Progress is...

greenbee

Back in the dark ages when I worked for an energy company, we charged in arrears for the energy used, plus SC. However, the meant we also had the largest amount of unsecured debt of any organisation in the UK as a result (as we were charging in arrears. That wasn't so much of an issue (although post-privatisation it was more of a concern than when publicly owned), as the bad debt - we had a HUGE debt collection team. This, combined with consumers finding it too complicated to compare low-use tariffs with no SC to 'normal' tariffs (and some may remember when the first X units were more expensive than usage over a certain threshold, encouraging you to more!), resulted in tariff 'simplification' (i.e. getting rid of the no SC tariffs that were much better for low use customers) and then getting rid of billing for actual use to try to smooth out the costs over the year. And even more recently, charging a month in advance when changing supplier and requiring energy companies to ensure that customers have a month's credit at pretty much all times.

All this means is that those of us who made the effort to understand and manage our energy costs have been penalised by legislation that caters to those people who can't/don't/won't…

Greying_Pilgrim

rt - you've prompted me to look at my energy bill, and I'm nearly £200 in credit, with a DD (which the company have shoved up to over £100), going out in the next few days. When I eventually found the bit about refunds, it said I couldn't have a refund at the mo, as it is necessary to have 3 month's worth of credit on account! 😯We're low users (compared to averages), so if we've got to have upwards of £300 on account at 'all times' how much money have other folk got to have???? Since when did it change - I thought you have to have a month's credit - but 3????? We've never gone into debt with an energy company, and always pay what we owe. When did it change?

Greying X

rtandon27

Greying_Pilgrim - hun I'd suggest calling them and asking for a refund! Last year they tried to tell me I had to be in credit, and when I told them to send me a link to the policy, she refunded the whole amount! They can't keep you money if you are in credit but they dont make it easy to have it back! In fact I challenged them to have a look and see that in the winter months I pay off anything owed within 3 days of the bill! If you are feeling brave, you can also stop your direct debit until the credit is used up, but I'I've heard they start sending horrible comms when you do that and you need to gird your loins!

badmemory

Over £1200 & it was even more last year.

Humdinger1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82120936#Comment_82120936

My MP has helped a lot of people with this @Greying_Pilgrim- deffo worth getting in touch. Love Humdinger xx

Humdinger1

Well done @rtandon27 for standing up to bullies! That's also well worth doing!! Love Humdinger xx

rtandon27

@badmemory - wow hunny - that is a lot of money not in your bank account and not invested! - I'd have been writing complaints left right and centre if someone was holding that much of my money and not giving me a minimum of 4% interest!

@humdinger - on the subject of bullies, the estate agent sent me an incomplete response to the DSAR I submitted - GRRRRRR - I'll have to deal with him again!

Cheery_Daff

Oh that is extremely vexing!

rtandon27

@Cheery_Daff - on the up side I now have proof that OH's ex was trying to sell off assets as a sole owner rather than a tenant in common so guess we are going back to the lawyers as that is fraud.

Cheery_Daff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82122942#Comment_82122942

Oh wow 😱 Yes, that's quite a find. Very tiresome but at least you have proof I suppose.