EDF

wllcnur

I switched to a fixed deal in July 2022. After watching Martin's programme where he suggested there should be no more than 2 month's payments sitting in the account I contacted EDF as I had 4 months worth. I got an interim bill, received some refunded. My January bill resulted in a further refund of almost £500. I checked my balance again which now has just over £1800 (6 months payments) I contacted them again & getting fobbed off that if I get a bill now they won't be able to accurately estimate my future usage. Surely that's not right? Anyone else had this? Sounds like they just want to hang onto my money.

CSI_Yorkshire

wllcnur said:

he suggested there should be no more than 2 month's payments sitting in the account 

That doesn't work when you only get billed every six months though.

PeterGr

Typically EDF produce a bill every 6 months, so a balance of payments doesn't include the charges for gas and electricity that have occurred since the last bill.  A simple spreadsheet which you apply a running total of payments and charges will give you a much better feel of where your account stands.  If you also know your annual kWh consumption you can also reckon what the future monthly payments should be.

Robin9

As you seem to be regularly in credit perhaps your DD  is too high.  You can request a reduced DD online

[Deleted User]

wllcnur said:

I switched to a fixed deal in July 2022. After watching Martin's programme where he suggested there should be no more than 2 month's payments sitting in the account I contacted EDF as I had 4 months worth. I got an interim bill, received some refunded. My January bill resulted in a further refund of almost £500. I checked my balance again which now has just over £1800 (6 months payments) I contacted them again & getting fobbed off that if I get a bill now they won't be able to accurately estimate my future usage. Surely that's not right? Anyone else had this? Sounds like they just want to hang onto my money.

I wonder why people stay with any supplier that only bills once every 6 months? I am with Octopus and I can monitor my costs on a daily basis. I also get a bill every month. 

The bottomline is that you are entitled to 100% of your credit balance back on request. Understandably, the supplier will require actual meter readings but any suggestion that producing a bill will stop a supplier from estimating your future annual costs is complete nonsense.

Submit a written complaint: don’t try to do this via chat or over the phone. Include meter readings in your complaint.

PS: I am not sure where ML gets the two months payments from?

wllcnur

Thanks for the replies. I try to submit meter readings regularly & monitor my usage on the app. I do shop around but the best deals available at the time were for existing customers.
They have updated my bill & I'm now 2 months in credit. Hopefully they will review my DD at the next bill

Swipe

Dolor said:

wllcnur said:

I switched to a fixed deal in July 2022. After watching Martin's programme where he suggested there should be no more than 2 month's payments sitting in the account I contacted EDF as I had 4 months worth. I got an interim bill, received some refunded. My January bill resulted in a further refund of almost £500. I checked my balance again which now has just over £1800 (6 months payments) I contacted them again & getting fobbed off that if I get a bill now they won't be able to accurately estimate my future usage. Surely that's not right? Anyone else had this? Sounds like they just want to hang onto my money.

I wonder why people stay with any supplier that only bills once every 6 months? 

Doesn't bother me. I track my usage in a spreadsheet so know exactly how much I'm using and how much it has cost me.

If you aren't that way inclined and have a smart meter you can use the Guy Lipman portal to generate your own bill costs for any custom period you like. And it even works for Economy 7 users:

dunstonh

I switched to a fixed deal in July 2022. After watching Martin's programme where he suggested there should be no more than 2 month's payments sitting in the account I contacted EDF as I had 4 months worth.

That is not a good suggestion with suppliers that do not bill monthly.  e.g. EDF (who bill 6 monthly).   They show your direct debit building up but they only deduct your use when they do the bill.

its also not a good suggestion if done at certain points of the year (end of summer for example)

 I checked my balance again which now has just over £1800 (6 months payments) I contacted them again & getting fobbed off that if I get a bill now they won't be able to accurately estimate my future usage. Surely that's not right?

What is your usage?  You need to deduct that. 
Plus, May is the point when you can safely remove excess credit (net of use).   From June onwards, you are starting to built summer credit for next winter.   So, you don't want to be taking out credit at that point.

 Anyone else had this? Sounds like they just want to hang onto my money.

The problem is that you are following a dodgy suggestion (or at least a suggestion that doesn't work with the supplier you use)

I wonder why people stay with any supplier that only bills once every 6 months? I am with Octopus and I can monitor my costs on a daily basis. I also get a bill every month. 

8p kWh for electricity is why I am with EDF.    Their billing method is antiquated and ever designed for online/real time monitoring but I put up with it for 8p.   Kracken is coming soon. So, it will not be an issue for much longer.

badmemory

BG only bill every 3 months which is a pain but a spreadsheet rules here.  Especially with SVR prices changing so often.

inspectorperez

[Deleted User] said:

wllcnur said:

I switched to a fixed deal in July 2022. After watching Martin's programme where he suggested there should be no more than 2 month's payments sitting in the account I contacted EDF as I had 4 months worth. I got an interim bill, received some refunded. My January bill resulted in a further refund of almost £500. I checked my balance again which now has just over £1800 (6 months payments) I contacted them again & getting fobbed off that if I get a bill now they won't be able to accurately estimate my future usage. Surely that's not right? Anyone else had this? Sounds like they just want to hang onto my money.

I wonder why people stay with any supplier that only bills once every 6 months? I am with Octopus and I can monitor my costs on a daily basis. I also get a bill every month. 

The bottomline is that you are entitled to 100% of your credit balance back on request. Understandably, the supplier will require actual meter readings but any suggestion that producing a bill will stop a supplier from estimating your future annual costs is complete nonsense.

Submit a written complaint: don’t try to do this via chat or over the phone. Include meter readings in your complaint.

PS: I am not sure where ML gets the two months payments from?

I have only recently switched back to Octopus from EDF and could not agree more!

No matter how robust your own spreadsheet is, it is always comforting to reconcile with suppliers statement on a regular basis. The six month billing cycle just does not allow you to do that, whereas Octopus are just better geared up to providing customers with better and more regular financial information.

dunstonh

I just obtained a quote from Octopus using my real usage, and they came out £722 more expensive than EDF.

No matter how much better their billing system is, £722 is a lot of money and I will take my spreadsheet over that.