EDF Large credit balance

tga123

Talk about having the worst days of your life..EDF for a long time have been showing a large credit balance of c£9k on my account.

Every other month i would try and submit my meter readings. They would never get accepted on their portal.

I would try and book in a smart meter installation but they failed to do that too.

I switched providers this year with the account still showing the credit balance (March 2026). I cancelled my direct debit too knowing suppliers do overcharge you in the final bill.

After a few weeks they sent me a final statement confirming the credit balance of c£9k is correct and they would make the payment into my account within 10 working days.I waited and after 10 days, no sign of payment.

I called up and they said balance is correct but we couldn't make the payment as you cancelled the direct debit. they said they would send a cheque.

They subsequently did some changes in the background and updated my balance online. the balance went to a small debit charge of £40.

Called again to chase up and find out whats happened and they inform me the last bill was incorrect and they made an error. I was furious as i now i am thinking had i not stopped my direct debit, those funds would be sitting in my account?

Basically now disputing their final revised bill (small debit balance) and claiming that the back-billing rules apply here.

Can someone kindly put me out of my misery and tell me they would never have made that 9k payment into my account even though i stopped the direct debit? EDF are saying the payments team would have stopped it but i have strong feeling the funds would still have been paid. If that's the case, have I thrown £9k into the bin!!p.s. they are the worst company when it comes customer service. They are incredibly rude and they never call you back.

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

Can someone kindly put me out of my misery and tell me they would never have made that 9k payment into my account even though i stopped the direct debit?

No, they almost certainly would not have paid it. And if they had paid it, they would now be asking for it back.

Basically now disputing their final revised bill (small debit balance) and claiming that the back-billing rules apply here.

Back billing does not appear to apply here. Suppliers are allowed to use credit balances against unpaid bills, and to reverse previous repayments.

p.s. they are the worst company when it comes customer service.

EDF CS is definitely terrible, but BG are probably worse. I wouldn't choose either supplier unless doing so would save me at least three figures!

Swipe

For the exact same reason the cheque wasn't sent, there's no way £9K would have just been paid via DD without thorough checks. Think yourself lucky that it wasn't erroneously paid and you had spent it and now had no way of paying it back.

flaneurs_lobster

At what point were the correct meter readings given to EDF?

Cancelling DD instructions with a supplier while an account is still active is never a good idea - but wouldn't have made any difference to your payment (or lack of it).

QrizB

Just picking up on another point:

They subsequently did some changes in the background and updated my balance online. the balance went to a small debit charge of £40.

What will have happened is that your new supplier will have agreed handover readings with EDF. EDF will then have updated your final bill using these readings, and in doing this they've finally caught up with themselves.

tga123

Really appreciate the feedback. Seems like a huge misunderstanding, mostly on my part.
They have responded to my complaint and are settling to wipe the £40 debit balance and send a cheque for £25. I think i will accept