Final Bill after switching - how long?

[Deleted User]

Pat38493 said:

[Deleted User] said:

Pat38493 said:

jennifernil said:

If you have your readings from your meter, and your readings from your last bill, you should be able to work out what you have used and the cost reasonably accurately.

We switched last May, our old supplier took exactly the allowed 6 weeks to issue the bill, we knew we were a bit over £100 in credit, and another 14 days, as allowed,  to refund  the credit.

We got a large refund from them earlier in the year (almost £1000 in January) as we had had a new, more efficient boiler fitted, and we had the switch to Octopus already planned and did not want to have to wait ages for what we knew would be  a large final refund.

And this was British Gas?  So it seems like British gas deliberately waits the full 6 weeks if you are in credit.  Possibly a case of unintended consequences or regulation.....

Most suppliers have an escalating approval process for refunds. The more money the consumer is owed; the greater the number of internal audit checks and the higher the level of management sign off. 

Right, but if they have not issued the final bill, they don't know whether a refund is due or not.  I guess probably they do know because their accounting system maybe tracks what the bill will be, even if it's not actually issued.

They must be somehow tracking this because their website would respond telling you you are not paying enough if you had an increase in usage, even though you had not been issued a bill recently.

The supplier has to make the refund within 10 days of issuing the Final Bill. If the refund is large, then it makes business sense to delay issuing the Final Bill to the customer whilst waiting for Executive sign off on the refund.