Account credit not allowed for

nearlyanonion

When I looked at my bill from EDF recently I noticed that they ignore any credit you have when calculating the monthly direct debit. they have promised to refund this amount in the next 5 days. The credit amount was £530 when I 1st checked and had increased to over £700. I asked for £500 back and will monitor over the next few months. If they had considered it my monthly payment would have dropped by £100 per month so it's worth looking into

molerat

The suppliers are in a no win situation.  If they hold onto credit and set a low DD taking that into account they are in the wrong.  If they refund the credit and set a higher DD starting from scratch they are still in the wrong.

[Deleted User]

molerat said:

The suppliers are in a no win situation.  If they hold onto credit and set a low DD taking that into account they are in the wrong.  If they refund the credit and set a higher DD starting from scratch they are still in the wrong.

Exactly - we see both complaints several times a week here.

They do tend to err a little (or sometimes actually quite a lot) on the side of caution - but then we've all also seen the stories "my supplier has put me on prepayment because I am £1000 in debt" - they are trying hard to avoid this.

pochase

Please also don't forget that EDF only bills every 6 months.

So all you direct debits will be added over the six months as credit, but there is no bill to reduce the credit. 

So we have seen often people just seeing the credit, not realising that there will be a big bill at the end of the 6 months, reducing the credit.

MattMattMattUK

pochase said:

Please also don't forget that EDF only bills every 6 months.

So all you direct debits will be added over the six months as credit, but there is no bill to reduce the credit. 

So we have seen often people just seeing the credit, not realising that there will be a big bill at the end of the 6 months, reducing the credit.

In the case of EDF this is absolutely the one to look out for. If the OP has been billed recently then this will be accounted for in their Direct Debit payments, if they have not been billed recently then it will likely all be swallowed up when they are issued their next bill. 

brewerdave

pochase said:

Please also don't forget that EDF only bills every 6 months.

So all you direct debits will be added over the six months as credit, but there is no bill to reduce the credit. 

So we have seen often people just seeing the credit, not realising that there will be a big bill at the end of the 6 months, reducing the credit.

Yup; I'm with EDF for gas only - my account is showing ~ £560 in credit but my spreadsheets show that I'm actually only £19 in credit as of today ! 

molerat

I assume though that OP is at the annual review stage where their balance is being refunded and the new DD set for the year so not a case of worrying if the credit balance is real.