UW credit

Gem256

Hi 
I was with utility warehouse and in my August bill I was £540 in credit with them. But since then my credit has disappeared in all of my statements. 
I contacted them and received a text message a week later to say my credit would appear in my October statement. But it didn't

I contacted them again and they said my credit is being used as a budget plan.

Since August I was paying £300 a month in energy for my 2 bedroomed house, so i started to make multiple changes and stopped using so much gas and electric (stopped turning heating on, no dryer usage, bringing in solar lights to light my living room etc) and more. 

But UW are saying they are using my credit to lower my bills?
What about all the savings i am making?
Should this budget plan appear on my statements? And how much credit they have taken from me?
Shouldn't they have notified me?

My monthly statements just say how much usage I have used and what I owe and my credit has disappeared 

Are they trying to confuse me out of my credit? Where is the proof in my statements that a budget plan is being used and where is my credit or remaining credit in my statement?

Swipe

They do have a policy where they hold back some money as a type of deposit if you happen to have a bad credit score returned after their hard credit check. I'm wondering if it is that and their billing system can't handle how to display this money? Ask them for a letter confirming the amount being held back so at least you have evidence in writing. The only other option is to change supplier.

EssexHebridean

first question is are you confident that the £300 they have been asking for would be justified in any event? That would indicate quite high use in a relatively small property, and while, yes, you may have been using that sort of level, equally, you might not. You need to work out your annual use of each fuel - and also check that the bills they are sending you are for your actual use, rather than being on estimated readings, I’d suggest that this investigation needs to be a priority so you know where you stand.

Unfortunately UW do use a system with their billing that appears to be designed to make things more complex than it needs to be - I have long questioned whether this is designed to confuse consumers, and when I had an Ombudsman case with them a few years ago (about their lack of accounting for an ad hoc payment to the account)  the Ombudsman agreed that it wasn’t a good system. 

luci

As has been suggested, you need to work out your actual usage in kWh for the last 12 months. Just subtract your meter readings from 12 months ago from your current meter readings. It should state on your latest statement how much you are projected to use in the next 12 months and they should be roughly the same.

Energy companies typically keep your account in credit by two months direct debit between October and March and one month between April and September.

You should expect your credit at the end of the summer to be higher than two months usage over the summer, as it is used to cover your increased usage over the winter months.

Taking this into account, if your credit is more than two months usage, and you are confident that two months DD will cover your increased usage, you have the right to have anything above this refunded.

I had a supplier try to use my credit in April (the end of the higher usage period) to reduce my DD going forward. I asked for it to be refunded, as I like my payments to accurately reflect my usage.