Follow on from check your utilities now post

Jackalynann

I checked my mother's Thames Water account. Sure enough she was in credit by over 100. While this was refunded promptly, the person taking the call tried to up her direct debit from £14 to £33. It took some persuading to get her to leave it at £14. I will be checking monthly for mum from now on. Obviously we will be sure all is paid for but I do not see why these companies can keep overpayments and suspect many people have overpaid without realising it thinking their direct debit was just covering what they used.

MattMattMattUK

I submit monthly meter readings for my account with Thames Water and the only credit on my account is the rounding amount as they collect to the nearest pound. Without readings they tend to increase the amount. If there has not been a reading for some time then they may not have billed, which might also mean that the credit is going to be swallowed up when the next bill is generated.

pochase

When did you submit the last meter reading?

[Deleted User]

Jackalynann said:

I checked my mother's Thames Water account. Sure enough she was in credit by over 100. While this was refunded promptly, the person taking the call tried to up her direct debit from £14 to £33. It took some persuading to get her to leave it at £14. I will be checking monthly for mum from now on. Obviously we will be sure all is paid for but I do not see why these companies can keep overpayments and suspect many people have overpaid without realising it thinking their direct debit was just covering what they used.

I am sure that you are doing your best to help your Mother; however, in my opinion, you should not have stopped Thames Water from increasing the DD payment. The calculations on a water bill are very clear.

It follows that you should expect your Mother’s water account to be c.£100 in debit when next billed. The supplier would have looked at past usage over the previous billing period and calculated total charges going forward. From this, it would have deducted the £100 before determining a new DD payment for the following 6 months.

Edit:

I have just checked my water account. The meter was last read in July and it is due to be read again next January. My account shows a credit balance of £64 based on 4 monthly payments. 

We pay £16 per month or £96 every 6 months. If I asked for my £64 credit back then the supplier would have to increase my monthly DD payment to £96 / 2 or £48 per month to achieve a zero balance at the next meter reading date.

[Deleted User]

OP - you really need to get clear in your head the difference between a bill and a direct debit amount.  You are treating them as the same thing and this is making you unnecessarily angry.

RobM99

Apparenttly my water account is in cedit by £16.989999999999998   -   no, I can't believe it either!

Leon_W

RobM99 said:

Apparenttly my water account is in cedit by £16.989999999999998   -   no, I can't believe it either!

Go to the Ombudsman. It's outrageous.

Merlin139

Yorkshire Water emailed my latest bill yesterday. Actually it was not a bill it was my annual budget assessment. I am in credit to nearly £30!

They have lowered my DD from £28 per month to £24 all because we only used 86 Cubic Meters and not 92 they expected me to use.

Not been out to check the meter as its in the ground and it was raining yesterday and still raining today. I don't like to get wet!

ariarnia

MattMattMattUK said:

I submit monthly meter readings for my account with Thames Water and the only credit on my account is the rounding amount as they collect to the nearest pound. Without readings they tend to increase the amount. If there has not been a reading for some time then they may not have billed, which might also mean that the credit is going to be swallowed up when the next bill is generated.

i wish ours would accept monthly readings. then we could do them all at the same time. for some reason they will only let you submit a reading every 6 months then generate a new bill when you do.i dont think they moved online very well from paper statements.