Requesting a refund

wavelet101

my energy provider for gas and electricity paid me £66 directly into my current account as part of the Government price cap but this month they paid the money to my balance on my energy bill that is now quite a large sum in total. There is no easy mechanism to automatically clear the credit or reduce the balance and after chatting to an agent they now insist 5 days since the last payment I made on my energy bill before I can make a request for a refund. All this means is the utlility is holding onto my money which could be earning interest if I was holding this in a savings account instead. Their entire process favours my account being kept in credit more than I have ever seen or expericed before which includes their calculation on the amount they want me to pay by direct debit. Any advice as I am sure this is widespread and is not favouring the customer in any way.

Robin9

wavelet101 said:

................ but this month they paid the money to my balance on my energy bill ...................

Who is your supplier ?

wavelet101

I suspect all major suppliers are doing the same, mine is Scottish Power

Jyana

Are you paying by fixed monthly direct debit, or another way. If it's the former, then it firstly gets credited to your account and then (as long as your direct debit is £66/57) they will debit it off your account a few days after receiving your payment and refund it back to your bank account. If you paid less than £66/67, then you only get the amount of your direct debit back, and the remainder stays as a credit on your energy account instead.

For all other payment methods, aside form prepayment meter, Scottish Power are just crediting the amount to your energy account, were it will reduce the way you pay for your energy. i.e. If you pay in full every month for what you have used, that bill will be reduced by whatever credit is already on the account.

edit to add link
https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/ebss

wavelet101

all valid comments, thank you, but the core of my post was trying to recover a refund when my balance now exceeds twice the amount of my monthly direct debit. Trying to adjust the direct debit on their site would appear to racket this up not down and the automatic method for any refund requires you to wait for an annual review. The £66 payment just adds to this. So, on the whole, the leverage is not balanced between customer and supplier and appears heavily biased in favour of supplier.

ariarnia

wavelet101 said:

I suspect all major suppliers are doing the same, mine is Scottish Power

different suppliers ARE doing it differently. the full list is here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/how-to-get-help-if-you-re-struggling-with-your-energy-bills-/#need-4

so theres a mix of reducing your dd vs refunding the dd about 5 days of it being taken. because they arent giving you the goverments £66, they are giving you back £66 of your dd (which if you decide to set your to less than 66 then they would only give you back the dd amount and put the rest as credit on your energy account) 

5 days after your payment makes sense. your supplier will need a couple of days to be sure your dd payment has cleared before they send the refund back to you then your bank might not show the payment back in your current account for a couple of days after its been sent. 

at even 5% interest £66 wouldn't even make a penny in 5 days. 

scobie

wavelet101 said:

all valid comments, thank you, but the core of my post was trying to recover a refund when my balance now exceeds twice the amount of my monthly direct debit. Trying to adjust the direct debit on their site would appear to racket this up not down and the automatic method for any refund requires you to wait for an annual review. The £66 payment just adds to this. So, on the whole, the leverage is not balanced between customer and supplier and appears heavily biased in favour of supplier.

In all honestly a credit balance double your monthly payment is really not that significant, especially as we enter the more expensive winter period.  

By way of comparison my credit balance is currently £795, and my monthly DD is £45 a month plus the £66 government credit.  

[Deleted User]

In all honestly a credit balance double your monthly payment is really not that significant, 

I agree 100%. Winter has yet to hit us and my gas bill so far this month is less than £10. If we get a cold snap, some people will end up paying over £5 a day with prices due rise again next April.

One of the consequences of a supplier agreeing to a refund is that it will want to increase your monthly DD payment to avoid your account going into debit.