't actually confirmed that any excess discount would be repaid to my bank, or applied to put my account with them in credit, I've taken the precaution of increasing my direct debit to £70.  So I'll only actually pay about £3 a month.  But how silly!  My energy account is in credit at the moment, but with prices increasing and the colder weather coming, surely it would make more sense for the company to leave my direct debit alone, and just pay the discount into my energy account, where it will be used up eventually.  Obviously I'm very grateful for the discount, and I can put aside the money I'm not paying now, in order to pay it later, but what a faff!

WhatamImissing

I think I'm missing something here.  How does the energy provider reducing your direct debit constitute a grant? Or is the bill/statement also going to show a credit of £67 against the cost of the electricity?  On the face of it, reducing the DD will potentially just make the difference between what you owe and what you have paid, greater.  

t0rt0ise

WhatamImissing said:

I think I'm missing something here.  How does the energy provider reducing your direct debit constitute a grant? Or is the bill/statement also going to show a credit of £67 against the cost of the electricity?  On the face of it, reducing the DD will potentially just make the difference between what you owe and what you have paid, greater.  

Yes you're missing something just as you thought. Of course your account will be credited with the £67 otherwise there'd be no point to it.

Mobtr

Valanna said:

The article in yesterday's MSE News shows that half the energy companies will 'pay' this discount by simply reducing customers' direct debits by £66/£67 per month.  My direct debit is less than this - single person, tiny home, low usage.  Since the company haven't actually confirmed that any excess discount would be repaid to my bank, or applied to put my account with them in credit, I've taken the precaution of increasing my direct debit to £70.  So I'll only actually pay about £3 a month.  But how silly!  My energy account is in credit at the moment, but with prices increasing and the colder weather coming, surely it would make more sense for the company to leave my direct debit alone, and just pay the discount into my energy account, where it will be used up eventually.  Obviously I'm very grateful for the discount, and I can put aside the money I'm not paying now, in order to pay it later, but what a faff!

I totally agree with you. My energy company will be taking my full direct debit then refunding me £66/67 per month. If I then repay this back to them it’s classed as an additional payment so reduce my direct debit accordingly. Think it’s down to the government how it’s done but they obviously assume everyone’s direct debit covers their usage when in reality there are a lot of people out there where this doesn’t happen & energy bill wise, will be no better off 

[Deleted User]

Mobtr said:

Valanna said:

The article in yesterday's MSE News shows that half the energy companies will 'pay' this discount by simply reducing customers' direct debits by £66/£67 per month.  My direct debit is less than this - single person, tiny home, low usage.  Since the company haven't actually confirmed that any excess discount would be repaid to my bank, or applied to put my account with them in credit, I've taken the precaution of increasing my direct debit to £70.  So I'll only actually pay about £3 a month.  But how silly!  My energy account is in credit at the moment, but with prices increasing and the colder weather coming, surely it would make more sense for the company to leave my direct debit alone, and just pay the discount into my energy account, where it will be used up eventually.  Obviously I'm very grateful for the discount, and I can put aside the money I'm not paying now, in order to pay it later, but what a faff!

I totally agree with you. My energy company will be taking my full direct debit then refunding me £66/67 per month. If I then repay this back to them it’s classed as an additional payment so reduce my direct debit accordingly. Think it’s down to the government how it’s done but they obviously assume everyone’s direct debit covers their usage when in reality there are a lot of people out there where this doesn’t happen & energy bill wise, will be no better off 

It's supposed to be assisting with cost of living over the winter.  Dumping a whole load of credit on people's accounts that they might not be using for months doesn't help with that.